rc(8) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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RC(8)                   NetBSD System Manager's Manual                   RC(8)


NAME

     rc, rc.shutdown, rc.d/ - startup and shutdown scripts


SYNOPSIS

     rc
     rc.shutdown
     rc.d/


DESCRIPTION

     rc is the command script which controls the startup of various services,
     and is invoked by init(8) as part of the process of entering the automat-
     ic reboot to multi-user startup, or after the single user mode shell has
     exited.  If init(8) is starting the automatic reboot process, rc is in-
     voked with the argument of `autoboot'.

     rc.shutdown is the command script which shuts down various services, and
     is invoked by shutdown(8) as part of the process of shutting down the
     system.

     rc.d/ is the directory which contains various scripts, one for each ser-
     vice, which are called by rc at startup, rc.shutdown at shutdown, and as
     necessary during system operation to stop, start, restart, reload, (etc)
     the service.

   Operation of rc

     1.   Source /etc/rc.subr to load various shell functions to use.

     2.   If autobooting, set $autoboot to `yes', and enable a flag which pre-
          vents the rc.d scripts from performing the check for already running
          processes (thus speeding up the boot process).  This speedup won't
          occur when rc is started up after exiting the single-user shell.

     3.   Invoke rcorder(8) to order the files in /etc/rc.d/ that do not have
          a ``nostart'' keyword (refer to rcorder(8)'s -s flag), and assigns
          the result to a variable.

     4.   Calls each script in turn using run_rc_script() (from /etc/rc.subr),
          which sets $1 to `start', and sources the script in a subshell.  If
          the script has a `.sh' suffix then it is sourced directly into the
          current shell.

   Operation of rc.shutdown

     1.   Source /etc/rc.subr to load various shell functions to use.

     2.   Invoke rcorder(8) to order the files in /etc/rc.d/ that have a
          ``shutdown'' keyword (refer to rcorder(8)'s -k flag), reverses that
          order, and assigns the result to a variable.

     3.   Calls each script in turn using run_rc_script() (from /etc/rc.subr),
          which sets $1 to `stop', and sources the script in a subshell.  If
          the script has a `.sh' suffix then it is sourced directly into the
          current shell.

   Contents of rc.d/

     rc.d/ is located in /etc/rc.d.  The following file naming conventions are
     currently used in rc.d/:

           ALLUPPERCASE  Scripts that are `placeholders' to ensure that cer-
                         tain operations are done before others, such as:

                         DAEMON   before all general purpose daemons

                         LOGIN    before user login processes

                         NETWORK  ensure basic network services are running

                         SERVERS  ensure basic services exist for services
                                  that start early.

           foo.sh        Scripts that are to be sourced into the current shell
                         rather than a subshell.  Extreme care must be taken
                         in using this, as the startup sequence will terminate
                         if the script does.  /etc/rc.d/bootconf.sh uses this
                         behaviour to allow the user to select a different
                         configuration (including /etc/rc.conf) early in the
                         boot.

           bar           Scripts that are sourced in a subshell.  These can
                         stop the boot if necessary with the following shell
                         commands:

                                 if [ "$autoboot" = yes ]; then
                                         kill -TERM $$
                                 fi
                                 exit 1

                         Note that this should be used sparingly!

     The scripts are expected to support at least the following arguments:

           start    Start the program.  This should check that the program is
                    to be started as specified by rc.conf(5).  If `forcestart'
                    is given, ignore the rc.conf check and start anyway.

           stop     If the program is to be started as specified by
                    rc.conf(5), stop the program.  This should check that the
                    program is running and complain if it's not.  If
                    `forcestop' is given, ignore the rc.conf check and attempt
                    to stop.

           restart  Effectively perform a stop then a start.

           status   Show the status of the program.  Defaults to displaying
                    the process ID of the process (if running).

     Other arguments (such as `reload', `dumpdb', etc) can be added if neces-
     sary.

     In order to simplify scripts, the run_rc_command() function from
     /etc/rc.subr may be used.


FILES

     /etc/rc           Startup script called by init(8).
     /etc/rc.d/        Directory containing control scripts for each service.
     /etc/rc.shutdown  Shutdown script called by shutdown(8).
     /etc/rc.subr      Contains functions used by various scripts.


SEE ALSO

     rc.conf(5), init(8), rcorder(8), reboot(8), shutdown(8)


HISTORY

     The rc command appeared in 4.0BSD.  The /etc/rc.d support was implemented
     in NetBSD 1.5 by Luke Mewburn <lukem@netbsd.org>.

NetBSD 1.5                      August 16, 2000                              2