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.