LFCS Service Configuration Practice Question
A system administrator wants to configure a custom service to start automatically at boot. Which command accomplishes this?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse `systemctl start` (immediate runtime start) with `systemctl enable` (boot-time persistence), leading them to select option D when the question specifically asks for automatic boot-time configuration.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
systemctl enable custom.service
The `systemctl enable custom.service` command creates the necessary symlinks in the systemd unit file directories (e.g., `/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/`) so that the service is automatically started at boot. This is the correct method to configure a custom service for automatic startup in a systemd-based Linux distribution.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
systemctl daemon-reload custom.service
Why it's wrong here
daemon-reload reloads unit files but does not enable services.
- ✓
systemctl enable custom.service
Why this is correct
`systemctl enable custom.service` creates a symlink from the service unit file in `/etc/systemd/system` into the appropriate multi-user.target.wants directory, which instructs systemd to start the service automatically at boot. This satisfies the stem’s requirement for a custom service to be launched during the boot sequence without manual intervention, leveraging systemd’s dependency-based parallel startup mechanism.
- ✗
systemctl reenable custom.service
Why it's wrong here
systemctl reenable is not a valid command; the correct command to re-enable is 'systemctl enable --now' or just 'systemctl enable'.
- ✗
systemctl start custom.service
Why it's wrong here
systemctl start starts the service immediately but does not enable it for future boots.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This LFCS practice question is part of Courseiva's free Linux Foundation certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the LFCS exam.