sbin/init/init.8

.\"	$NetBSD: init.8,v 1.37 2005/11/13 18:39:53 elad Exp $
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.\" Donn Seeley at Berkeley Software Design, Inc.
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.\"     @(#)init.8	8.6 (Berkeley) 5/26/95
.\"
.Dd November 13, 2005
.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.
.It
Set up ttys as specified in
.Xr ttys 5 .
See below for more information.
On completion, continue to state 4.
.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
The kernel runs with four different levels of security.
Any superuser process can raise the security level, but only
.Nm
can lower it.
.Pp
The security level mechanism is intended to allow the administrator
to protect the persistent code and data on the system, or a subset
thereof, from modification, even by the superuser.
In order for this protection to be effective, the administrator
must ensure that no program that is run while the security level
is 0 or lower, nor any data or configuration file used by any such
program, can be modified while the security level is greater than
0.
This may be achieved through the careful use of the
.Dq immutable
file flag to define and protect a Trusted Computing Base (TCB)
consisting of all such programs and data, or by ensuring that all
such programs and data are on filesystems that are mounted read-only
and running at security level 2 or higher.
.Em Particular care must be taken to ensure, if relying upon
.Em security level 1 and the use of file flags, that the integrity of the
.Em TCB cannot be compromised through the use of modifications to the
.Em disklabel or access to overlapping disk partitions, including the
.Em raw partition .
.Pp
Do not overlook the fact that shell scripts (or anything else fed to an
interpreter, through any mechanism) and the kernel itself are "programs
that run while the security level is 0" and must be considered part of
the TCB.
.Pp
Security levels are defined as follows:
.Bl -tag -width flag
.It Ic -1
Permanently insecure mode \- always run system in level 0 mode.
.It Ic 0
Insecure mode \- immutable and append-only flags may be changed.
All devices may be read or written subject to their permissions.
.It Ic 1
Secure mode \- system immutable and system append-only flags may not
be turned off; disks for mounted filesystems,
.Pa /dev/mem ,
and
.Pa /dev/kmem
are read-only.
.It Ic 2
Highly secure mode \- same as secure mode, plus disks are always
read-only whether mounted or not, new disks may not be mounted,
and existing mounts may only be downgraded from read-write to read-only.
This level precludes tampering with filesystems by unmounting them,
but also inhibits running
.Xr newfs 8
while the system is multi-user.
.Pp
The
.Xr settimeofday 2
system call can only advance the time.
.Pp
The state of
.Xr ipf 8
(the in-kernel IP filtering facility) may not be changed.
.Pp
Users may not change the per-process core name template format, only the
default can be changed.
.Pp
Downgrading from highly secure mode to insecure mode (that is, to single-user
mode) always requires the root password to be entered on the console, whether
the console is marked as
.Dq secure
in
.Pa /etc/ttys
or not.
.El
.Pp
Normally, the system runs in level 0 mode while single user
and in level 1 mode while multi-user.
If the level 2 mode is desired while running multi-user,
it can be set in the startup script
.Pa /etc/rc
using
.Xr sysctl 8 .
If it is desired to run the system in level 0 mode while multi-user,
the administrator must build a kernel with
.Sy options INSECURE
in the kernel configuration file, which initializes the kernel's
.Va securelevel
variable to -1.
See
.Xr config 1
and
.Xr options 4
for details.
.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
file of current users and records the logout in the
.Xr wtmp 5
file.
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, 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 create a MFS (memory based file system) mounted over
.Pa /dev .
Then it will create a
.Pa /dev/console
device so you can see things happening.
The
.Xr MAKEDEV 8
and
.Pa MAKEDEV.local
scripts are placed in the new
.Pa /dev
directory.
Then
.Nm
changes the working directory to
.Pa /dev
and runs the scripts using the
.Dq init
special target.
This creates the standard devices considered necessary to boot the
system.
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /var/log/wtmp -compact
.It Pa /dev/console
System console device.
.It Pa /dev/tty*
Terminal ports found in
.Xr ttys 5 .
.It Pa /var/run/utmp
Record of Current users on the system.
.It Pa /var/log/wtmp
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 getty 8 ,
.Xr halt 8 ,
.Xr mfs 8 ,
.Xr rc 8 ,
.Xr reboot 8 ,
.Xr shutdown 8
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm
command appeared in
.At v6 .
.Sh BUGS
Systems without
.Xr sysctl 8
behave as though they have security level \-1.
.Pp
The security level 2 restrictions relating to TCB integrity protection
should be enforced at security level 1.
Restrictions dependent upon security level but not relating to TCB
integrity protection should be selected by
.Xr sysctl 8
settings available only at security level 0 or lower.