xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/daemon/daemon.8 (revision d6eb98610fa65663bf0df4574b7cb2c5c4ffda71)
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27.\" $FreeBSD$
28.\"
29.Dd March 25, 2019
30.Dt DAEMON 8
31.Os
32.Sh NAME
33.Nm daemon
34.Nd run detached from the controlling terminal
35.Sh SYNOPSIS
36.Nm
37.Op Fl cfrS
38.Op Fl p Ar child_pidfile
39.Op Fl P Ar supervisor_pidfile
40.Op Fl t Ar title
41.Op Fl u Ar user
42.Op Fl m Ar output_mask
43.Op Fl o Ar output_file
44.Op Fl s Ar syslog_priority
45.Op Fl T Ar syslog_tag
46.Op Fl l Ar syslog_facility
47.Op Fl R Ar restart_delay_seconds
48.Ar command arguments ...
49.Sh DESCRIPTION
50The
51.Nm
52utility detaches itself from the controlling terminal and
53executes the program specified by its arguments.
54Privileges may be lowered to the specified user.
55The output of the daemonized process may be redirected to syslog and to a
56log file.
57.Pp
58The options are as follows:
59.Bl -tag -width indent
60.It Fl c
61Change the current working directory to the root
62.Pq Dq Pa / .
63.It Fl f
64Redirect standard input, standard output and standard error to
65.Pa /dev/null .
66.It Fl S
67Enable syslog output.
68This is implicitly applied if other syslog parameters are provided.
69The default values are daemon, notice, and daemon for facility, priority, and
70tag, respectively.
71.It Fl o Ar output_file
72Append output from the daemonized process to
73.Pa output_file .
74If the file does not exist, it is created with permissions 0600.
75.It Fl m Ar output_mask
76Redirect output from the child process stdout (1), stderr (2), or both (3).
77This value specifies what is sent to syslog and the log file.
78The default is 3.
79.It Fl p Ar child_pidfile
80Write the ID of the created process into the
81.Ar child_pidfile
82using the
83.Xr pidfile 3
84functionality.
85The program is executed in a spawned child process while the
86.Nm
87waits until it terminates to keep the
88.Ar child_pidfile
89locked and removes it after the process exits.
90The
91.Ar child_pidfile
92owner is the user who runs the
93.Nm
94regardless of whether the
95.Fl u
96option is used or not.
97.It Fl P Ar supervisor_pidfile
98Write the ID of the
99.Nm
100process into the
101.Ar supervisor_pidfile
102using the
103.Xr pidfile 3
104functionality.
105The program is executed in a spawned child process while the
106.Nm
107waits until it terminates to keep the
108.Ar supervisor_pidfile
109locked and removes it after the process exits.
110The
111.Ar supervisor_pidfile
112owner is the user who runs the
113.Nm
114regardless of whether the
115.Fl u
116option is used or not.
117.It Fl r
118Supervise and restart the program after a one-second delay if it has
119been terminated.
120.It Fl R Ar restart_delay_seconds
121Supervise and restart the program after the specified delay
122if it has been terminated.
123.It Fl t Ar title
124Set the title for the daemon process.
125The default is the daemonized invocation.
126.It Fl u Ar user
127Login name of the user to execute the program under.
128Requires adequate superuser privileges.
129.It Fl s Ar syslog_priority
130These priorities are accepted: emerg, alert, crit, err, warning,
131notice, info, and debug.
132The default is notice.
133.It Fl l Ar syslog_facility
134These facilities are accepted: auth, authpriv, console, cron, daemon,
135ftp, kern, lpr, mail, news, ntp, security, syslog, user, uucp, and
136local0, ..., local7.
137The default is daemon.
138.It Fl T Ar syslog_tag
139Set the tag which is appended to all syslog messages.
140The default is daemon.
141.El
142.Pp
143If any of the options
144.Fl p ,
145.Fl P ,
146.Fl r ,
147.Fl o ,
148.Fl s ,
149.Fl T ,
150.Fl m ,
151.Fl S ,
152or
153.Fl l
154are specified, the program is executed in a spawned child process.
155The
156.Nm
157waits until it terminates to keep the pid file(s) locked and removes them
158after the process exits or restarts the program.
159In this case if the monitoring
160.Nm
161receives software termination signal (SIGTERM) it forwards it to the
162spawned process.
163Normally it will cause the child to exit, remove the pidfile(s)
164and then terminate.
165.Pp
166If neither file or syslog output are selected, all output is redirected to the
167.Nm
168process and written to stdout.
169The
170.Fl f
171option may be used to suppress the stdout output completely.
172.Pp
173The
174.Fl P
175option is useful combined with the
176.Fl r
177option as
178.Ar supervisor_pidfile
179contains the ID of the supervisor
180not the child.
181This is especially important if you use
182.Fl r
183in an rc script as the
184.Fl p
185option will give you the child's ID to signal when you attempt to
186stop the service, causing
187.Nm
188to restart the child.
189.Sh EXIT STATUS
190The
191.Nm
192utility exits 1 if an error is returned by the
193.Xr daemon 3
194library routine, 2 if
195.Ar child_pidfile
196or
197.Ar supervisor_pidfile
198is requested, but cannot be opened, 3 if process is already running (pidfile
199exists and is locked), 4 if
200.Ar syslog_priority
201is not accepted, 5 if
202.Ar syslog_facility
203is not accepted, 6 if
204.Ar output_mask
205is not within the accepted range, 7 if
206.Ar output_file
207cannot be opened for appending, and otherwise 0.
208.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
209If the command cannot be executed, an error message is printed to
210standard error.
211The exact behavior depends on the logging parameters and the
212.Fl f
213flag.
214.Sh SEE ALSO
215.Xr nohup 1 ,
216.Xr setregid 2 ,
217.Xr setreuid 2 ,
218.Xr daemon 3 ,
219.Xr exec 3 ,
220.Xr pidfile 3 ,
221.Xr termios 4 ,
222.Xr tty 4
223.Sh HISTORY
224The
225.Nm
226utility first appeared in
227.Fx 4.7 .
228