cinit - Daemons backgrounding

Revision History
Revision 0.1for cinit 0.3, Initial versinon from 2005-06-12NS

Table of Contents

Definition
Daemons and cinit
List of daemons and non-forking parameters
Problematic daemons

This document describes the backgrounding process and how to disable it.

Definition

A daemon is a program which runs in the background. Running in the background means you cannot access the process directly (like you can press a key in a shell).

Daemons and cinit

cinit normally watches system services and restarts them (respawn flag in the configuration). If the process goes to background, cinit cannot control it directly anymore.

List of daemons and non-forking parameters

The following daemons / servers are known to avoid backgrounding easily:

  • acpid [x86 power management]: -f (undocumentated but works)
  • apache [webserver]: -DFOREGROUND
  • asterisk [pbx]: -f
  • bind [dns server/caching]: -f
  • cardmgr [pcmcia/cardbus]: -f
  • cron (vixie) [schedular]: -f
  • cupsd [printer server]: -f or -F
  • dhclient [dhcp client]: -d
  • dhcp3 (isc) [dhcp server]: -f
  • distccd [compile server]: normal behaviour
  • dovecot [imap/pop3 server]: -F
  • fam [file alteration monitor]:-f
  • fcron [schedular]: -f
  • frox [ftp proxy]: "NoDetach" in config
  • freeradius [radiusd]: -f
  • gdm [display manager]: -nodaemon
  • hybrid [irc server]: -foreground
  • icecast2 [sound streamer]: normal behaviour
  • mini-lpd [printer server]: normal behaviour
  • metalog [log server]: normal behaviour
  • monotone [vcs]: normal behaviour
  • mpd [music server]: —no-daemon
  • nessusd ["security server"]: normal behaviour
  • ntpd [time server]: -n
  • nylon [socks proxy]: -f (prints output to terminal)
  • oidentd [identd server]: -i
  • oops [http proxy]: normal behaviour
  • openpbx [pbx]: -f
  • openssh [ssh server]: -D
  • openvpn [vpn server]: normal behaviour
  • pbbuttonsd [power management]:normal behaviour
  • portmap [portmapper]: -f
  • proftpd [ftp server]: -n
  • qmail [mta]: normal behaviour
  • rsync ["file server"]: —no-detach
  • silcd ["secure chat server"]: -F, —foreground
  • slapd [ldap]: -d
  • snmpd [snmp daemon]: -f
  • stunnel [ssl wrapper]: "foreground = yes" in config
  • svnserve [vcs]: —foreground
  • syslogd [log server]: -n
  • syslog-ng [log server]: -F
  • tcpserver [super server]: normal behaviour
  • udhcpc [dhcp client]: normal behaviour
  • vsftpd [ftp server]: normal behaviour (or: config: background=no)
  • xinetd [super server]: -dontfork

Problematic daemons

Those are the daemons that do not offer the possibility (as of release 0.2):

  • atd (no switch, no configuraton option)
  • inetd (some variants)
  • nscd (no switch, no configuraton option)