Ubuntu Manpage: init - Upstart process management daemon

Provided by: upstart_1.13.2-0ubuntu21.1_amd64

NAME

       init - Upstart process management daemon

SYNOPSIS

       init [OPTION]...

DESCRIPTION

init is the parent of all processes on the system, it is executed by the kernel and is
responsible for starting all other processes; it is the parent of all processes whose
natural parents have died and it is responsible for reaping those when they die.

Processes managed by init are known as jobs and are defined by files in the /etc/init
directory. See init(5) for more details on configuring Upstart.

Events
init(8) is an event-based init daemon. This means that jobs will be automatically started
and stopped by changes that occur to the system state, including as a result of jobs
starting and stopping.

This is different to dependency-based init daemons which start a specified set of goal
jobs, and resolve the order in which they should be started and other jobs required by
iterating their dependencies.

For more information on starting and stopping jobs, as well as emitting events that will
automatically start and stop jobs, see the manual page for the initctl(8) tool.

The primary event is the startup(7) event, emitted when the daemon has finished loading
its configuration. Other useful events are the starting(7), started(7), stopping(7) and
stopped(7) events emitted as jobs change state.

Job States
Table 1: Job Goals and State Transitions.

┌───────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │ Goal │
│ ├───────────────┬──────────────────────────┤
│Current State │ start │ stop │
├───────────────┼───────────────┴──────────────────────────┤
│waiting │ starting n/a │
│starting │ pre-start stopping │
│pre-start │ spawned stopping │
│spawned │ post-start stopping │
│post-start │ running stopping │
│running │ stopping pre-stop / stopping (*) │
│pre-stop │ running stopping │
│stopping │ killed killed │
│killed │ post-stop post-stop │
│post-stop │ starting waiting │
└───────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────┘
Key:
(*) If there is a script or exec section and this process is running,
state will be 'pre-stop', else it will be 'stopping'.

Job Lifecycle
Starting a Job

1 Initially the job is "at rest" with a goal of 'stop' and a state of 'waiting' (shown as
'stop/waiting' by the initctl(8) list and status commands).

2 The goal is changed from 'stop' to 'start' indicating the job is attempting to start.

3 The state is changed from 'waiting' to 'starting'.

4 The starting(7) event is emitted denoting the job is "about to start".

5 Any jobs whose 'start on' (or 'stop on') condition would be satisfied by this job
starting are started (or stopped respectively).

6 The starting(7) event completes.

7 The state is changed from 'starting' to 'pre-start'.

8 If the pre-start stanza exists, the pre-start process is spawned.

9 If the pre-start process fails, the goal is changed from 'start' to 'stop', and the
stopping(7) and stopped(7) events are emitted with appropriate variables set denoting
the error.

10 Assuming the pre-start did not fail or did not call "stop", the main process is
spawned.

11 The state is changed from 'pre-start' to 'spawned'.

12 Upstart then ascertains the final PID for the job which may be a descendent of the
immediate child process if expect fork or expect daemon has been specified.

13 The state is changed from 'spawned' to 'post-start'.

14 If the post-start stanza exists, the post-start process is spawned.

15 The state is changed from 'post-start' to 'running'.

16 The started(7) event is emitted.

For services, when this event completes the main process will now be fully running. If
the job refers to a task, it will now have completed (successfully or otherwise).

17 Any jobs whose 'start on' (or 'stop on') condition would be satisfied by this job being
started are started (or stopped respectively).

Stopping a Job

1 Assuming the job is fully running, it will have a goal of 'start' and a state of
'running' (shown as 'start/running' by the initctl(8) list and status commands).

2 The goal is changed from 'start' to 'stop' indicating the job is attempting to stop.

3 The state is changed from 'running' to 'pre-stop'.

4 If the pre-stop stanza exists, the pre-stop process is spawned.

5 The state is changed from 'pre-stop' to 'stopping'.

6 The stopping(7) event is emitted.

7 Any jobs whose 'start on' (or 'stop on') condition would be satisfied by this job
stopping are started (or stopped respectively).

8 The main process is stopped:

i The signal specified by the kill signal stanza is sent to the process group of the
main process (such that all processes belonging to the jobs main process are
killed). By default this signal is SIGTERM.

See signal(7) and init(5).

ii Upstart waits for up to "kill timeout" seconds (default 5 seconds) for the process
to end.

iii
If the process is still running after the timeout, a SIGKILL signal is sent to the
process which cannot be ignored and will forcibly stop the processes in the process
group.

9 The state is changed from 'killed' to 'post-stop'.

10 If the post-stop stanza exists, the post-stop process is spawned.

11 The state is changed from 'post-stop' to 'waiting'.

12 The stopped(7) event is emitted.

When this event completes, the job is fully stopped.

13 Any jobs whose 'start on' (or 'stop on') condition would be satisfied by this job being
stopped are started (or stopped respectively).

System V compatibility
The Upstart init(8) daemon does not keep track of runlevels itself, instead they are
implemented entirely by its userspace tools. The event emitted to signify a change of
runlevel is the runlevel(7) event. For more information see its manual page.

OPTIONS

Options are passed to init(8) by placing them on the kernel command-line.

--append-confdir directory
Add the specified directory to the default directory or directories that job
configuration files will be read from. This option may be specified multiple times
which will result in job configuration files being loaded from each directory
specified (which must exist). Directories will be searched for jobs in the
specified order after the default directories have been searched.

Note that if this option is used in combination with --confdir, or
--prepend-confdir, regardless of the order of the options on the command-line, the
append directories will be added after the other directories.

--confdir directory
Read job configuration files from a directory other than the default (/etc/init for
process ID 1). This option may be specified multiple times which will result in job
configuration files being loaded from each directory specified (which must exist).
Directories will be searched for jobs in the specified order.

In the case that multiple directories specify a job of the same name, the first job
encountered will be honoured.

See section User Session Mode in init(5) for the ordered list of default
configuration directories a Session Init will consider.

--default-console value
Default value for jobs that do not specify a 'console' stanza. This could be used
for example to set the default to 'none' but still honour jobs that specify
explicitly 'console log'. See init(5) for all possible values of console.

--no-cgroups
Do not honour the cgroup stanza. If specified, this stanza will be ignored for any
job which specifies it: the job processes will not be placed in the cgroup
specified by the stanza and the job itself will not wait until the cgroup manager
has started before starting itself. See init(5) for further details.

--no-dbus
Do not connect to a D-Bus bus.

--no-inherit-env
Stop jobs from inheriting the initial environment. Only meaningful when running in
user mode.

--logdir directory
Write job output log files to a directory other than /var/log/upstart (system mode)
or $XDG_CACHE_HOME/upstart (user session mode).

--no-log
Disable logging of job output. Note that jobs specifying 'console log' will be
treated as if they had specified 'console none'. See init(5) for further details.

--no-sessions
Disable chroot sessions.

--no-startup-event
Suppress emission of the initial startup event. This option should only be used for
testing since it will stop the init(8) daemon from starting any jobs automatically.

--prepend-confdir directory
Add the specified directory to the directory or directories that job configuration
files will be read from. This option may be specified multiple times which will
result in job configuration files being loaded from each directory specified (which
must exist). Directories will be searched for jobs in the specified order before
the default directories have been searched.

Note that if this option is used in combination with --confdir, or
--append-confdir, regardless of the order of the options on the command-line, the
prepend directories will be added before the other directories.

--session
Connect to the D-Bus session bus. This should only be used for testing.

--startup-event event
Specify a different initial startup event from the standard startup(7).

--user Starts in user mode, as used for user sessions. Upstart will be run as an
unprivileged user, reading configuration files from configuration locations as per
roughly XDG Base Directory Specification. See init(5) for further details.

-q, --quiet
Reduces output messages to errors only.

-v, --verbose
Outputs verbose messages about job state changes and event emissions to the system
console or log, useful for debugging boot.

--version
Outputs version information and exits.

NOTES

       init is not normally executed by a user process, and expects to have a process  id  of  1.
       If  this  is  not  the case, it will actually execute telinit(8) and pass all arguments to
       that.  See that manual page  for  further  details.  However,  if  the  --user  option  is
       specified,  it  will  run  as  a Session Init and read alternative configuration files and
       manage the individual user session in a similar fashion.

       Sending a Session Init a SIGTERM signal is taken as  a  request  to  shutdown  due  to  an
       impending  system  shutdown.  In this scenario, the Session Init will emit the session-end
       event and  request all running jobs stop. It will attempt  to  honour  jobs  kill  timeout
       values (see init(5) for further details). Note however that system policy will prevail: if
       jobs request timeout values longer than the  system  policy  allows  for  complete  system
       shutdown,  it will not be possible to honour them before the Session Init is killed by the
       system.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       When run as a user process, the following variables may be used to find job  configuration
       files:

       •   $XDG_CONFIG_HOME

       •   $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS

       See User Session Mode in init(5) for further details.

FILES

       /etc/init.conf

       /etc/init/

       $HOME/.init/

       $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/upstart/

       $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/upstart/

AUTHOR

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

REPORTING BUGS

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

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright © 2009-2013 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.