INIT(1M) (Essential Utilities) INIT(1M)
NAME
init, telinit - process control initialization
SYNOPSIS
/etc/init [0123456SsQqabc]
DESCRIPTION
Init
init is a general process spawner. Its primary role is to
create processes from information stored in the file
/etc/inittab (see inittab(4)).
At any given time, the system is in one of eight possible
run levels. A run level is a software configuration of the
system under which only a selected group of processes exist.
The processes spawned by init for each of these run levels
is defined in /etc/inittab. init can be in one of eight run
levels, 0-6 and S or s (run levels S and s are identical).
The run level changes when a privileged user runs /etc/init.
This user-spawned init sends appropriate signals to the
original init spawned by the operating system when the
system was booted, telling it which run level to change to.
The following are the arguments to init.
0 shut the machine down so it is safe to remove
the power. Have the machine remove power if it
can.
1 put the system in single-user mode. Unmount all
file systems except root. All user processes
are killed except those connected to the
console.
2 put the system in multi-user mode. All multi-
user environment terminal processes and daemons
are spawned. This state is commonly referred to
as the multi-user state.
3 start the remote file sharing processes and
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daemons. Mount and advertise remote resources.
Run level 3 extends multi-user mode and is known
as the remote-file-sharing state.
4 is available to be defined as an alternative
multi-user environment configuration. It is not
necessary for system operation and is usually
not used.
5 Stop the system and go to the firmware monitor.
6 Stop the system and reboot to the state defined
by the initdefault entry in /etc/inittab.
a,b,c process only those /etc/inittab entries having
the a, b or c run level set. These are pseudo-
states, which may be defined to run certain
commands, but which do not cause the current run
level to change.
Q,q re-examine /etc/inittab.
S,s enter single-user mode. When this occurs, the
terminal which executed this command becomes the
system console. This is the only run level that
doesn't require the existence of a properly
formatted /etc/inittab file. If this file does
not exist, then by default the only legal run
level that init can enter is the single-user
mode. When the system enters S or s, all
mounted file systems remain mounted and only
processes spawned by init are killed.
When a system is booted, init is invoked and the following
occurs. First, init looks in /etc/inittab for the
initdefault entry (see inittab(4)). If there is one, init
uses the run level specified in that entry as the initial
run level to enter. If there is no initdefault entry in
/etc/inittab, init requests that the user enter a run level
from the virtual system console. If an S or s is entered,
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init goes to the single-user state. In the single-user
state the virtual console terminal is assigned to the user's
terminal and is opened for reading and writing. The command
/bin/su is invoked and a message is generated on the
physical console saying where the virtual console has been
relocated. Use either init or telinit, to signal init to
change the run level of the system. Note that if the shell
is terminated (via an end-of-file), init will only re-
initialize to the single-user state if the /etc/inittab file
does not exist.
If a 0 through 6 is entered, init enters the corresponding
run level. Note that, on the 3B2 Computer, the run levels
0, 1, 5, and 6 are reserved states for shutting the system
down; the run levels 2, 3, and 4 are available as normal
operating states.
If this is the first time since power up that init has
entered a run level other than single-user state, init first
scans /etc/inittab for boot and bootwait entries (see
inittab(4)). These entries are performed before any other
processing of /etc/inittab takes place, providing that the
run level entered matches that of the entry. In this way
any special initialization of the operating system, such as
mounting file systems, can take place before users are
allowed onto the system. init then scans /etc/inittab and
executes all other entries that are to be processed for that
run level.
In a multi-user environment, /etc/inittab is set up so that
init will create a getty process for each terminal that the
administrator sets up to respawn.
To spawn each process in /etc/inittab, init reads each entry
and for each entry that should be respawned, it forks a
child process. After it has spawned all of the processes
specified by /etc/inittab, init waits for one of its
descendant processes to die, a powerfail signal, or a signal
from another init or telinit process to change the system's
run level. When one of these conditions occurs, init re-
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examines /etc/inittab. New entries can be added to
/etc/inittab at any time; however, init still waits for one
of the above three conditions to occur before re-examining
/etc/inittab. To get around this, init Q or init q command
wakes init to re-examine /etc/inittab immediately.
When init comes up at boot time and whenever the system
changes from the single-user state to another run state,
init sets the ioctl(2) states of the virtual console to
those modes saved in the file /etc/ioctl.syscon. This file
is written by init whenever the single-user state is
entered.
When a run level change request is made init sends the
warning signal (SIGTERM) to all processes that are undefined
in the target run level. init waits 5 seconds before
forcibly terminating these processes via the kill signal
(SIGKILL).
The shell running on each terminal will terminate when the
user types an end-of-file or hangs up. When init receives a
signal telling it that a process it spawned has died, it
records the fact and the reason it died in /etc/utmp and
/etc/wtmp if it exists (see who(1)). A history of the
processes spawned is kept in /etc/wtmp.
If init receives a powerfail signal (SIGPWR) it scans
/etc/inittab for special entries of the type powerfail and
powerwait. These entries are invoked (if the run levels
permit) before any further processing takes place. In this
way init can perform various cleanup and recording functions
during the powerdown of the operating system. Note that in
the single-user states, S and s, only powerfail and
powerwait entries are executed.
FILES
/etc/inittab
/etc/utmp
/etc/wtmp
/etc/ioctl.syscon
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/dev/console
/dev/contty
SEE ALSO
getty(1M), shutdown(1M), gettydefs(4), inittab(4), utmp(4),
termio(7).
login(1), sh(1), stty(1), who(1) in the User's Reference
Manual.
kill(2) in the Programmer's Reference Manual.
DIAGNOSTICS
If init finds that it is respawning an entry from
/etc/inittab more than 10 times in 2 minutes, it will assume
that there is an error in the command string in the entry,
and generate an error message on the system console. It
will then refuse to respawn this entry until either 5
minutes has elapsed or it receives a signal from a user-
spawned init (telinit). This prevents init from eating up
system resources when someone makes a typographical error in
the inittab file or a program is removed that is referenced
in /etc/inittab.
When attempting to boot the system, failure of init to
prompt for a new run level may be becaue the virtual system
console is linked to a device other than the physical system
console.
WARNINGS
init and telinit can be run only by someone who is super-
user.
The S or s state must not be used indiscriminately in the
/etc/inittab file. A good rule to follow when modifying
this file is to avoid adding this state to any line other
than the initdefault.
The change to /etc/gettydefs described in the WARNINGS
section of the gettydefs(4) manual page will permit
terminals to pass 8 bits to the system as long as the system
is in multi-user state (run level greater than 1). When the
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system changes to single-user state, the getty is killed and
the terminal attributes are lost. To permit a terminal to
pass 8 bits to the system in single-user state, after you
are in single-user state, type:
stty -istrip cs8
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