[systemd-devel] systemctl is-active command returns inactive even if the unit does not exist

[Michael Chapman]

On Thu, 25 Jan 2018, Kevin Hsu wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> "systemctl is-active" command gives "inactive" no matter the unit exists
> and indeed inactive or it just not exist. This behavior is semantically
> true since a unit can never be active
> if it does not exist. But "systemctl is-enabled" command will give a clear
> result "Failed to get unit file state for no-exist.service: No such file or
> directory" to indicate user the existence
> of the given unit. I am wondering if "systemctl is-active" should behave
> the same.

I don't think it would be possible to change what "systemctl is-active" 
prints out now, and I think it makes sense for it to track the ActiveState 
property of the unit precisely.

You can get the properties of a unit using "systemctl show". For example:

   $ systemctl show --property LoadState,ActiveState,SubState \
         does-not-exist.service
   LoadState=not-found
   ActiveState=inactive
   SubState=dead

As you can see here, what you're interested in is the "load state" of the 
unit, which is somewhat orthogonal to the unit's "active state".