Purpose
Controls the initialization
process.
Description
The /etc/inittab file supplies the script to the init command's role as a general process
dispatcher.
The process that constitutes the majority of the init command's
process dispatching activities is the /etc/getty line process,
which initiates individual terminal lines. Other processes typically
dispatched by the init command are daemons and the shell.
The /etc/inittab file is composed of entries that are
position-dependent and have the following format:
Identifier:RunLevel:Action:Command
Note: The
colon character ( : ) is used as a delimiter as well as a comment
character. To comment out an
inittab entry, add
: at
the beginning of the entry. For example:
:Identifier:RunLevel:Action:Command
Each entry is delimited by a newline character. A backslash
(\) preceding a newline character indicates the continuation of an
entry. There are no limits (other than maximum entry size) on the
number of entries in the /etc/inittab file. The maximum entry
size is 1024 characters. The entry fields are:
- Identifier
- A string (one or more than one character)
that uniquely identifies
an object.
- RunLevel
- The
run level in which this entry can be processed. Run levels
effectively correspond to a configuration of processes in the system.
Each process started by the init command is assigned one or
more run levels in which it can exist. Run levels are represented
by the numbers 0 through 9. For example, if the system is in run
level 1, only those entries with a 1 in the runlevel field
are started. When you request the init command to change run
levels, all processes without an entry in the runlevel field
for the target run level receive a warning signal (SIGTERM). There is a 20-second grace period before processes are forcibly
terminated by the kill signal (SIGKILL). The runlevel field can define multiple run levels for a process by selecting
more than one run level in any combination from 0 through 9. If no
run level is specified, the process is assumed to be valid at all
run levels.
There are three other values that appear in the runlevel field, even though they are not true run levels: a, b, and c. Entries that have these characters
in the runlevel field are processed only when the telinit command requests them to be run (regardless of the current run
level of the system). They differ from run levels in that the init command can never enter run level a, b, or c. Also, a request for the execution of any of these processes
does not change the current run level. Furthermore, a process started
by an a, b, or c command is not killed when
the init command changes levels. They are only killed if their
line in the /etc/inittab file is marked off in the action field, their line is deleted entirely from /etc/inittab,
or the init command goes into single-user mode.
- Action
- Tells the init command how to treat the process specified
in the process field. The following actions are recognized
by the init command:
- respawn
- If the process does not exist, start the process. Do not wait
for its termination (continue scanning the /etc/inittab file).
Restart the process when it dies. If the process exists, do nothing
and continue scanning the /etc/inittab file.
- wait
- When the init command enters
the run level that matches
the entry's run level, start the process and wait for its termination.
All subsequent reads of the /etc/inittab file while the init command is in the same run level will cause the init command to ignore this entry.
- once
- When the init command enters a run level that matches
the entry's run level, start the process, and do not wait for its
termination. When it dies, do not restart the process. When the system
enters a new run level, and the process is still running from a previous
run level change, the program will not be restarted. All subsequent
reads of the /etc/inittab file while the init command
is in the same run level will cause the init command to ignore
this entry.
- boot
- Process
the entry only during system boot, which is when the
init command reads the /etc/inittab file during system
startup. Start the process, do not wait for its termination, and
when it dies, do not restart the process. In order for the instruction
to be meaningful, the run level should be the default or it must
match the init command's run level at boot time. This action
is useful for an initialization function following a hardware reboot
of the system.
- bootwait
- Process the entry the first time that the init command
goes from single-user to multi-user state after the system is booted.
Start the process, wait for its termination, and when it dies, do
not restart the process. If the initdefault is 2, run the
process right after boot.
- powerfail
- Execute the process associated with this entry only when
the
init command receives a power fail signal (SIGPWR).
- powerwait
- Execute the process
associated with this entry only when the
init command receives a power fail signal (SIGPWR),
and wait until it terminates before continuing to process the /etc/inittab file.
- off
- If the process associated with this entry is currently running,
send the warning signal (SIGTERM), and wait 20 seconds before
terminating the process with the kill signal (SIGKILL). If
the process is not running, ignore this entry.
- ondemand
- Functionally identical to respawn, except this action
applies to the a, b, or c values, not to run
levels.
- initdefault
- An
entry with this action is only scanned when the init command
is initially invoked. The init command uses this
entry, if it exists, to determine which run level to enter initially.
It does this by taking the highest run level specified in the runlevel field and using that as its initial state. If the runlevel field is empty, this is interpreted as 0123456789;
therefore, the init command enters run level 9. Additionally,
if the init command does not find an initdefault entry
in the /etc/inittab file, it requests an initial run level
from the user at boot time.
- sysinit
- Entries of this type are executed before the init command
tries to access the console before login. It is expected that this
entry will only be used to initialize devices on which the init command might try to ask the run level question. These entries
are executed and waited for before continuing.
- Command
- A shell command
to execute. The entire command field
is prefixed with exec and passed to a forked sh as sh -c exec command. Any legal sh syntax
can appear in this field. Comments can be inserted with the # comment
syntax.
The getty command writes over the output of any
commands that appear before it in the inittab file. To record
the output of these commands to the boot log, pipe their output to
the alog -tboot command.
The stdin, stdout and stdferr
file descriptors may not be available while init is processing inittab entries. Any entries writing to stdout or stderr may
not work predictably unless they redirect their output to a file
or to /dev/console.
The following
commands are the only supported method
for modifying the records in the /etc/inittab file:
Command |
Purpose |
chitab |
Changes records in the /etc/inittab file. |
lsitab |
Lists records in the /etc/inittab file. |
mkitab |
Adds records to the /etc/inittab file. |
rmitab |
Removes records from the /etc/inittab file. |
Examples
- To start
the ident process at all run levels, enter:
ident:0123456789:Action:Command
- To start the ident process only at run level 2, enter:
- To
disable run levels 0, 3, 6-9 for the ident process,
enter:
ident:1245:Action:Command
- To start the rc command at run level 2 and send its output
to the boot log, enter:
rc:2:wait:/etc/rc 2>&1 | alog -tboot >
/dev/console
Files
Item |
Description |
/etc/inittab |
Specifies the path of the inittab file. |
/usr/sbin/getty |
Indicates terminal
lines. |