DAEMONTAB(5)            COMMAND REFERENCE            DAEMONTAB(5)



NAME
     daemontab - daemon process description file

DESCRIPTION
     The file /etc/daemontab is used by the command /etc/daemon
     to find the names of daemon programs, such as spoolers and
     network communication programs.

     The daemontab file may contain lines of three types.  The
     first type is a comment, which is any line that begins with
     the character `#'.  These lines are ignored by daemon.

     The next type of line is read directly by daemon and is of
     the form:

          [ -Ksig ] [ -Ysig ] [ -wtime ] path [ args ]

     The -K option is used to specify the default signal to be
     used to kill the program.  The signal may either be a number
     or a word as listed by the command kill -l.  The -Y option
     is used to specify the default signal to be used to
     synchronize the program.  The signal may either be a number
     or a word as listed by the command kill -l.  The -w option
     is used to specify the default time to wait after attempting
     to kill a process before checking to see whether the process
     was really killed or not.  The path is the full pathname of
     the program, and the args are the arguments to the command.
     For example, the line:

          -YHUP -K2 -w10 /etc/foo_daemon -l -t15

     specifies that /etc/foodaemon is a daemon (at least when
     run with the options -l and -t15) and is to be killed with
     the signal 2 (or interrupt).  A successful kill will take up
     to 10 seconds to be reflected by the system; the program is
     to be synchronized with the signal HUP (or signal 1), and if
     it is dead 10 seconds after the synchonization is attempted,
     there is something wrong.  It is important to note that the
     lines:

          -K3 /etc/foo_daemon
          -YHUP -w5 /etc/foo_daemon -l
          -K2 -w10 /etc/foo_daemon -t15

     all differ, both from one another and from the first
     example.  The command and its arguments together specify a
     distinct program invocation.  Spaces and tabs are not
     significant, and are reduced to a single space.

     The third type of line in the daemontab file begins and ends
     with the backquote character (`).  This type of line is
     executed by daemon via popen(3s), and the output from the



Printed 3/13/89                                                 1

DAEMONTAB(5)            COMMAND REFERENCE            DAEMONTAB(5)



     execution is taken as a list of program names as if they
     were listed in the daemontab file.  This feature makes it
     possible to start different daemons depending on the state
     of the system.  For example, your system may have a package
     which requires one daemon to be running if one peripheral is
     hooked up, and a different daemon otherwise.  The line:

          `/usr/pkg/which_daemon`

     would cause daemon to execute the command
     /usr/pkg/whichdaemon and use the output as the name of the
     daemon that should be running.  Since the shell performs the
     same action with backquoted commands (watch out for shells
     which turn newlines into spaces), this is similar to
     executing the command:

          /etc/daemon [ options ] `/usr/pkg/which_daemon`

FILES
     /etc/daemontab The daemon process description file

CAVEATS
     It is very important to realize that any user can execute
     the command daemon, even if only the superuser can actually
     perform any actions on the programs.  Therefore, you must be
     very careful to make sure that the commands which appear in
     backquotes do not do anything other than print the names of
     daemons.

     There is no way to specify the default signal or wait time
     with this type of line.  Otherwise, the lines produced are
     interpreted the same as with program names directly
     specified in the daemontab file.

     All lines in /etc/daemontab are limited to 1024 characters
     in length.  Also, output from backquoted commands is limited
     to 1024 characters.

SEE ALSO
     sh(1sh), kill(1), ps(1), popen(3s), and daemon(8).















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