Creating your own init scripts

There are two widespread urban myth about init scripts. The first is that scripts on lower runlevels are executed before scripts on higher runlevel. For example if we go to level 5 that means that scripts on level 3 will be executed.

This is not true -- each runlevel is completely autonomous and sequence of runlevel is poorly logical. Only scripts belonging to particular runlevel are executed.

On entering particular run-level first all K-scripts (scripts starting with the capital
K or kill-scripts) are executed in sorted order. Then all S-scripts (scripts starting with capital S, or start scripts), the script that start daemons that should be present on a particular run-level are executed.

There are two types of scripts in /etc/init.d:

Scripts Executed Directly by init

This is the case only during the boot process or if an immediate system shutdown is initiated (power failure or a user pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del).

Scripts that are sources by directly executed scripts

functions and networking are most common scripts in this category.

 

All scripts are located in /etc/init.d. Scripts for changing the runlevel are also found there, but are called through symbolic links from one of the subdirectories (/etc/init.d/rc0.d to /etc/init.d/rc6.d). This is just for clarity reasons and avoids duplicate scripts if they are used in several runlevels. Because every script can be executed as both a start and a stop script, these scripts must understand the parameters start and stop. In addition most script understand the restart, reload, force-reload, and status options. These options are not necessary for correct functioning of the script:

Option	Description
start	Start service.
stop	Stop service.
restart	If the service is running, stop it then restart it. If it is not running, start it.
reload	Reload the configuration without stopping and restarting the service.
force-reload	Reload the configuration if the service supports this. Otherwise, do the same as if restart had been given.
status	Show current status of service.

Links in each runlevel-specific subdirectory make it possible to associate scripts with different runlevels. When installing or uninstalling packages, such links are added and removed with the help of the program insserv (or using /usr/lib/lsb/install_initd, which is a script calling this program). See the manual page of insserv for details.

Below is a short introduction to the boot and stop scripts launched first or last, respectively, as well as an explanation of the maintaining script.

boot

Executed while starting the system directly using init. It is independent of the chosen runlevel and is only executed once. Here, the proc and pts file systems are mounted and blogd (boot logging daemon) is activated. If the system is booted for the first time after an update or an installation, the initial system configuration is started.

The blogd daemon is a service started by boot and by rc before any other one. It is stopped after the actions triggered by the above scripts (running a number of subscripts, for example) are completed. blogd writes any screen output to the log file /var/log/boot.msg, but only if and when /var is mounted read-write. Otherwise, blogd buffers all screen data until /var becomes available. Get further information about blogd with man blogd.

The script boot is also responsible for starting all the scripts in /etc/init.d/boot.d with a name that starts with S. There, the file systems are checked and loop devices are configured if needed. The system time is also set. If an error occurs while automatically checking and repairing the file system, the system administrator can intervene after first entering the root password. Last executed is the script boot.local.

boot.local

Here, enter additional commands to execute at boot before changing into a runlevel. It can be compared to AUTOEXEC.BAT on DOS systems.

boot.setup

This script is executed when changing from single user mode to any other runlevel and is responsible for a number of basic settings, such the keyboard layout and initialization of the virtual consoles.

halt

This script is only executed while changing into runlevel 0 or 6. Here, it is executed either as halt or as reboot. Whether the system shuts down or reboots depends on how halt is called.

rc

This script calls the appropriate stop scripts of the current runlevel and the start scripts of the newly selected runlevel.

10.5.1. Adding init Scripts

You can create your own scripts and easily integrate them into the scheme described above. For instructions about formatting, naming, and organizing custom scripts, refer to the specifications of the LSB and to the man pages of init, init.d, and insserv. Additionally consult the man pages of startproc and killproc.

To create a custom init script for a given program or service, use the file /etc/init.d/skeleton as a template. Save a copy of this file under the new name and edit the relevant program and file names, paths, and other details as needed. You may also need to enhance the script with your own parts, so the correct actions are triggered by the init procedure.

The INIT INFO block at the top is a required part of the script and should be edited. See Example 10.1. “A Minimal INIT INFO Block”.

Example 10.1. A Minimal INIT INFO Block

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          FOO
# Required-Start:    $syslog $remote_fs
# Required-Stop:     $syslog $remote_fs
# Default-Start:     3 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 2 6
# Description:       Start FOO to allow XY and provide YZ
### END INIT INFO
    

In the first line of the INFO block, after Provides:, specify the name of the program or service controlled by this init script. In the Required-Start: and Required-Stop: lines, specify all services that need to be started or stopped, respectively, before the service itself is started or stopped. This information is used later to generate the numbering of script names, as found in the runlevel directories. Under Default-Start: and Default-Stop:, specify the runlevels in which the service should automatically be started or stopped. Finally, under Description:, provide a short description of the service in question.

To create the links from /etc/init.d/ to the corresponding runlevel directories (/etc/init.d/rc?.d/), enter the command insserv <new-script-name>. The insserv program evaluates the INIT INFO header to create the necessary links for start and stop scripts in the runlevel directories (/etc/init.d/rc?.d/). The program also takes care of the correct start and stop order for each runlevel by including the necessary numbers in the names of these links. If you prefer a graphical tool to create such links, use the runlevel editor provided by YaST, as described in 10.6. “The YaST Runlevel Editor”.

If a script already present in /etc/init.d/ should be integrated into the existing runlevel scheme, create the links in the runlevel directories right away with insserv or by enabling the corresponding service in the runlevel editor of YaST. Your changes are applied during the next reboot — the new service will be started automatically.

NEWS CONTENTS

Old News ;-)

Gentoo Linux Documentation -- Initscripts

Content:

• Runlevels
• Working with rc-update
• Configuring Services
• Writing Init Scripts
• Changing the Runlevel Behaviour

4.a. Runlevels

Booting your System

When you boot your system, you will notice lots of text floating by. If you pay close attention, you will notice this text is the same every time you reboot your system. The sequence of all these actions is called the boot sequence and is (more or less) statically defined.

First, your boot loader will load the kernel image you have defined in the boot loader configuration into memory after which it tells the CPU to run the kernel. When the kernel is loaded and run, it initializes all kernel-specific structures and tasks and starts the init process.

This process then makes sure that all filesystems (defined in /etc/fstab) are mounted and ready to be used. Then it executes several scripts located in /etc/init.d, which will start the services you need in order to have a successfully booted system.

Finally, when all scripts are executed, init activates the terminals (in most cases just the virtual consoles which are hidden beneath Alt-F1, Alt-F2, etc.) attaching a special process called agetty to it. This process will then make sure you are able to log on through these terminals by running login.

Init Scripts

Now init doesn't just execute the scripts in /etc/init.d randomly. Even more, it doesn't run all scripts in /etc/init.d, only the scripts it is told to execute. It decides which scripts to execute by looking into /etc/runlevels.

First, init runs all scripts from /etc/init.d that have symbolic links inside /etc/runlevels/boot. Usually, it will start the scripts in alphabetical order, but some scripts have dependency information in them, telling the system that another script must be run before they can be started.

When all /etc/runlevels/boot referenced scripts are executed, init continues with running the scripts that have a symbolic link to them in /etc/runlevels/default. Again, it will use the alphabetical order to decide what script to run first, unless a script has dependency information in it, in which case the order is changed to provide a valid start-up sequence.

How Init Works

Of course init doesn't decide all that by itself. It needs a configuration file that specifies what actions need to be taken. This configuration file is /etc/inittab.

If you remember the boot sequence we have just described, you will remember that init's first action is to mount all filesystems. This is defined in the following line from /etc/inittab:

Code Listing 1.1: The system initialisation line in /etc/inittab

si::sysinit:/sbin/rc sysinit

This line tells init that it must run /sbin/rc sysinit to initialize the system. The /sbin/rc script takes care of the initialisation, so you might say that init doesn't do much -- it delegates the task of initialising the system to another process.

Second, init executed all scripts that had symbolic links in /etc/runlevels/boot. This is defined in the following line:

Code Listing 1.2: The system initialisation, continued

rc::bootwait:/sbin/rc boot

Again the rc script performs the necessary tasks. Note that the option given to rc (boot) is the same as the subdirectory of /etc/runlevels that is used.

Now init checks its configuration file to see what runlevel it should run. To decide this, it reads the following line from /etc/inittab:

Code Listing 1.3: The initdefault line

id:3:initdefault:

In this case (which the majority of Gentoo users will use), the runlevel id is 3. Using this information, init checks what it must run to start runlevel 3:

Code Listing 1.4: The runlevel definitions

l0:0:wait:/sbin/rc shutdown l1:S1:wait:/sbin/rc single l2:2:wait:/sbin/rc nonetwork l3:3:wait:/sbin/rc default l4:4:wait:/sbin/rc default l5:5:wait:/sbin/rc default l6:6:wait:/sbin/rc reboot

The line that defines level 3, again, uses the rc script to start the services (now with argument default). Again note that the argument of rc is the same as the subdirectory from /etc/runlevels.

When rc has finished, init decides what virtual consoles it should activate and what commands need to be run at each console:

Code Listing 1.5: The virtual consoles definition

c1:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty1 linux c2:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty2 linux c3:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty3 linux c4:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty4 linux c5:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty5 linux c6:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty6 linux

What is a runlevel?

You have seen that init uses a numbering scheme to decide what runlevel it should activate. A runlevel is a state in which your system is running and contains a collection of scripts (runlevel scripts or initscripts) that must be executed when you enter or leave a runlevel.

In Gentoo, there are seven runlevels defined: three internal runlevels, and four user-defined runlevels. The internal runlevels are called sysinit, shutdown and reboot and do exactly what their names imply: initialize the system, powering off the system and rebooting the system.

The user-defined runlevels are those with an accompanying /etc/runlevels subdirectory: boot, default, nonetwork and single. The boot runlevel starts all system-necessary services which all other runlevels use. The remaining three runlevels differ in what services they start: default is used for day-to-day operations, nonetwork is used in case no network connectivity is required, and single is used when you need to fix the system.

Working with the Init Scripts

The scripts that the rc process starts are called init scripts. Each script in /etc/init.d can be executed with the arguments start, stop, restart, pause, zap, status, ineed, iuse, needsme, usesme or broken.

To start, stop or restart a service (and all depending services), start, stop and restart should be used:

Code Listing 1.6: Starting Postfix

# /etc/init.d/postfix start

Note: Only the services that need the given service are stopped or restarted. The other depending services (those that use the service but don't need it) are left untouched.

If you want to stop a service, but not the services that depend on it, you can use the pause argument:

Code Listing 1.7: Stopping Postfix but keep the depending services running

# /etc/init.d/postfix pause

If you want to see what status a service has (started, stopped, paused, ...) you can use the status argument:

Code Listing 1.8: Status information for postfix

# /etc/init.d/postfix status

If the status information tells you that the service is running, but you know that it is not, then you can reset the status information to "stopped" with the zap argument:

Code Listing 1.9: Resetting status information for postfix

# /etc/init.d/postfix zap

To also ask what dependencies the service has, you can use iuse or ineed. With ineed you can see the services that are really necessary for the correct functioning of the service. iuse on the other hand shows the services that can be used by the service, but are not necessary for the correct functioning.

Code Listing 1.10: Requesting a list of all necessary services on which Postfix depends

# /etc/init.d/postfix ineed

Similarly, you can ask what services require the service (needsme) or can use it (usesme):

Code Listing 1.11: Requesting a list of all services that require Postfix

# /etc/init.d/postfix needsme

Finally, you can ask what dependencies the service requires that are missing:

Code Listing 1.12: Requesting a list of missing dependencies for Postfix

# /etc/init.d/postfix broken

4.b. Working with rc-update

What is rc-update?

Gentoo's init system uses a dependency-tree to decide what service needs to be started first. As this is a tedious task that we wouldn't want our users to have to do manually, we have created tools that ease the administration of the runlevels and init scripts.

With rc-update you can add and remove init scripts to a runlevel. The rc-update tool will then automatically ask the depscan.sh script to rebuild the dependency tree.

Adding and Removing Services

You have already added init scripts to the "default" runlevel during the installation of Gentoo. At that time you might not have had a clue what the "default" is for, but now you should. The rc-update script requires a second argument that defines the action: add, del or show.

To add or remove an init script, just give rc-update the add or del argument, followed by the init script and the runlevel. For instance:

Code Listing 2.1: Removing Postfix from the default runlevel

# rc-update del postfix default

The rc-update -v show command will show all the available init scripts and list at which runlevels they will execute:

Code Listing 2.2: Receiving init script information

# rc-update -v show

You can also run rc-update show (without -v) to just view enabled init scripts and their runlevels.

4.c. Configuring Services

Why the Need for Extra Configuration?

Init scripts can be quite complex. It is therefore not really desirable to have the users edit the init script directly, as it would make it more error-prone. It is however important to be able to configure such a service. For instance, you might want to give more options to the service itself.

A second reason to have this configuration outside the init script is to be able to update the init scripts without the fear that your configuration changes will be undone.

The /etc/conf.d Directory

Gentoo provides an easy way to configure such a service: every init script that can be configured has a file in /etc/conf.d. For instance, the apache2 initscript (called /etc/init.d/apache2) has a configuration file called /etc/conf.d/apache2, which can contain the options you want to give to the Apache 2 server when it is started:

Code Listing 3.1: Variable defined in /etc/conf.d/apache2

APACHE2_OPTS="-D PHP5"

Such a configuration file contains variables and variables alone (just like /etc/make.conf), making it very easy to configure services. It also allows us to provide more information about the variables (as comments).

4.d. Writing Init Scripts

Do I Have To?

No, writing an init script is usually not necessary as Gentoo provides ready-to-use init scripts for all provided services. However, you might have installed a service without using Portage, in which case you will most likely have to create an init script.

Do not use the init script provided by the service if it isn't explicitly written for Gentoo: Gentoo's init scripts are not compatible with the init scripts used by other distributions!

Layout

The basic layout of an init script is shown below.

Code Listing 4.1: Basic layout of an init script

#!/sbin/runscript depend() { (Dependency information) } start() { (Commands necessary to start the service) } stop() { (Commands necessary to stop the service) } restart() { (Commands necessary to restart the service) }

Any init script requires the start() function to be defined. All other sections are optional.

Dependencies

There are two dependencies you can define: use and need. As we have mentioned before, the need dependency is more strict than the use dependency. Following this dependency type you enter the service you depend on, or the virtual dependency.

A virtual dependency is a dependency that a service provides, but that is not provided solely by that service. Your init script can depend on a system logger, but there are many system loggers available (metalogd, syslog-ng, sysklogd, ...). As you cannot need every single one of them (no sensible system has all these system loggers installed and running) we made sure that all these services provide a virtual dependency.

Let us take a look at the dependency information for the postfix service.

Code Listing 4.2: Dependency information for Postfix

depend() { need net use logger dns provide mta }

As you can see, the postfix service:

• requires the (virtual) net dependency (which is provided by, for instance, /etc/init.d/net.eth0)
• uses the (virtual) logger dependency (which is provided by, for instance, /etc/init.d/syslog-ng)
• uses the (virtual) dns dependency (which is provided by, for instance, /etc/init.d/named)
• provides the (virtual) mta dependency (which is common for all mail servers)

Controlling the Order

In some cases you might not require a service, but want your service to be started before (or after) another service if it is available on the system (note the conditional - this is no dependency anymore) and run in the same runlevel (note the conditional - only services in the same runlevel are involved). You can provide this information using the before or after settings.

As an example we view the settings of the Portmap service:

Code Listing 4.3: The depend() function in the Portmap service

depend() { need net before inetd before xinetd }

You can also use the "*" glob to catch all services in the same runlevel, although this isn't advisable.

Code Listing 4.4: Running an init script as first script in the runlevel

depend() { before * }

If your service must write to local disks, it should need localmount. If it places anything in /var/run such as a pidfile, then it should start after bootmisc:

Code Listing 4.5: Example depend() function

depend() { need localmount after bootmisc }

Standard Functions

Next to the depend() functionality, you also need to define the start() function. This one contains all the commands necessary to initialize your service. It is advisable to use the ebegin and eend functions to inform the user about what is happening:

Code Listing 4.6: Example start() function

start() { ebegin "Starting my_service" start-stop-daemon --start --exec /path/to/my_service \ --pidfile /path/to/my_pidfile eend $? }

Both --exec and --pidfile should be used in start and stop functions. If the service does not create a pidfile, then use --make-pidfile if possible, though you should test this to be sure. Otherwise, don't use pidfiles. You can also add --quiet to the start-stop-daemon options, but this is not recommended unless the service is extremely verbose. Using --quiet may hinder debugging if the service fails to start.

Note: Make sure that --exec actually calls a service and not just a shell script that launches services and exits -- that's what the init script is supposed to do.

If you need more examples of the start() function, please read the source code of the available init scripts in your /etc/init.d directory.

Other functions you can define are: stop() and restart(). You are not obliged to define these functions! Our init system is intelligent enough to fill these functions by itself if you use start-stop-daemon.

Although you do not have to create a stop() function, here is an example:

Code Listing 4.7: Example stop() function

stop() { ebegin "Stopping my_service" start-stop-daemon --stop --exec /path/to/my_service \ --pidfile /path/to/my_pidfile eend $? }

If your service runs some other script (for example, bash, python, or perl), and this script later changes names (for example, foo.py to foo), then you will need to add --name to start-stop-daemon. You must specify the name that your script will be changed to. In this example, a service starts foo.py, which changes names to foo:

Code Listing 4.8: A service that starts the foo script

start() { ebegin "Starting my_script" start-stop-daemon --start --exec /path/to/my_script \ --pidfile /path/to/my_pidfile --name foo eend $? }

start-stop-daemon has an excellent man page available if you need more information:

Code Listing 4.9: Getting the man page for start-stop-daemon

$ man start-stop-daemon

Gentoo's init script syntax is based on the Bourne Again Shell (bash) so you are free to use bash-compatible constructs inside your init script. However, you may want to write your init scripts to be POSIX-compliant. Future init script systems may allow symlinking /bin/sh to other shells besides bash. Init scripts that rely on bash-only features will then break these configurations.

Adding Custom Options

If you want your init script to support more options than the ones we have already encountered, you should add the option to the opts variable, and create a function with the same name as the option. For instance, to support an option called restartdelay:

Code Listing 4.10: Supporting the restartdelay option

opts="${opts} restartdelay" restartdelay() { stop sleep 3 # Wait 3 seconds before starting again start }

Service Configuration Variables

You don't have to do anything to support a configuration file in /etc/conf.d: if your init script is executed, the following files are automatically sourced (i.e. the variables are available to use):

• /etc/conf.d/<your init script>
• /etc/conf.d/basic
• /etc/rc.conf

Also, if your init script provides a virtual dependency (such as net), the file associated with that dependency (such as /etc/conf.d/net) will be sourced too.

4.e. Changing the Runlevel Behaviour

Who might benefit from this?

Many laptop users know the situation: at home you need to start net.eth0 while you don't want to start net.eth0 while you're on the road (as there is no network available). With Gentoo you can alter the runlevel behaviour to your own will.

For instance you can create a second "default" runlevel which you can boot that has other init scripts assigned to it. You can then select at boottime what default runlevel you want to use.

Using softlevel

First of all, create the runlevel directory for your second "default" runlevel. As an example we create the offline runlevel:

Code Listing 5.1: Creating a runlevel directory

# mkdir /etc/runlevels/offline

Add the necessary init scripts to the newly created runlevels. For instance, if you want to have an exact copy of your current default runlevel but without net.eth0:

Code Listing 5.2: Adding the necessary init scripts

(Copy all services from default runlevel to offline runlevel) # cd /etc/runlevels/default # for service in *; do rc-update add $service offline; done (Remove unwanted service from offline runlevel) # rc-update del net.eth0 offline (Display active services for offline runlevel) # rc-update show offline (Partial sample Output) acpid | offline domainname | offline local | offline net.eth0 |

Even though net.eth0 has been removed from the offline runlevel, udev will still attempt to start any devices it detects and launch the appropriate services. Therefore, you will need to add each network service you do not want started (as well as services for any other devices that may be started by udev) to /etc/conf.d/rc as shown.

Code Listing 5.3: Disabling device initiated services in /etc/conf.d/rc

RC_COLDPLUG="yes" (Next, specify the services you do not want automatically started) RC_PLUG_SERVICES="!net.eth0"

Note: For more information on device initiated services, please see the comments inside /etc/conf.d/rc.

Now edit your bootloader configuration and add a new entry for the offline runlevel. For instance, in /boot/grub/grub.conf:

Code Listing 5.4: Adding an entry for the offline runlevel

title Gentoo Linux Offline Usage root (hd0,0) kernel (hd0,0)/kernel-2.4.25 root=/dev/hda3 softlevel=offline

Voilà, you're all set now. If you boot your system and select the newly added entry at boot, the offline runlevel will be used instead of the default one.

Using bootlevel

Using bootlevel is completely analogous to softlevel. The only difference here is that you define a second "boot" runlevel instead of a second "default" runlevel.

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Last modified: March 12, 2019