---
name: "sd_booted"
section: "3"
platform: "linux"
package: "systemd-libs"
version: "262.1-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/sd_booted"
---

# sd\_booted(3)

Test whether the system is running the systemd init system

## NAME

sd\_booted - Test whether the system is running the systemd init system

## SYNOPSIS

```
#include <systemd/sd-daemon.h>
```

**int sd\_booted(void);**

## DESCRIPTION

**sd\_booted()** checks whether the system was booted up using the systemd init system.

## RETURN VALUE

On failure, this call returns a negative errno-style error code. If the system was booted up with systemd as init system, this call returns a positive return value, zero otherwise.

## NOTES

Functions described here are available as a shared library, which can be compiled against and linked to with the **libsystemd** [**pkg-config**(1)](/pkg-config/1.md) file.

Internally, this function checks whether the directory /run/systemd/system/ exists. A simple check like this can also be implemented trivially in shell or any other language.

## SEE ALSO

[**systemd**(1)](/systemd/1.md), [**sd-daemon**(3)](/sd-daemon/3.md)