NAME

initctl —

SYNOPSIS

/sbin/initctl

[ -bcfhjlpqtvV ] [ COMMAND ]

DESCRIPTION

initctl is the official tool for interacting with finit(8). It comes with functions for showing status, querying health of services, as well as editing, enabling and disabling services. Commands are sent over the Finit D-Bus API when available, with the legacy INIT_SOCKET protocol as fallback.

OPTIONS

This program follows the usual UNIX command line syntax, with long options starting with two dashes (`-'). The options are as follows:

-b, --batch

Batch mode, no screen size probing. Useful for scripting

-c, --create

Create missing paths (and files) as needed. Useful with the edit command

-f, --force

Ignore missing files and arguments, never prompt

-h, --help

Show built-in help text

-j, --json

JSON output in status and cond commands

-n, --noerr

When scripting initctl to stop, start, restart, or signal a task or service, this option can be used to ignore error 69 (no such task or service) and instead return 0 (OK)

-1, --once

Only one lap in commands like top

-p, --plain

Use plain table headings, no ANSI control characters

-q, --quiet

Silent, only return status of command

-t, --no-heading

Skip table headings

-v, --verbose

Verbose output, where applicable

-V, --version

Show program version

COMMANDS

initctl debug

Toggle finit (daemon) debug to /dev/console

initctl help

Show built-in help text

initctl version

Show program version

initctl ls | list

List all *.conf files in /etc/finit.d

initctl create CONF

Create .conf in /etc/finit.d/available.

Piping the contents into initctl works as one would expect:

echo "task name:foo /tmp/foo.sh -- Foo logger" | initctl create foo 
initctl enable foo 
initctl reload
    

initctl delete CONF

Delete .conf in /etc/finit.d/available

initctl show CONF

Show .conf in /etc/finit.d/available

initctl edit CONF

Edit .conf in /etc/finit.d/available

initctl touch CONF

Change (mark as modified) .conf in /etc/finit.d/available, like edit this tells finit that a configuration has been changed and is a candidate to be reloaded (SIGHUP'ed or restarted) on initctl reload in dependency order

initctl enable CONF

Enable .conf in /etc/finit.d/available, i.e., add symlink in /etc/finit.d/enabled

initctl disable CONF

Disable .conf in /etc/finit.d/enabled, i.e., removes symlink

initctl reload

Reload all (touched) *.conf in /etc/finit.d and activate changes

initctl cond set COND [

COND ...

]

Set (assert) user-defined condition, +usr/COND

initctl cond get COND

Get (quietly) the status of any condition. Defaults to user-defined condions, but if a slash is detected, e.g., pid/foo or net/eth0/exist, then any condition can be read.

The command is geared for scripting, check the exit code to get the status of the condition: 0 - on, 1 - off, 255 - flux. For a more verbose output, use the -v option

initctl cond clr | clear COND [

COND ...

]

Clear (deassert) user-defined condition, -usr/COND

initctl cond status

Show condition status, default cond command. Also supports the -j option for detailed JSON output

initctl cond dump [

TYPE

]

Dump all, or a given type of, conditions and their status. Also supports the -j option for detailed JSON output

initctl ident [

NAME

]

Display indentities of all run/task/services, or only instances matching NAME. A partial string, e.g., NAM, will not match anything

initctl log [

NAME

]

Show ten last Finit, or NAME, messages from syslog

initctl start NAME[:ID]

Start service by name, with optional ID, e.g., initctl start tty:1

initctl stop NAME[:ID]

Stop/Pause a running service by name

initctl reload NAME[:ID]

Reload service as if its configuration had changed. Internally, finit marks the named service as "dirty" and turns the state machine, resulting in a SIGHUP or restart of (at least) the named service. Any dependant services are also restarted.

Note: no .conf file is reloaded with this variant of the command. Essentially it is the same as calling restart. Except for two things:

1. if the service supports HUP (or has a reload:script) it is signaled instead of stop-started, and
2. it allows restarting run/task in the same runlevel -- which is otherwise restricted

initctl <kill | signal> NAME:[ID] S

Send signal S to service, by name. S may be a complete signal name such as SIGHUP, or short name such as HUP, or the signal number such as 1 (SIGHUP)

initctl monitor

Stream service state, runlevel, and condition change signals from the Finit D-Bus API until interrupted. Only available when Finit is built with D-Bus support

initctl restart NAME[:ID]

Restart (stop/start) service by name

initctl status NAME[:ID]

Show service status, by name. If only NAME is given and multiple instances exits, a summary of all matching instances are shown. Only an exact match displays detailed status for a given instance.

With the -q option this command is silent, provided the NAME[:ID] selection matches a single run/task/service. The exit code of initctl is non-zero if there is a problem. Zero is returned if a run/task has run (at least) once in the current runlevel, and when a service is running (as expected). See the -j option for detailed JSON output suitable for machine parsing.

Tip: jq(1) is a useful scripting tool in combination with JSON output

initctl status

Show status of all services, default command. Also supports the -j option for detailed JSON output

initctl cgroup

List cgroup config overview

initctl ps

List processes based on cgroups

initctl top

Show top-like listing based on cgroups

initctl plugins

List installed plugins

initctl runlevel [

0-9

]

Show or set runlevel: 0 halt, 6 reboot.

If called at boot (runlevel S) to set the runlevel, Finit only schedules the change, effectively overriding the configured runlevel from /etc/finit.conf. Useful to trigger a fail-safe mode, or similar

initctl reboot

Reboot system, default if reboot is symlinked to initctl

initctl halt

Halt system, default if halt is symlinked to initctl

initctl poweroff

Power-off system, default if poweroff is symlinked to initctl

initctl suspend

Suspend system, default if suspend is symlinked to initctl

initctl utmp show

Raw dump of UTMP/WTMP db

SEE ALSO

finit.conf(5) finit(8)

AUTHORS

finit was conceived and reverse engineered by Claudio Matsuoka. Since v1.0, maintained by Joachim Wiberg, with contributions by many others.