xref: /freebsd/sbin/devd/devd.8 (revision 4b2eaea43fec8e8792be611dea204071a10b655a)
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2.\" Copyright (c) 2002 M. Warner Losh.
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26.\" $FreeBSD$
27.\"
28.Dd October 17, 2002
29.Dt DEVD 8
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm devd
33.Nd "Device state change daemon"
34.Sh SYNOPSIS
35.Nm
36.Op Fl d
37.Sh DESCRIPTION
38The
39.Nm
40daemon provides a way to have userland programs run when certain
41kernel events happen.
42.Pp
43The following options are accepted.
44.Bl -tag -width indent
45.It Fl d
46Enable debugging messages and run in the foreground instead of
47becoming a daemon.
48.El
49.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
50.Nm
51is a system daemon that runs in the background all the time.
52Whenever a device is added to or removed from the device tree,
53.Nm
54will execute actions specified in
55.Xr devd.conf 5 .
56For example,
57.Nm
58might execute
59.Xr dhclient 8
60when an ethernet adapter is added to the system and kill the
61.Xr dhclient 8
62instance when the same adapter is removed.
63Another example would be for
64.Nm
65to use a table to locate and load via
66.Xr kldload 8
67the proper driver for an unrecognized device that is added to the system.
68.Pp
69.Nm
70hooks into the
71.Xr devctl 4
72device driver.
73This device driver has hooks into the device configuration system.
74When nodes are added or deleted from the tree, this device will
75deliver information about the event to
76.Nm .
77Once
78.Nm
79has parsed the message, it will search its action list for that kind
80of event and perform the action with the highest matching value.
81For most mundane uses, the default handlers are adequate.
82However, for more advanced users, the power is present to tweak every
83aspect of what happens.
84.Pp
85.Nm
86reads /etc/devd.conf and uses that file to drive the rest of the process.
87While the format of this file is described in
88.Xr devd.conf 5
89some basics are covered here.
90In the options section, one can define multiple directories to search
91for config files.
92All files in each of these directories are parsed.
93These files are intended to be installed by third party vendors that
94wish to hook into the
95.Nm
96system without modifying the user's other
97config files.
98.Sh SEE ALSO
99.Xr devctl 4 ,
100.Xr devd.conf 5
101.Sh AUTHORS
102.An M. Warner Losh
103.Sh BUGS
104devd currently always runs "/etc/devd-generic $device $startstop" for
105all device events, regardless of what the config file says to do.
106