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

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.

SEE ALSO

       all-swaps(7),  control-alt-delete(7),   dbus-daemon(1),   dbus-event(7),   dconf-event(7),
       file-event(7),   filesystem(7),   init(5),   init(8),   initctl(8),   keyboard-request(7),
       local-filesystems(7),  mountall(8),  mounted(7),   mounting(7),   power-status-changed(7),
       remote-filesystems(7), runlevel(7), shutdown(8), socket-event(7), started(7), starting(7),
       startup(7),     stopped(7),     stopping(7),      telinit(8),      upstart-dbus-bridge(8),
       upstart-dconf-bridge(8),            upstart-event-bridge(8),            upstart-events(7),
       upstart-file-bridge(8),         upstart-local-bridge(8),         upstart-socket-bridge(8),
       upstart-udev-bridge(8), virtual-filesystems(7).