320 lines
10 KiB
Text
320 lines
10 KiB
Text
cinit - Configuring
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===================
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Nico Schottelius <nico-cinit__@__schottelius.org>
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0.1, for cinit 0.3, Initial version from 2005-05-28
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:Author Initials: NS
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This documentes describes how to configure cinit.
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You should already have cinit installed, otherwise read
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"cinit - Installing" first.
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General configuration layout
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----------------------------
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Cinit uses the <<<cconfig>>> configuration syntax, which means that
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the configuration is kept as simple as possible. The following
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sections will show you what that means.
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The cinit configuration consists of
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- a special configuration directory
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- and the service definitions.
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Paths
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-----
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Normally the configuration is kept below '/etc/cinit'
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(though you can change this before compiling in conf/cinit_dir).
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The full description of the path layout of cinit and how to change it
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can be found in 'paths.text'.
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Conf
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----
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The special configuration directory is normally called `conf/`
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(defined at compile-time in `conf/c_confdir`).
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For all executables into this directory apply the same rules as mentioned
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below in "Execution: on and off": Appened .params specifies parameters,
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appended .env specifies environment.
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conf/last
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~~~~~~~~~
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This is the last part that will be executed. After it has finished, cinit
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will halt, power-off or reboot your machine.
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You can use it for whatever task to accomplish (as most things of cinit), but
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the idea behind it is to use it for cleaning up things that are not covered
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by the off parts of the services. This maybe swapoff (although this is an unecessary
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call before poweroff, imho and even if needed this could be handled within the
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off part of the same services that enabled it) or `umount -a` for everything
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manually mounted and not unmounted yet.
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conf/sleep_before_kill
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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This file contains just one line: The number of seconds to sleep after SIGTERM was sent
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to every remaining process before sending SIGKILL to all processes. If this file
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is unreadable or not existent, cinit will fall back to the value compiled in
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(which was specified at build time in conf/sleep_kill).
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Services
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--------
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cinit is service based. Other init systems use shell
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scripts (for instance /etc/rc, /etc/init.d/rc as starters
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and /etc/rc*.d/* as "service definitions").
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'current-init-problems.text' explains why cinit does *not*
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use nor recommends the use of shell scripts.
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A service is simply a directory. This directory contains information about
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- what should be started when starting the service
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- what should be started when stoping the service
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- what dependencies the service has
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- whether to restart it, when it exits
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Full service definition
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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. A service consists of
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- a base directory (like /etc/cinit/svc/mount/root/)
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- dependency configuration (`needs` and `wants`)
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- start/stop programs (`on` and `off`)
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- respawn flag (`respawn`)
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Base directory
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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You can create the base directory everywhere below /etc/cinit/svc.
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You may and it is recommened to create a directory structure
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(see 'example-directory-structure.text').
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Dependencies
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^^^^^^^^^^^^
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The subdirectories
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- `wants`
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- and `needs`
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contain the dependencies for the service.
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Read 'dependencies.text' for more information.
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Respawning
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^^^^^^^^^^^
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If you create the empty file 'respawn' (adjustable via conf/c_respawn)
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the service will be restarted after it exits.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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# Tell cinit to respawn the eth0.udhcpc service
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touch /etc/cinit/svc/network/eth0.udhcpc
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Execution: on and off
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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When a service starts, the file `on` in the service
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directory is executed. It is ok, if this file is not existing.
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When a service stops, the file `off` in the service
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directory is executed.
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The file with the extension `.params` is used to specify the arguments
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to pass. Each line contains exactly one parameter.
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The file with the extension `.env` is used to specify the environment
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to pass. Each line contains exactly one variable definition in the form
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'variable=value'.
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. The following six files are possibly used on starting/stoping:
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- ./on (the program called on startup)
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- ./on.params (the parameters to pass to the program, see conf/c_params)
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- ./on.env (the environment to pass to the program, see conf/c_env)
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- ./off (the program called when shutting down the service)
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- ./off.params (the parameters to pass to the program)
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- ./on.env (the environment to pass to the program)
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Some examples:
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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/etc/cinit/svc/init:
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./wants -> services it wants
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./needs -> services it needs
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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A more or less normal service without dependencies:
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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/etc/cinit/testsvc:
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on -> link to program
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on.param -> parameters to program
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respawn -> restart it
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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A service with all options used:
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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/etc/cinit/fullsvc:
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on -> program to start when switching on
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on.params -> parameters to pass to start program
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on.env -> environment to pass to start program
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respawn -> respawn service
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off -> program to start when switching off
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off.params -> parameters to pass to stop program
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off.env -> environment to pass to stop program
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wants/* -> services it wants before starting (non-critical ones)
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needs/* -> links to needed services (critical!) before starting
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Profiles
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--------
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Profiles allow you to define different startup scenarios and select
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those before bootup. Read 'profiles.text' for more information about
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profiles.
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The profile support was added in cinit-0.0.6.
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Service execution order
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------------------------
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The first service executed is '/etc/cinit/svc/init'.
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If a profile is selected '/etc/cinit/svc/`profilename`' is used
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instead.
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Cinit builds a full service dependency tree through the `wants`
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and `needs` of the first service and its dependencies
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(recursively).
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After the tree is generated, cinit begins to start the services
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at the end of the tree. These services have no `needs`.
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If you manage to create circular dependencies your system will not startup.
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You can verify the correctness your configuration with the script
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`cinit.check.config`.
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Hints
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-----
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Service executing / parameters
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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The on and off files can and should be links to the programs you want
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to execute instead of a shell script. This way you save yourself the overhead
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of loading a shell. The speed enhancement is very big if you have shells
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like bash installed as /bin/sh (which is *not* senseful anyway, I would
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recommend dash or ksh for /bin/sh).
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The on.params and off.params files could also be links to system configuration:
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Assume the service is called local-tuning/keyboard.
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The service could look like this:
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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on -> /bin/loadkeys
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on.params -> /etc/sys/keyboard.mapping
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And /etc/sys/keyboard.mapping would contain only the string
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"dvorak" (or "de-latin1" or "sg-latin1" or ...).
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Daemons
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~~~~~~~~
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Daemons are programs that go away to the background (using fork()) after
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start).
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The fork-away strategy seems to be some illness introduced by traditional
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init systems, that are dependent on the fact, that a process exits on
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startup.
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cinit in contrast remembers the process ID (pid) of the services it
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restarts (those with `respawn` enabled).
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So when the daemon fork()s away and the parent process exits it looks to
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cinit like the watched service died and cinit will restart it.
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Happily, most processes can be taught not to go to background.
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Some processes even do that by default and very less are broken that
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one cannot tell them not to background.
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A list of known processes that are normally used in respawn
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processes can be found in 'daemons.backgrounding.text'.
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If your process is not listed in `daemons.backgrounding.text',
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check the documentation of your daemon program, if may have a
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switch to disable forking.
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But, with a small hack it is even possible to respawn those broken processes:
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We start a program, that
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- starts the daemon,
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- monitors the pidfile of the daemon,
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- waits until that pid does not exist anymore
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- and then exits.
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Such a program is included into the cinit source tarball,
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though I do not recommend using it. The better way is to implement
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non forking mode into your process.
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The name of the program (actually a shell script) is 'cinit.wait.for.daemon'.
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You can use it as the `on` part of a service and add
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- the pidfile,
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- the process binary
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- and the process parameters
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to `on.params`.
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Thus the service could look like:
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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svc-broken-daemon/
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on -> /sbin/cinit.wait.for.daemon
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on.params:
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/var/run/apache.pid
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/usr/packages/apache-2.0.51/bin/httpd
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-DSSL
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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(This is not a so good example, because Apache supports non-forking mode).
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Be aware: This is just a hack, first try to avoid backgrounding
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and you won't need this hack!
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Logging
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~~~~~~~
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Currently there's no special logging support.
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When a process writes to stdout, it will be displayed on
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the same stdout cinit is connected to.
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In newer versions cinit (perhaps cinit-0.4) will also support logging
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stdout and stderr of a service.
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How to migrate your old init-system configuration to cinit
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----------------------------------------------------------
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This is highly dependent on your actual system, your system
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configuration and your own ideas.
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Cinit is able to replace all other init systems I know about.
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So the only question is "How to do it?".
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There are some hints on how to migrate to cinit in general and also
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some os specific help in the file 'migrating-init-systems.text',
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Examples
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--------
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Currently there are no example configurations available.
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As soon as they are, you will be able to download them at
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cinit's homepage.
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--> configuration.example.text
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References
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----------
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+ [[[cconfig]]] http://nico.schotteli.us/papers/linux/cconfig/
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