Location of Systemd service files

Systemd services fall into two categories - system services run as superuser. To manage them, you must use sudo. The second category is user services, run as a specific user. This user can have full control without sudo.

File location

System service files can be found in

/usr/lib/systemd/system

/lib/systemd/system

/etc/systemd/system

Custom service files can be found in:

/usr/lib/systemd/user

/lib/systemd/user

/etc/systemd/user

$USER/.config/systemd/user

The service files that come with packages are usually found in /lib and /usr/lib, and /etc/ contains modified unit files that override the default settings.