xref: /netbsd-src/sbin/init/init.8 (revision 76dfffe33547c37f8bdd446e3e4ab0f3c16cea4b)
1.\"	$NetBSD: init.8,v 1.6 1995/03/18 14:56:31 cgd Exp $
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6.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
7.\" Donn Seeley at Berkeley Software Design, Inc.
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37.\"     @(#)init.8	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/18/94
38.\"
39.Dd April 18, 1994
40.Dt INIT 8
41.Os BSD 4
42.Sh NAME
43.Nm init
44.Nd process control initialization
45.Sh SYNOPSIS
46.Nm init
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48The
49.Nm init
50program
51is the last stage of the boot process.
52It normally runs the automatic reboot sequence as described in
53.Xr reboot 8 ,
54and if this succeeds, begins multi-user operation.
55If the reboot scripts fail,
56.Nm init
57commences single user operation by giving
58the super-user a shell on the console.
59The
60.Nm init
61program may be passed parameters
62from the boot program to
63prevent the system from going multi-user and to instead execute
64a single user shell without starting the normal daemons.
65The system is then quiescent for maintenance work and may
66later be made to go to multi-user by exiting the
67single-user shell (with ^D).
68This
69causes
70.Nm init
71to run the
72.Pa /etc/rc
73start up command file in fastboot mode (skipping disk checks).
74.Pp
75If the
76.Nm console
77entry in the
78.Xr ttys 5
79file is marked ``insecure'',
80then
81.Nm init
82will require that the superuser password be
83entered before the system will start a single-user shell.
84The password check is skipped if the
85.Nm console
86is marked as ``secure''.
87.Pp
88The kernel runs with four different levels of security.
89Any superuser process can raise the security level, but only
90.Nm init
91can lower it.
92Security levels are defined as follows:
93.Bl -tag -width flag
94.It Ic -1
95Permanently insecure mode \- always run system in level 0 mode.
96.It Ic 0
97Insecure mode \- immutable and append-only flags may be turned off.
98All devices may be read or written subject to their permissions.
99.It Ic 1
100Secure mode \- immutable and append-only flags may not be changed;
101disks for mounted filesystems,
102.Pa /dev/mem ,
103and
104.Pa /dev/kmem
105are read-only.
106.It Ic 2
107Highly secure mode \- same as secure mode, plus disks are always
108read-only whether mounted or not.
109This level precludes tampering with filesystems by unmounting them,
110but also inhibits running
111.Xr newfs 8
112while the system is multi-user.
113.El
114.Pp
115Normally, the system runs in level 0 mode while single user
116and in level 1 mode while multiuser.
117If the level 2 mode is desired while running multiuser,
118it can be set in the startup script
119.Pa /etc/rc
120using
121.Xr sysctl 8 .
122If it is desired to run the system in level 0 mode while multiuser,
123the administrator must build a kernel with the variable
124.Nm securelevel
125defined in the file
126.Pa /sys/arch/compile/MACHINE/param.c
127and initialize it to -1.
128.Pp
129In multi-user operation,
130.Nm init
131maintains
132processes for the terminal ports found in the file
133.Xr ttys 5 .
134.Nm Init
135reads this file, and executes the command found in the second field.
136This command is usually
137.Xr getty 8 ;
138.Xr getty
139opens and initializes the tty line
140and
141executes the
142.Xr login
143program.
144The
145.Xr login
146program, when a valid user logs in,
147executes a shell for that user.  When this shell
148dies, either because the user logged out
149or an abnormal termination occurred (a signal),
150the
151.Nm init
152program wakes up, deletes the user
153from the
154.Xr utmp 5
155file of current users and records the logout in the
156.Xr wtmp
157file.
158The cycle is
159then restarted by
160.Nm init
161executing a new
162.Xr getty
163for the line.
164.Pp
165Line status (on, off, secure, getty, or window information)
166may be changed in the
167.Xr ttys
168file without a reboot by sending the signal
169.Dv SIGHUP
170to
171.Nm init
172with the command
173.Dq Li "kill \-s HUP 1" .
174On receipt of this signal,
175.Nm init
176re-reads the
177.Xr ttys
178file.
179When a line is turned off in
180.Xr ttys ,
181.Nm init
182will send a SIGHUP signal to the controlling process
183for the session associated with the line.
184For any lines that were previously turned off in the
185.Xr ttys
186file and are now on,
187.Nm init
188executes a new
189.Xr getty
190to enable a new login.
191If the getty or window field for a line is changed,
192the change takes effect at the end of the current
193login session (e.g., the next time
194.Nm init
195starts a process on the line).
196If a line is commented out or deleted from
197.Xr ttys ,
198.Nm init
199will not do anything at all to that line.
200However, it will complain that the relationship between lines
201in the
202.Xr ttys
203file and records in the
204.Xr utmp
205file is out of sync,
206so this practice is not recommended.
207.Pp
208.Nm Init
209will terminate multi-user operations and resume single-user mode
210if sent a terminate
211.Pq Dv TERM
212signal, for example,
213.Dq Li "kill \-s TERM 1" .
214If there are processes outstanding that are deadlocked (because of
215hardware or software failure),
216.Xr init
217will not wait for them all to die (which might take forever), but
218will time out after 30 seconds and print a warning message.
219.Pp
220.Nm Init
221will cease creating new
222.Xr getty Ns 's
223and allow the system to slowly die away, if it is sent a terminal stop
224.Pq Dv TSTP
225signal, i.e.
226.Dq Li "kill \-s TSTP 1" .
227A later hangup will resume full
228multi-user operations, or a terminate will start a single user shell.
229This hook is used by
230.Xr reboot 8
231and
232.Xr halt 8 .
233.Pp
234The role of
235.Nm init
236is so critical that if it dies, the system will reboot itself
237automatically.
238If, at bootstrap time, the
239.Xr init
240process cannot be located, the system will panic with the message
241``panic: "init died (signal %d, exit %d)''.
242.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
243.Bl -diag
244.It "getty repeating too quickly on port %s, sleeping"
245A process being started to service a line is exiting quickly
246each time it is started.
247This is often caused by a ringing or noisy terminal line.
248.Em "Init will sleep for 10 seconds" ,
249.Em "then continue trying to start the process" .
250.Pp
251.It "some processes would not die; ps axl advised."
252A process
253is hung and could not be killed when the system was shutting down.
254This condition is usually caused by a process
255that is stuck in a device driver because of
256a persistent device error condition.
257.El
258.Sh FILES
259.Bl -tag -width /var/log/wtmp -compact
260.It Pa /dev/console
261System console device.
262.It Pa /dev/tty*
263Terminal ports found in
264.Xr ttys .
265.It Pa /var/run/utmp
266Record of Current users on the system.
267.It Pa /var/log/wtmp
268Record of all logins and logouts.
269.It Pa /etc/ttys
270The terminal initialization information file.
271.It Pa /etc/rc
272System startup commands.
273.El
274.Sh SEE ALSO
275.Xr login 1 ,
276.Xr kill 1 ,
277.Xr sh 1 ,
278.Xr ttys 5 ,
279.Xr crash 8 ,
280.Xr getty 8 ,
281.Xr rc 8 ,
282.Xr reboot 8 ,
283.Xr halt 8 ,
284.Xr shutdown 8
285.Sh HISTORY
286A
287.Nm
288command appeared in
289.At v6 .
290.Sh BUGS
291Systems without
292.Xr sysctl
293behave as though they have security level \-1.
294