idmkinit(ADM)                   19 June 1992                   idmkinit(ADM)


 Name

    idmkinit - read files containing inittab specifications

 Syntax

    /etc/conf/bin/idmkinit

 Description

    This command reads the files containing specifications of /etc/inittab
    entries from /etc/conf/init.d and constructs a new inittab file in
    /etc/conf/cf.d.  It returns 0 on success and a positive number on error.

    The files in /etc/conf/init.d are copies of the Init modules in device
    Driver Software Packages (DSP).  There is at most one Init file per DSP.
    Each file contains one line for each inittab entry to be installed.
    There may be multiple lines (that is, multiple inittab entries) per file.
    An inittab entry has the form (the ``id'' field is often called the tag):

       id:rstate:action:process

    The Init module entry must have one of the following forms:

       action:process

       rstate:action:process

       id:rstate:action:process

    When idmkinit encounters an entry of the first type, a valid ``id'' field
    will be generated, and an ``rstate'' field of 2 (indicating run on init
    state 2) will be generated.  When an entry of the second type is encoun-
    tered, only the ``id'' field is prefixed.  An entry of the third type is
    incorporated into the new inittab unchanged.

    Since add-on inittab entries specify init state 2 for their ``rstate''
    field most often, an entry of the first type should almost always be
    used.  An entry of the second type may be specified if you need to
    specify other than state 2.  DSPs should avoid specifying the ``id''
    field as in the third entry since other add-on applications or DSPs may
    have already used the ``id'' value you have chosen.  The /etc/init pro-
    gram will encounter serious errors if one or more inittab entries contain
    the same ``id'' field.

    idmkinit determines which of the three forms above is being used for the
    entry by requiring each entry to have a valid action keyword.  Valid
    action values are as follows:

       off
       respawn
       ondemand
       once
       wait
       boot
       bootwait
       powerfail
       powerwait
       initdefault
       sysinit

    See inittab(F) for a description of the action keywords.

    The idmkinit command is called automatically upon entering init state 2
    on the next system reboot after a kernel reconfiguration to establish the
    correct /etc/inittab for the running kernel.  idmkinit can be called as a
    user level command to test modification of inittab before a DSP is actu-
    ally built.  It is also useful in installation scripts that do not recon-
    figure the kernel but need to create inittab entries.  In this case, the
    inittab generated by idmkinit must be copied to /etc/inittab, and a
    telinit(M) command must be run to make the new entry take effect.

    The command line options are

    -o directory  inittab will be created in the directory specified rather
                  than /etc/conf/cf.d.

    -i directory  The ID file init.base, which normally resides in
                  /etc/conf/cf.d, can be found in the directory specified.

    -e directory  The Init modules that are usually in /etc/conf/init.d can
                  be found in the directory specified.

 Diagnostics

    An exit value of zero indicates success.  If an error was encountered,
    idmkinit will exit with a non-zero value and report an error message.
    All error messages are designed to be self-explanatory.

 See also

    idbuild(ADM), idinstall(ADM), idmknod(ADM), init(M), inittab(F)