There are three basic commands that you can use to display and modify SELinux modes. They are as follows
The first two are installed as part of the package, libselinux-utils. The sestatus is installed as part of policycoreutils.
Setenforce will enable or disable SELinux temporarily. Use 0 to disable and 1 to enable as shown below.
#setenforce 0
#setenforce 1
If you need need your change to be persistent across reboots edit /etc/selinux/config.
# This file controls the state of SELinux on the system.
# SELINUX= can take one of these three values:
# enforcing - SELinux security policy is enforced.
# permissive - SELinux prints warnings instead of enforcing.
# disabled - SELinux is fully disabled.
SELINUX=enforcing
# SELINUXTYPE= type of policy in use. Possible values are:
# targeted - Only targeted network daemons are protected.
# strict - Full SELinux protection.
SELINUXTYPE=targeted
Getenforce is used to query your SELinux Status as seen below
[root@vpaquin01 selinux]# getenforce
Enforcing
Sestatus give you the same information as getenforce but in a bit more detail
[root@vpaquin01 selinux]# /usr/sbin/sestatus
SELinux status: enabled
SELinuxfs mount: /selinux
Current mode: enforcing
Mode from config file: enforcing
Policy version: 24
Policy from config file: targeted