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    1: **Contents**
    2: 
    3: [[!toc levels=3]]
    4: 
    5: # The rc.d System
    6: 
    7: NetBSD uses individual scripts for controlling system and service startup,
    8: similar to System V, but without runlevels.
    9: Nowadays, most Linux distributions switched to systemd, which is a different
   10: approach: It does not use scripts anymore, but tries to have everything binary.
   11: It also serves for several other purposes, while NetBSD's rc.d system just
   12: serves for starting up services at system startup or by user intervention.
   13: 
   14: This chapter is an overview of NetBSD's rc.d system and its configuration.
   15: 
   16: ## Basics
   17: 
   18: The system startup files reside in the `/etc` directory. They are:
   19: 
   20:  * `/etc/rc`
   21:  * `/etc/rc.conf`
   22:  * `/etc/rc.d/*`
   23:  * `/etc/rc.local`
   24:  * `/etc/rc.shutdown`
   25:  * `/etc/rc.subr`
   26:  * `/etc/defaults/*`
   27:  * `/etc/rc.conf.d/*`
   28: 
   29: First, a look at controlling and supporting scripts (also documented in
   30: [[!template id=man name="rc" section="8"]]):
   31: 
   32:  * After the kernel has initialized all devices at startup, it starts
   33:    [[!template id=man name="init" section="8"]],
   34:    which in turn runs `/etc/rc`.
   35: 
   36:  * `/etc/rc` sorts the scripts in `/etc/rc.d` using
   37:    [[!template id=man name="rcorder" section="8"]]
   38:    and then runs them in that order. See below and the manpage for details of
   39:    how the order of rc.d scripts is determined.
   40: 
   41:  * `/etc/rc.subr` contains common functions used by `/etc/rc` and various rc.d
   42:    scripts.
   43: 
   44:  * When shutting down the system with
   45:    [[!template id=man name="shutdown" section="8"]],
   46:    `/etc/rc.shutdown` is run, which runs the scripts in `/etc/rc.d` in
   47:    reverse order (as defined by
   48:    [[!template id=man name="rcorder" section="8"]]).
   49: 
   50:    *Note*: If you shut down the system using the
   51:    [[!template id=man name="halt" section="8"]]
   52:    command, these scripts will not be run.
   53: 
   54: There are some special scripts outside the `rc.d` directory, which are also
   55: run:
   56: 
   57:  * `/etc/rc.local` is almost the last script called at boot up. This script can
   58:    be edited by the administrator to start local daemons that don't fit the
   59:    rc.d model, or do maintenance that should be done only once at startup.
   60: 
   61: rc.d scripts are controlled by a central configuration file, `/etc/rc.conf`,
   62: which loads its default settings from `/etc/defaults/rc.conf`. If you want to
   63: change a default setting, do not edit `/etc/defaults/rc.conf`; instead, override
   64: the setting in `/etc/rc.conf`.
   65: 
   66: It is a good idea to read the
   67: [[!template id=man name="rc.conf" section="5"]]
   68: man page to learn about the services that are by default available to you.
   69: 
   70: The following example shows how to enable the SSH daemon, which is disabled by
   71: default:
   72: 
   73:     # cd /etc; grep ssh defaults/rc.conf
   74:     sshd=NO                 sshd_flags=""
   75:     # echo "sshd=YES" >> rc.conf
   76: 
   77: Now [[!template id=man name="sshd" section="8"]]
   78: will be started automatically at system startup. The next section describes how
   79: to start and stop services at any time.
   80: 
   81: Last but not least, files can be created in the `/etc/rc.conf.d/` directory to
   82: override the behavior of a given rc.d script without editing the script itself.
   83: 
   84: ## The rc.d scripts
   85: 
   86: The actual scripts that control services are in `/etc/rc.d`. These scripts are
   87: automatically run at boot time, but they can be called manually if necessary.
   88: The following example shows how to start the SSH daemon that we enabled in the
   89: previous section:
   90: 
   91:     # /etc/rc.d/sshd start
   92:     Starting sshd.
   93: 
   94: Later, if you wish to stop the SSH daemon, run the following command:
   95: 
   96:     # /etc/rc.d/sshd stop
   97:     Stopping sshd.
   98:     Waiting for PIDS: 123.
   99: 
  100: The rc.d scripts take one of the following arguments:
  101: 
  102:  * `start`
  103:  * `stop`
  104:  * `restart`
  105:  * `status`
  106: 
  107: Some scripts may support other arguments (e.g., `reload`), but every script will
  108: support at least the above commands.
  109: 
  110: As an example, after adding a new record to a
  111: [[!template id=man name="named" section="8"]]
  112: database, the daemon can be told to reload its configuration files with the
  113: following command:
  114: 
  115:     # /etc/rc.d/named reload
  116:     Reloading named config files.
  117: 
  118: Note that all of the commands discussed above will only take action if the
  119: particular service is enabled in `/etc/rc.conf`. It is possible to bypass this
  120: requirement by prepending `one` to the command, as in:
  121: 
  122:     # /etc/rc.d/httpd start
  123:     $httpd is not enabled - see rc.conf(5).
  124:     Use the following if you wish to perform the operation:
  125:       /etc/rc.d/httpd onestart
  126:     # /etc/rc.d/httpd onestart
  127:     Starting httpd.
  128: 
  129: The above command will allow you to start the
  130: [[!template id=man name="httpd" section="8"]]
  131: service one time. To stop a service that has been started in this manner, pass
  132: `onestop` to the script.
  133: 
  134: ## Order/dependencies of start determined by rcorder
  135: 
  136: The startup system of every Unix system determines, in one way or another, the
  137: order in which services are started. On some Unix systems this is done by
  138: numbering the files and/or putting them in separate run level directories.
  139: Solaris relies on wildcards like `/etc/rc[23].d/S*` being sorted numerically
  140: when expanded. Some simply put all the commands that should be started into a
  141: single monolithic script (this is the traditional BSD method, and is what NetBSD
  142: did before the rc.d system). On modern NetBSD this is done by the rc.d scripts
  143: and their contents. Please note that NetBSD does not have multiple runlevels as
  144: found in SysV-style systems like Solaris and Linux.
  145: 
  146: At the beginning of each rc.d script there is a series of commented out lines
  147: that have one of the following items in them:
  148: 
  149:  * `REQUIRE`
  150:  * `PROVIDE`
  151:  * `BEFORE`
  152:  * `KEYWORD`
  153: 
  154: These describe the dependencies of that particular script and allow rcorder to
  155: easily work either `up` or `down` as the situation requires. As an example, here
  156: is the ordering information contained in `/etc/rc.d/nfsd`:
  157: 
  158:     ...
  159:     # PROVIDE: nfsd
  160:     # REQUIRE: rpcbind mountd
  161:     ...
  162: 
  163: Here we can see that this script provides the `nfsd` service and that it
  164: requires `rpcbind` and `mountd` to be running first. The
  165: [[!template id=man name="rcorder" section="8"]]
  166: utility is used at system startup time to read through all the rc.d scripts and
  167: determine the order in which they should be run.
  168: 
  169: ## rc.d scripts of additional services
  170: 
  171: Packages you install additionally won't be listed in the rc.conf(5) manpage.
  172: Packages installing services which can be started with an rc.d script tell you
  173: so after they are installed, along with the variable that is used for starting
  174: them (usually, it has the same name as the service itself).
  175: 
  176: Then, you usually have to copy them from `/usr/pkg/share/examples/rc.d` to
  177: `/etc/rc.d` for `rc` to automatically find them, or add the line
  178: 
  179:     rc_directories="/etc/rc.d /usr/pkg/share/examples/rc.d"
  180: 
  181: to your `/etc/rc.conf`.
  182: 
  183: If you forgot the name of the service variable, you can have a look at the rc.d
  184: script itself. The variable `rcvar` (usually set to `$name`) will tell you.
  185: E.g., to find the name of variable to start fscd, run
  186: 
  187:     $ grep ^rcvar /etc/rc.d/fscd
  188: 	rcvar=${name}
  189: 	$ grep ^name /etc/rc.d/fscd   # Aaaw, no direct rcvar.
  190: 	name="fscd"
  191: 
  192: Thus, you need in your `/etc/rc.conf` the entry:
  193: 
  194:     fscd="YES"
  195: 
  196: ## Additional Reading
  197: 
  198: Luke Mewburn, one of the principal designers of the rc.d system, gave a
  199: presentation on the system at USENIX 2001. It is available in
  200: [PDF](http://www.mewburn.net/luke/papers/rc.d.pdf) format.
  201: