Updated: 28 September 2026 · Applies to: avahi 0.8 and 0.9 on AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux 9 and 10, RHEL 9 and 10, Ubuntu 24.04 and 26.04, Debian 13
avahi-daemon announces a machine and its services on the local network (zero-configuration networking, also known as mDNS or Bonjour), so printers and file shares can find each other without setup. On a server in a data centre it has nothing useful to do, and it listens on UDP port 5353. Disabling or removing it reduces what is running. Minimal server installations usually do not include it; desktop installations often do.
1. Check whether it runs
systemctl status avahi-daemon ss -ulnp 'sport = :5353'
2. Stop and disable it
avahi has both a service and a socket. Disable both, or the socket starts the service again on demand:
systemctl disable --now avahi-daemon.socket avahi-daemon.service
3. Make sure nothing starts it again
systemctl mask avahi-daemon.socket avahi-daemon.service
Masking links the units to /dev/null, so even other services cannot start them. Undo it with systemctl unmask.
Or remove the package
dnf remove avahi # AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, RHEL apt purge avahi-daemon # Ubuntu, Debian
Read the list of packages the command wants to remove with it before you confirm: on desktops, printing and some GNOME components depend on avahi. On a server this is usually a short list.
Check the result
systemctl is-active avahi-daemon ss -ulnp | grep 5353
The first command should print inactive, the second nothing.
Official documentation: Avahi project and systemctl.
