.\" $NetBSD: init.8,v 1.53 2008/10/21 02:33:53 lukem Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by .\" Donn Seeley at Berkeley Software Design, Inc. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)init.8 8.6 (Berkeley) 5/26/95 .\" .Dd October 21, 2008 .Dt INIT 8 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm init .Nd process control initialization .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm program is the last stage of the boot process (after the kernel loads and initializes all the devices). It normally begins multi-user operation. .Pp The following table describes the state machine used by .Nm : .Bl -enum .It Single user shell. .Nm may be passed .Fl s from the boot program to prevent the system from going multi-user and to instead execute a single user shell without starting the normal daemons. The system is then quiescent for maintenance work and may later be made to go to state 2 (multi-user) by exiting the single-user shell (with ^D). .It Multi-user boot (default operation). Executes .Pa /etc/rc (see .Xr rc 8 ) . If this was the first state entered (as opposed to entering here after state 1), then .Pa /etc/rc will be invoked with its first argument being .Sq autoboot . If .Pa /etc/rc exits with a non-zero (error) exit code, commence single user operation by giving the super-user a shell on the console by going to state 1 (single user). Otherwise, proceed to state 3. .Pp If value of the .Dq init.root sysctl node is not equal to .Pa / at this point, the .Pa /etc/rc process will be run inside a .Xr chroot 2 indicated by sysctl with the same error handling as above. .It Set up ttys as specified in .Xr ttys 5 . See below for more information. On completion, continue to state 4. If we did chroot in state 2, each .Xr getty 8 process will be run in the same .Xr chroot 2 path as in 2 (that is, the value of .Dq init.root sysctl is not re-read). .It Multi-user operation. Depending upon the signal received, change state appropriately; on .Dv SIGTERM , go to state 7; on .Dv SIGHUP , go to state 5; on .Dv SIGTSTP , go to state 6. .It Clean-up mode; re-read .Xr ttys 5 , killing off the controlling processes on lines that are now .Sq off , and starting processes that are newly .Sq on . On completion, go to state 4. .It .Sq Boring mode; no new sessions. Signals as per state 4. .It Shutdown mode. Send .Dv SIGHUP to all controlling processes, reap the processes for 30 seconds, and then go to state 1 (single user); warning if not all the processes died. .El .Pp If the .Sq console entry in the .Xr ttys 5 file is marked .Dq insecure , then .Nm will require that the superuser password be entered before the system will start a single-user shell. The password check is skipped if the .Sq console is marked as .Dq secure . .Pp It should be noted that while .Nm has the ability to start multi-user operation inside a .Xr chroot 2 environment, the .Nm process itself will always run in the .Dq original root directory . This also implies that single-user mode is always started in the original root, giving the possibility to create multi-user sessions in different root directories over time. The .Dq init.root sysctl node is fabricated by .Nm at startup and re-created any time it's found to be missing. Type of the node is string capable of holding full pathname, and is only accessible by the superuser (unless explicitly destroyed and re-created with different specification). .Pp In multi-user operation, .Nm maintains processes for the terminal ports found in the file .Xr ttys 5 . .Nm reads this file, and executes the command found in the second field. This command is usually .Xr getty 8 ; it opens and initializes the tty line and executes the .Xr login 1 program. The .Xr login 1 program, when a valid user logs in, executes a shell for that user. When this shell dies, either because the user logged out or an abnormal termination occurred (a signal), the .Nm program wakes up, deletes the user from the .Xr utmp 5 and .Xr utmpx 5 files of current users and records the logout in the .Xr wtmp 5 and .Xr wtmpx 5 files. The cycle is then restarted by .Nm executing a new .Xr getty 8 for the line. .pl +1 .Pp Line status (on, off, secure, getty, or window information) may be changed in the .Xr ttys 5 file without a reboot by sending the signal .Dv SIGHUP to .Nm with the command .Dq Li "kill \-s HUP 1" . This is referenced in the table above as state 5. On receipt of this signal, .Nm re-reads the .Xr ttys 5 file. When a line is turned off in .Xr ttys 5 , .Nm will send a .Dv SIGHUP signal to the controlling process for the session associated with the line. For any lines that were previously turned off in the .Xr ttys 5 file and are now on, .Nm executes a new .Xr getty 8 to enable a new login. If the getty or window field for a line is changed, the change takes effect at the end of the current login session (e.g., the next time .Nm starts a process on the line). If a line is commented out or deleted from .Xr ttys 5 , .Nm will not do anything at all to that line. However, it will complain that the relationship between lines in the .Xr ttys 5 file and records in the .Xr utmp 5 file is out of sync, so this practice is not recommended. .Pp .Nm will terminate multi-user operations and resume single-user mode if sent a terminate .Pq Dv TERM signal, for example, .Dq Li "kill \-s TERM 1" . If there are processes outstanding that are deadlocked (because of hardware or software failure), .Nm will not wait for them all to die (which might take forever), but will time out after 30 seconds and print a warning message. .Pp .Nm will cease creating new .Xr getty 8 Ns 's and allow the system to slowly die away, if it is sent a terminal stop .Pq Dv TSTP signal, i.e. .Dq Li "kill \-s TSTP 1" . A later hangup will resume full multi-user operations, or a terminate will start a single user shell. This hook is used by .Xr reboot 8 and .Xr halt 8 . .Pp The role of .Nm is so critical that if it dies, the system will reboot itself automatically. If, at bootstrap time, the .Nm process cannot be located, or exits during its initialisation, the system will panic with the message .Dq panic: init died (signal %d, exit %d) . .Pp If .Pa /dev/console does not exist, .Nm will cd to .Pa /dev and run .Dq Li "MAKEDEV -MM init" . .Xr MAKEDEV 8 will use .Xr mount_tmpfs 8 or .Xr mount_mfs 8 to create a memory file system mounted over .Pa /dev that contains the standard devices considered necessary to boot the system. .Sh FILES .Bl -tag -width /var/log/wtmp{,x} -compact .It Pa /dev/console System console device. .It Pa /dev/tty* Terminal ports found in .Xr ttys 5 . .It Pa /var/run/utmp{,x} Record of current users on the system. .It Pa /var/log/wtmp{,x} Record of all logins and logouts. .It Pa /etc/ttys The terminal initialization information file. .It Pa /etc/rc System startup commands. .El .Sh DIAGNOSTICS .Bl -diag .It "getty repeating too quickly on port %s, sleeping" A process being started to service a line is exiting quickly each time it is started. This is often caused by a ringing or noisy terminal line. .Em "Init will sleep for 10 seconds" , .Em "then continue trying to start the process" . .Pp .It "some processes would not die; ps axl advised." A process is hung and could not be killed when the system was shutting down. This condition is usually caused by a process that is stuck in a device driver because of a persistent device error condition. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr config 1 , .Xr kill 1 , .Xr login 1 , .Xr sh 1 , .Xr options 4 , .Xr ttys 5 , .Xr MAKEDEV 8 , .Xr MAKEDEV.local 8 , .Xr getty 8 , .Xr halt 8 , .Xr mount_mfs 8 , .Xr mount_tmpfs 8 , .Xr rc 8 , .Xr reboot 8 , .Xr rescue 8 , .Xr shutdown 8 , .Xr sysctl 8 , .Xr secmodel_bsd44 9 .Sh HISTORY A .Nm command appeared in .At v6 .