NAME

       runlevel - output previous and current runlevel

SYNOPSIS

       runlevel [OPTION]...  [UTMP]

DESCRIPTION

       runlevel reads the system UTMP file, which defaults to /var/run/utmp when no alternate filename is given,
       to locate the most recent runlevel record.

       The  previous  and current runlevel from that record are output separated by a single space.  If there is
       no previous runlevel in the record, the letter N will be substituted.

       If no runlevel record can be found, runlevel outputs the word unknown and exits with an error.

       During system boot, the environment variables RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL will be set by the  init(8)  daemon,
       these come from the runlevel(7) event generated by telinit(8) or shutdown(8).

       When  these  environment  variables  are  set,  runlevel will output the values from these instead.  Thus
       runlevel can be used in rc scripts as a replacement for the System-V who(1) -r command.

OPTIONS

       --quiet
              Does not output the current and previous runlevel, nor does it output unknown in the case of error
              (but it will exit with an error code).

              This may be used to test for the presence of a runlevel entry, or to check for errors reading from
              the file.

EXIT STATUS

       runlevel will exit with status 0 if a UTMP record was found, otherwise it will exit with status 1.

ENVIRONMENT

       RUNLEVEL
              runlevel will read the current runlevel from this environment variable if  set  in  preference  to
              reading from /var/run/utmp

       PREVLEVEL
              runlevel will read the previous runlevel from this environment variable if RUNLEVEL
               was given, in preference to reading from /var/run/utmp

FILES

       /var/run/utmp
              Where the current and previous runlevels will be read from.

NOTES

       The Upstart init(8) daemon does not keep track of runlevels itself, instead they are implemented entirely
       by its userspace tools.

       A  change  of  runlevel  is  signalled  by  the  runlevel(7) event, generated by either the telinit(8) or
       shutdown(8) tools.  This event includes the new runlevel in the RUNLEVEL environment variable, as well as
       the previous runlevel (obtained from their own  environment  or  from  /var/run/utmp)  in  the  PREVLEVEL
       variable.

       As well as generating the event, both tools write the new runlevel back to /var/run/utmp and append a new
       entry to /var/log/wtmp.

AUTHOR

       Written by Scott James Remnant <scott@netsplit.com>

REPORTING BUGS

       Report bugs at <https://launchpad.net/upstart/+bugs>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright © 2009 Canonical Ltd.
       This  is  free  software;  see  the  source  for  copying conditions.  There is NO warranty; not even for
       MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

SEE ALSO

       runlevel(7) init(8) telinit(8) shutdown(8) who(1)

Upstart                                            2009-07-09                                        runlevel(8)