Which command shows the status of a systemd service?

• A. journalctl -u <service>
• B. systemctl start <service>
• C. service <service> status
• D. systemctl status <service>

Answer: (D)

Querying a systemd unit’s state is done with the status command of systemctl. Running systemctl status provides a current snapshot of the unit’s state—whether it is active (running), inactive, or failed—along with whether it is enabled to start at boot, the main process ID, and a small portion of recent journal entries for that service. This gives you both the exact status and a quick view of recent activity in one place.

The other options don’t fit as the primary way to show status: viewing logs with journalctl -u shows the service’s logs rather than its real-time state; starting a service with systemctl start executes the service but doesn’t report its status; and the legacy service status can work on some systems but isn’t the standard, systemd-centric way to query a unit’s state.