---
name: "update-service"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "daemontools-run"
version: "1:0.76-14"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/update-service"
---

# update-service(8)

add/remove a service to/from system-wide service supervision

## NAME

update-service - add/remove a service to/from system-wide service supervision

## SYNOPSIS

**update-service** --add\|--remove *service-directory* \[*service-name***\]**

**update-service** **--list\|--check** **\[***service-name***\]**

## DESCRIPTION

*service-directory* **must be a directory to be used by** [**supervise**(8)](/supervise/8.md), *service-name* **must not start with a dot, and must not contain a slash.**

**update-service** **adds or removes the** *service-directory* **to the system-wide service supervision provided through daemontools'** [**svscan**(8)](/svscan/8.md), **lists all registered system-wide services, or checks for a specific** *service-name* **whether it is registered.**

**When adding a service,** **and the** *service-directory* **resides in /etc/,** **update-service** **makes sure that the ./supervise/ subdirectories in the** *service-directory*, **and the optional** *service-directory*/log/, **are symbolic links pointing into /var/lib/supervise/, unless they** **already are symbolic links.**

## OPTIONS

- **--add \| -a**

  **Add the service directory** *service-directory* **to the system-wide service supervision,** **under the name** *service-name*. **If** *service-name* **is not specified,** **update-service** **will use the basename of** *service-directory*. **You can use the** [**svc**(8)](/svc/8.md) **program to control the newly added service, and the** [**svstat**(8)](/svstat/8.md) **program to query its status, e.g.:**

  **# svstat /etc/service/***service-name*

- **--remove \| -r**

  Remove the service directory *service-directory*, which has been added under the name *service-name*, from the system-wide service supervision. If *service-name* is not specified, **update-service** will use the basename of *service-directory*. When removing the *service-directory*, the *exit* command is sent to the corresponding [**supervise**(8)](/supervise/8.md) process, telling it to take the service down and exit afterwards. You can use the [**svc**(8)](/svc/8.md) and [**svstat**(8)](/svstat/8.md) programs to control the removed service, or query its status, e.g.:

  \# svstat *service-directory*

- **--list \| -l**

  If *service-name* is specified, **update-service** checks whether *service-name* is registered as system-wide service, prints a message and exits non-zero if not, or prints the *service-name* and the directory it points to and exits zero if yes. If *service-name* is not specified, it prints the names of all system-widely registered services, one per line.

- **--check \| -c**

  The same as --list, but **update-service** doesn't print anything to standard out or standard error.

## ENVIRONMENT

- **SVDIR**

  The environment variable $SVDIR overrides the default services directory */etc/service/*.

## FILES

/etc/service/

## SEE ALSO

[svc(8)](/svc/8.md), [svstat(8)](/svstat/8.md), [svscan(8)](/svscan/8.md), [svscanboot(8)](/svscanboot/8.md)

## AUTHOR

Gerrit Pape \<pape@smarden.org\>