restarting all specific units on systemctl without for loop?

Question

Is someone here able to start/stop/reload/... a list of units specified with a wildcard or similar method on systemctl?

I try do do somethin like: systemctl restart openstack-nova-*.services or systemctl restart openstack-nova-?.services

but it's a dead end and I didn't found anything usefull on systemctl's manual.

I could use a for loop but before that I'll have to make a systemctl -t service --failed and then grep for listed units... a little bit boring isn't ?

So, if someone know if it's possible to do something like that or not, I'll be happy to hear it.

If it's not, I think I'll push the idea on systemctl developers list or maybe do the patch if I have time to ^^

What about "systemctl restart openstack-nova*.service" ? Does it work? — dsmsk80, Sep 23 '13 at 08:39
Nop, that what I was talking about on my exemple indeed :( Thanks for your help! — Dr I, Sep 23 '13 at 08:43

Will Barnwell · Answer 1 · 2018-12-19T22:57:52.870

UPDATE Systemd supports wildcards from systemd-209 forward https://serverfault.com/a/797926/291826

Two years later systemctl still doesn't allow wildcards, even though they would be extremely useful.

I did however take your note about systemctl -t service --failed and I hacked together this. I decided to post it here because the next person to find this question could be helped by it.

systemctl restart $(systemctl -t service --failed | grep openstack-nova-*.service | cut -d ' ' -f 1)

This takes systemctl -t service --failed, greps for the services matching "openstack-nova-*.service" and then removes the descriptors of those files by cutting (cut) on the space (-d ' ') and taking the first result (-f 1). Then it restarts the whole bunch because thankfully systemctl command allows for multiple services to be passed to it to stop.

Thanks a lot for your comment in this topic as it's really one of the most annoying missing features of systemctl. I have crafted a similar script myself to be able to perform this kind of operations. Anyway, I'm sure that your post will help a lot of people ;-) thank you very much!! — Dr I, Jul 31 '15 at 22:16

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 09 '18 at 09:21

Soooo, to be noticed for people looking to manage multiple systemd units at same time. Since 2016 (2017?) Systemd is now accepting wildcard \o/

Exemple:

systemctl restart openstack-nova-* is now fully working

PS: At least it works on CentOS 7.x release (That's the only one that I tested).

restarting all specific units on systemctl without for loop?

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