xref: /freebsd/sbin/init/init.8 (revision 11afcc8f9f96d657b8e6f7547c02c1957331fc96)
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35.\"     @(#)init.8	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/18/94
36.\"	$Id: init.8,v 1.11 1998/06/19 08:34:52 jkoshy Exp $
37.\"
38.Dd April 18, 1994
39.Dt INIT 8
40.Os BSD 4
41.Sh NAME
42.Nm init
43.Nd process control initialization
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.Nm init
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47The
48.Nm
49program
50is the last stage of the boot process.
51It normally runs the automatic reboot sequence as described in
52.Xr reboot 8 ,
53and if this succeeds, begins multi-user operation.
54If the reboot scripts fail,
55.Nm
56commences single user operation by giving
57the super-user a shell on the console.
58The
59.Nm
60program may be passed parameters
61from the boot program to
62prevent the system from going multi-user and to instead execute
63a single user shell without starting the normal daemons.
64The system is then quiescent for maintenance work and may
65later be made to go to multi-user by exiting the
66single-user shell (with ^D).
67This
68causes
69.Nm
70to run the
71.Pa /etc/rc
72start up command file in fastboot mode (skipping disk checks).
73.Pp
74If the
75.Em console
76entry in the
77.Xr ttys 5
78file is marked ``insecure'',
79then
80.Nm
81will require that the superuser password be
82entered before the system will start a single-user shell.
83The password check is skipped if the
84.Em console
85is marked as ``secure''.
86.Pp
87The kernel runs with four different levels of security.
88Any superuser process can raise the security level, but only
89.Nm
90can lower it.
91The security levels are:
92.Bl -tag -width flag
93.It Ic -1
94Permanently insecure mode \- always run the system in level 0 mode.
95This is the default initial value.
96.It Ic 0
97Insecure mode \- immutable and append-only flags may be turned off.
98All devices may be read or written subject to their permissions.
99.It Ic 1
100Secure mode \- the system immutable and system append-only flags may not
101be turned off;
102disks for mounted filesystems,
103.Pa /dev/mem ,
104and
105.Pa /dev/kmem
106may not be opened for writing.
107.It Ic 2
108Highly secure mode \- same as secure mode, plus disks may not be
109opened for writing (except by
110.Xr mount 2 )
111whether mounted or not.
112This level precludes tampering with filesystems by unmounting them,
113but also inhibits running
114.Xr newfs 8
115while the system is multi-user.
116.El
117.Pp
118If the security level is initially -1, then
119.Nm
120leaves it unchanged.
121Otherwise,
122.Nm
123arranges to run the system in level 0 mode while single user
124and in level 1 mode while multiuser.
125If level 2 mode is desired while running multiuser,
126it can be set while single user, e.g., in the startup script
127.Pa /etc/rc ,
128using
129.Xr sysctl 8
130to set the
131.Dq kern.securelevel
132variable to the required security level.
133.Pp
134In multi-user operation,
135.Nm
136maintains
137processes for the terminal ports found in the file
138.Xr ttys 5 .
139.Nm Init
140reads this file, and executes the command found in the second field.
141This command is usually
142.Xr getty 8 ;
143.Nm getty
144opens and initializes the tty line
145and
146executes the
147.Xr login 1
148program.
149The
150.Nm login
151program, when a valid user logs in,
152executes a shell for that user.  When this shell
153dies, either because the user logged out
154or an abnormal termination occurred (a signal),
155the
156.Nm
157program wakes up, deletes the user
158from the
159.Xr utmp 5
160file of current users and records the logout in the
161.Xr wtmp 5
162file.
163The cycle is
164then restarted by
165.Nm
166executing a new
167.Nm getty
168for the line.
169.Pp
170Line status (on, off, secure, getty, or window information)
171may be changed in the
172.Xr ttys 5
173file without a reboot by sending the signal
174.Dv SIGHUP
175to
176.Nm
177with the command
178.Dq Li "kill -HUP 1" .
179On receipt of this signal,
180.Nm
181re-reads the
182.Xr ttys 5
183file.
184When a line is turned off in
185.Xr ttys 5 ,
186.Nm
187will send a SIGHUP signal to the controlling process
188for the session associated with the line.
189For any lines that were previously turned off in the
190.Xr ttys 5
191file and are now on,
192.Nm
193executes a new
194.Nm getty
195to enable a new login.
196If the getty or window field for a line is changed,
197the change takes effect at the end of the current
198login session (e.g., the next time
199.Nm
200starts a process on the line).
201If a line is commented out or deleted from
202.Xr ttys 5 ,
203.Nm
204will not do anything at all to that line.
205However, it will complain that the relationship between lines
206in the
207.Xr ttys 5
208file and records in the
209.Xr utmp 5
210file is out of sync,
211so this practice is not recommended.
212.Pp
213.Nm Init
214will terminate multi-user operations and resume single-user mode
215if sent a terminate
216.Pq Dv TERM
217signal, for example,
218.Dq Li "kill \-TERM 1" .
219If there are processes outstanding that are deadlocked (because of
220hardware or software failure),
221.Nm
222will not wait for them all to die (which might take forever), but
223will time out after 30 seconds and print a warning message.
224.Pp
225.Nm Init
226will cease creating new
227.Nm getty Ns 's
228and allow the system to slowly die away, if it is sent a terminal stop
229.Pq Dv TSTP
230signal, i.e.
231.Dq Li "kill \-TSTP 1" .
232A later hangup will resume full
233multi-user operations, or a terminate will start a single user shell.
234This hook is used by
235.Xr reboot 8
236and
237.Xr halt 8 .
238.Pp
239.Nm Init
240will terminate all possible processes (again, it will not wait
241for deadlocked processes) and reboot the machine if sent the interrupt
242.Pq Dv INT
243signal, i.e.
244.Dq Li "kill \-INT 1".
245This is useful for shutting the machine down cleanly from inside the kernel
246or from X when the machine appears to be hung.
247.Pp
248When shutting down the machine,
249.Nm
250will try to run the
251.Pa /etc/rc.shutdown
252script. This script can be used to cleanly terminate specific programs such
253as
254.Nm innd
255(the InterNetNews server).
256.Pp
257The role of
258.Nm
259is so critical that if it dies, the system will reboot itself
260automatically.
261If, at bootstrap time, the
262.Nm
263process cannot be located, the system will panic with the message
264``panic: "init died (signal %d, exit %d)''.
265.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
266.Bl -diag
267.It "getty repeating too quickly on port %s, sleeping"
268A process being started to service a line is exiting quickly
269each time it is started.
270This is often caused by a ringing or noisy terminal line.
271.Em "Init will sleep for 10 seconds" ,
272.Em "then continue trying to start the process" .
273.Pp
274.It "some processes would not die; ps axl advised."
275A process
276is hung and could not be killed when the system was shutting down.
277This condition is usually caused by a process
278that is stuck in a device driver because of
279a persistent device error condition.
280.El
281.Sh FILES
282.Bl -tag -width /var/log/wtmp -compact
283.It Pa /dev/console
284system console device
285.It Pa /dev/tty*
286terminal ports found in
287.Xr ttys 5
288.It Pa /var/run/utmp
289record of current users on the system
290.It Pa /var/log/wtmp
291record of all logins and logouts
292.It Pa /etc/ttys
293the terminal initialization information file
294.It Pa /etc/rc
295system startup commands
296.It Pa /etc/rc.shutdown
297system shutdown commands
298.El
299.Sh SEE ALSO
300.Xr kill 1 ,
301.Xr login 1 ,
302.Xr sh 1 ,
303.Xr ttys 5 ,
304.Xr crash 8 ,
305.Xr getty 8 ,
306.Xr halt 8 ,
307.Xr rc 8 ,
308.Xr reboot 8 ,
309.Xr shutdown 8 ,
310.Xr sysctl 8
311.Sh HISTORY
312A
313.Nm
314command appeared in
315.At v6 .
316.Sh CAVEATS
317Systems without
318.Xr sysctl
319behave as though they have security level \-1.
320.Pp
321Setting the security level to 2 too early in the boot sequence can
322prevent
323.Xr fsck 8
324from repairing inconsistent filesystems.  The
325preferred location to set the security level is at the end of
326.Pa /etc/rc
327after all multi-user startup actions are complete.
328