xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man8/rc.8 (revision 8119d49919e6a8ed229171d8d68e2dd7053c8e86)

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.\" This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation
.\" by Luke Mewburn.
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.Dd December 7, 2024
.Dt RC 8
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm rc ,
.Nm rc.local ,
.Nm rc.shutdown ,
.Nm rc.shutdown.final ,
.Nm rc.d/
.Nd startup and shutdown scripts
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm rc
.Nm rc.local
.Nm rc.shutdown
.Nm rc.d/
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm
is the command script which controls the startup of various services,
and is invoked by
.Xr init 8
as part of the process of entering the automatic reboot to multi-user startup,
or after the single user mode shell has exited.
If
.Xr init 8
is starting the automatic reboot process,
.Nm
is invoked with the argument of
.Sq autoboot .
.Pp
.Nm rc.local
is a command script to which local boot-time actions can be added.
It is (nearly) the last thing invoked by
.Nm rc
during a normal boot.
.Pp
.Nm rc.shutdown
is the command script which shuts down various services, and is invoked by
.Xr shutdown 8
as part of the process of shutting down the system.
.Pp
.Nm rc.d/
is the directory which contains various
.Xr sh 1
scripts, one for each service,
which are called by
.Nm
at startup,
.Nm rc.shutdown
at shutdown,
and as necessary during system operation to stop, start, restart, reload,
or otherwise control the service.
.Ss Operation of rc
.Bl -enum
.It
Source
.Pa /etc/rc.subr
to load various
.Xr rc.subr 8
shell functions to use.
.It
If autobooting, set
.Sy autoboot=yes
and enable a flag
.Sy ( rc_fast=yes ) ,
which prevents the
.Nm rc.d
scripts from performing the check for already running processes
(thus speeding up the boot process).
This
.Sy rc_fast=yes
speedup won't occur when
.Nm
is started up after exiting the single-user shell.
.It
Invoke
.Xr rcorder 8
to order the files in
.Pa /etc/rc.d/
that do not have a
.Dq nostart
keyword (refer to
.Xr rcorder 8 Ns 's
.Fl s
flag),
and assigns the result to a variable.
.It
Calls each script in turn using
.Fn run_rc_script
(from
.Xr rc.subr 8 ) ,
which sets
.Dv $1
to
.Sq start ,
and sources the script in a sub-shell.
If the script has a
.Sq .sh
suffix then it is sourced directly into the current shell.
.It
The output from the above steps is sent to a post-processor.
If
.Sy rc_silent
is false, then the post-processor displays the output.
If
.Sy rc_silent
is true, then the post-processor invokes the command specified in
.Va rc_silent_cmd
once for each line, without otherwise displaying the output.
Useful values for
.Va rc_silent_cmd
include
.Dq \&:
to display nothing at all, and
.Dq twiddle
to display a spinning symbol on the console.
Regardless of the value of
.Sy rc_silent ,
the post-processor saves the output in
.Pa /var/run/rc.log .
.El
.Ss Operation of rc.shutdown
.Bl -enum
.It
Source
.Pa /etc/rc.subr
to load various
.Xr rc.subr 8
shell functions to use.
.It
Invoke
.Xr rcorder 8
to order the files in
.Pa /etc/rc.d/
that have a
.Dq shutdown
keyword (refer to
.Xr rcorder 8 Ns 's
.Fl k
flag),
reverses that order, and assigns the result to a variable.
.It
Calls each script in turn using
.Fn run_rc_script
(from
.Xr rc.subr 8 ) ,
which sets
.Dv $1
to
.Sq stop ,
and sources the script in a sub-shell.
If the script has a
.Sq .sh
suffix then it is sourced directly into the current shell.
.It
Runs
.Pa /etc/rc.shutdown.final
if it exists, passing the currently ongoing shutdown action, which
will be one of:
.Bl -bullet
.It
shutdown
when going to single user mode.
.It
halt
when halting the machine (but not powering it down).
.It
reboot
when rebooting the machine.
.It
poweroff
when halting the machine and powering it off.
.El
.Pp
The script may be used to control additional
actions, e.g. powering off external devices, restarting
a UPS (in case main power is restored in the interval betweeen
the computer powering off and the UPS running out of battery).
.El
.Ss Contents of rc.d/
.Nm rc.d/
is located in
.Pa /etc/rc.d .
The following file naming conventions are currently used in
.Nm rc.d/ :
.Bl -tag -width ALLUPPERCASExx -offset indent
.It Pa ALLUPPERCASE
Scripts that are
.Sq placeholders
to ensure that certain operations are performed before others.
In order of startup, these are:
.Bl -tag -width NETWORKINGxx
.It Pa NETWORKING
Ensure basic network services are running, including general
network configuration
.Pq Pa network
and
.Pa dhcpcd .
.It Pa SERVERS
Ensure basic services (such as
.Pa NETWORKING ,
.Pa ppp ,
.Pa syslogd ,
and
.Pa kdc )
exist for services that start early (such as
.Pa named ) ,
because they're required by
.Pa DAEMON
below.
.It Pa DAEMON
Before all general purpose daemons such as
.Pa dhcpd ,
.Pa lpd ,
and
.Pa ntpd .
.It Pa LOGIN
Before user login services
.Pa ( inetd ,
.Pa telnetd ,
.Pa rshd ,
.Pa sshd ,
and
.Pa xdm ) ,
as well as before services which might run commands as users
.Pa ( cron ,
.Pa postfix ,
and
.Pa sendmail ) .
.El
.It Pa inline.sh
Scripts that are sourced into the current shell rather than a sub-shell
have a
.Sq Pa .sh
suffix.
Extreme care must be taken in using this, as the startup sequence will
terminate if the script causes the current shell process to terminate.
.Pa /etc/rc.d/bootconf.sh
uses this behaviour to allow the user to select a different
configuration (including
.Pa /etc/rc.conf )
early in the boot.
.It Pa service
Scripts that are sourced in a sub-shell.
The boot does not stop if such a script terminates with a non-zero status,
but a script can stop the boot if necessary by invoking the
.Fn stop_boot
function (from
.Xr rc.subr 8 ) .
.El
.Pp
Each script should contain
.Xr rcorder 8
keywords, especially an appropriate
.Dq PROVIDE
entry.
.Pp
The scripts are expected to support at least the following arguments:
.Bl -tag -width restart -offset indent
.It Sy start
Start the service.
This should check that the service is to be started as specified by
.Xr rc.conf 5 .
Also checks if the service is already running and refuses to start if
it is.
This latter check is not performed by standard
.Nx
scripts if the system is starting directly to multi-user mode, to
speed up the boot process.
.It Sy stop
If the service is to be started as specified by
.Xr rc.conf 5 ,
stop the service.
This should check that the service is running and complain if it's not.
.It Sy restart
Perform a
.Sy stop
then a
.Sy start .
.It Sy status
If the script starts a process (rather than performing a one-off
operation), show the status of the process.
Otherwise it's not necessary to support this argument.
Defaults to displaying the process ID of the program (if running).
.It Sy poll
If the script starts a process (rather than performing a one-off
operation), wait for the command to exit.
Otherwise it's not necessary to support this argument.
.It Sy rcvar
Display which
.Xr rc.conf 5
variables are used to control the startup of the service (if any).
.El
.Pp
Other arguments (such as
.Sq reload ,
.Sq dumpdb ,
etc) can be added if necessary.
.Pp
The argument may have one of the following prefixes to alter its operation:
.Bl -tag -width "force" -offset indent
.It Sy fast
Skip the check for an existing running process.
Sets
.Sy rc_fast=yes .
.It Sy force
Skips the
.Xr rc.conf 5
check, ignores a failure result from any of the prerequisite checks,
executes the command, and always returns a zero exit status.
Sets
.Sy rc_force=yes .
.It Sy one
Skips the
.Xr rc.conf 5
check, but performs all other prerequisite tests.
.El
.Pp
In order to simplify scripts, the
.Fn run_rc_command
function from
.Xr rc.subr 8
may be used.
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /etc/rc.shutdown -compact
.It Pa /etc/rc
Startup script called by
.Xr init 8 .
.It Pa /etc/rc.d/
Directory containing control scripts for each service.
.It Pa /etc/rc.local
Local startup script.
.It Pa /etc/rc.shutdown
Shutdown script called by
.Xr shutdown 8 .
.It Pa /etc/rc.subr
Contains
.Xr rc.subr 8
functions used by various scripts.
.It Pa /etc/rc.conf
System startup configuration file.
.It Pa /var/run/rc.log
Log file created by
.Nm .
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr rc.conf 5 ,
.Xr init 8 ,
.Xr rc.subr 8 ,
.Xr rcorder 8 ,
.Xr reboot 8 ,
.Xr shutdown 8
.Rs
.%A Luke Mewburn
.%T The Design and Implementation of the NetBSD rc.d system
.%I USENIX Association
.%B Proceedings of the FREENIX Track: 2001 USENIX Annual Technical Conference
.%D June 25-30, 2001
.%U http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/usenix01/freenix01/full_papers/mewburn/mewburn.pdf
.Re
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
command appeared in
.Bx 4.0 .
The
.Pa /etc/rc.d
support was implemented in
.Nx 1.5
by
.An Luke Mewburn
.Aq lukem@NetBSD.org .
The post-processor, support for
.Va rc_silent ,
and saving output to a file, was implemented in
.Nx 6.0
by
.An Alan Barrett .