What command allows you to view running services on a Linux system?

The command that allows you to view running services on a Linux system is systemctl. This command is part of systemd, which is the init system and service manager for many modern Linux distributions. By using systemctl, you can not only list the active services but also manage them—starting, stopping, enabling, or disabling services as needed.

What makes systemctl particularly powerful is its ability to provide a comprehensive view of the state of services and their dependencies, along with logs associated with those services, using commands like systemctl status <service-name> to check the status of a specific service.

In comparison, other commands have different functionalities. The service command is used to manage services but is not as powerful or versatile as systemctl, and may not provide as detailed information on the current states of services. The ps command displays running processes but does not specifically focus on system services. Similarly, top provides a dynamic, real-time view of running processes and their resource usage but does not categorize these into system services per se.

This distinction highlights why systemctl is the preferred option for viewing and managing services efficiently in a systemd-based Linux environment.