xref: /freebsd/sbin/reboot/nextboot.8 (revision 389e4940069316fe667ffa263fa7d6390d0a960f)
1.\" Copyright (c) 2002 Gordon Tetlow
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25.\" $FreeBSD$
26.\"
27.Dd April 9, 2016
28.Dt NEXTBOOT 8
29.Os
30.Sh NAME
31.Nm nextboot
32.Nd "specify an alternate kernel and boot flags for the next reboot"
33.Sh SYNOPSIS
34.Nm
35.Op Fl af
36.Op Fl e Ar variable=value
37.Op Fl k Ar kernel
38.Op Fl o Ar options
39.Nm
40.Fl D
41.Sh DESCRIPTION
42The
43.Nm
44utility allows specifying some combination of an alternate kernel, boot flags
45and kernel environment for the
46next time the machine is booted.
47Once the
48.Xr loader 8
49loads in the new kernel
50information, it is deleted so in case the new kernel hangs the machine,
51once it is rebooted, the machine will automatically revert to its previous
52configuration.
53.Pp
54The options are as follows:
55.Bl -tag -width ".Fl o Ar options"
56.It Fl a
57This option causes
58.Nm
59to append to an existing configuration in
60.Pa /boot/nextboot.conf .
61By default any existing configuration is overwritten.
62.It Fl D
63Invoking
64.Nm
65with this
66option removes an existing
67.Nm
68configuration.
69.It Fl e Ar variable=value
70This option adds the provided variable and value to the kernel environment.
71The value is quoted when written to the
72.Nm
73configuration.
74.It Fl f
75This
76option disables the sanity checking which checks if the kernel really exists
77before writing the
78.Nm
79configuration.
80.It Fl k Ar kernel
81This option specifies a kernel directory relative to
82.Pa /boot
83to load the kernel and any modules from.
84.It Fl o Ar options
85This option
86allows the passing of kernel flags for the next boot.
87.El
88.Sh FILES
89.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /boot/nextboot.conf" -compact
90.It Pa /boot/nextboot.conf
91The configuration file that the
92.Nm
93configuration is written into.
94.El
95.Sh EXAMPLES
96To boot the
97.Pa GENERIC
98kernel with the
99.Nm
100command:
101.Pp
102.Dl "nextboot -k GENERIC"
103.Pp
104To enable into single user mode with the normal kernel:
105.Pp
106.Dl "nextboot -o ""-s"" -k kernel"
107.Pp
108To remove an existing nextboot configuration:
109.Pp
110.Dl "nextboot -D"
111.Sh SEE ALSO
112.Xr boot 8 ,
113.Xr loader 8
114.Sh HISTORY
115The original
116.Nm
117manual page first appeared in
118.Fx 2.2 .
119It used a very different interface to achieve similar results.
120.Pp
121The current incarnation of
122.Nm
123appeared in
124.Fx 5.0 .
125.Sh AUTHORS
126This manual page was written by
127.An Gordon Tetlow Aq Mt gordon@FreeBSD.org .
128.Sh BUGS
129The
130.Nm
131code is implemented in the
132.Xr loader 8 .
133It is not the most thoroughly tested code.
134It is also my first attempt to write in Forth.
135.Pp
136Finally, it does some evil things like writing to the file system before it
137has been checked.
138If it scrambles your file system, do not blame me.
139.Pp
140.Xr loader 8
141is only able to read ZFS, not write to it.
142.Pa nextboot.conf
143will NOT be reset in case of a kernel boot failure.
144