Re: obsolete wiki (no /etc/inittab)
On Saturday 19 August 2017 13:35:09 Jonathan de Boyne Pollard wrote:
> Jonathan de Boyne Pollard:
> > Furthermore: In this *particular* regard, the developer-provided
> > doco actually *is* clear. The upstart manual page for inittab has
> > been warning that the file is obsolete for over ten years, and that
> > manual page is copied all over the WWW making it fairly easy to come
> > across. (Examples: https://linux.die.net/man/5/inittab
> > https://askubuntu.com/questions/34308/
> > https://serverfault.com/questions/147430/
> > http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/precise/man5/inittab.5.html)
> >
> > The systemd people have not explicitly documented inittab, as the
> > upstart people did, although they have explicitly documented run
> > levels as "obsolete" in the systemd manual page for runlevel. This,
> > too, has been copied around the WWW, albeit somewhat less.
> > (Examples:
> > https://manpages.debian.org/stretch/systemd-sysv/runlevel.8.en.html
> > http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man8/runlevel.8.html
> > https://www.mankier.com/8/runlevel)
>
> Gene Heskett:
> > Its becoming obsolete is NOT mentioned in my wheezy approved and
> > supplied man page for it, I just read it this instant. So if you
> > call it widely publicized it fails that definition AFAIAC.
>
> Debian 7 has those very manual pages:
>
>
> * https://manpages.debian.org/wheezy/upstart/inittab.5.en.html
It does? Consider this, from a man 5 inittab, on this wheezy machine:
INITTAB(5) Linux System Administrator's Manual INITTAB(5)
NAME
inittab - format of the inittab file used by the sysv-compatible init process
DESCRIPTION
The inittab file describes which processes are started at bootup and during normal operation (e.g. /etc/init.d/boot,
/etc/init.d/rc, gettys...). Init(8) distinguishes multiple runlevels, each of which can have its own set of processes that
are started. Valid runlevels are 0-6 plus A, B, and C for ondemand entries. An entry in the inittab file has the follow‐
ing format:
id:runlevels:action:process
Lines beginning with `#' are ignored.
id is a unique sequence of 1-4 characters which identifies an entry in inittab (for versions of sysvinit compiled with
the old libc5 (< 5.2.18) or a.out libraries the limit is 2 characters).
Note: traditionally, for getty and other login processes, the value of the id field is kept the same as the suffix
of the corresponding tty, e.g. 1 for tty1. Some ancient login accounting programs might expect this, though I can't
think of any.
runlevels
lists the runlevels for which the specified action should be taken.
action describes which action should be taken.
process
specifies the process to be executed. If the process field starts with a `+' character, init will not do utmp and
wtmp accounting for that process. This is needed for gettys that insist on doing their own utmp/wtmp housekeeping.
This is also a historic bug.
The runlevels field may contain multiple characters for different runlevels. For example, 123 specifies that the process
should be started in runlevels 1, 2, and 3. The runlevels for ondemand entries may contain an A, B, or C. The runlevels
field of sysinit, boot, and bootwait entries are ignored.
When the system runlevel is changed, any running processes that are not specified for the new runlevel are killed, first
with SIGTERM, then with SIGKILL.
Valid actions for the action field are:
respawn
The process will be restarted whenever it terminates (e.g. getty).
wait The process will be started once when the specified runlevel is entered and init will wait for its termination.
once The process will be executed once when the specified runlevel is entered.
boot The process will be executed during system boot. The runlevels field is ignored.
bootwait
The process will be executed during system boot, while init waits for its termination (e.g. /etc/rc). The runlevels
field is ignored.
off This does nothing.
ondemand
A process marked with an ondemand runlevel will be executed whenever the specified ondemand runlevel is called.
However, no runlevel change will occur (ondemand runlevels are `a', `b', and `c').
initdefault
An initdefault entry specifies the runlevel which should be entered after system boot. If none exists, init will
ask for a runlevel on the console. The process field is ignored.
sysinit
The process will be executed during system boot. It will be executed before any boot or bootwait entries. The run‐
levels field is ignored.
powerwait
The process will be executed when the power goes down. Init is usually informed about this by a process talking to a
UPS connected to the computer. Init will wait for the process to finish before continuing.
powerfail
As for powerwait, except that init does not wait for the process's completion.
powerokwait
This process will be executed as soon as init is informed that the power has been restored.
powerfailnow
This process will be executed when init is told that the battery of the external UPS is almost empty and the power
is failing (provided that the external UPS and the monitoring process are able to detect this condition).
ctrlaltdel
The process will be executed when init receives the SIGINT signal. This means that someone on the system console
has pressed the CTRL-ALT-DEL key combination. Typically one wants to execute some sort of shutdown either to get
into single-user level or to reboot the machine.
kbrequest
The process will be executed when init receives a signal from the keyboard handler that a special key combination
was pressed on the console keyboard.
The documentation for this function is not complete yet; more documentation can be found in the kbd-x.xx packages
(most recent was kbd-0.94 at the time of this writing). Basically you want to map some keyboard combination to the
"KeyboardSignal" action. For example, to map Alt-Uparrow for this purpose use the following in your keymaps file:
alt keycode 103 = KeyboardSignal
EXAMPLES
This is an example of a inittab which resembles the old Linux inittab:
# inittab for linux
id:1:initdefault:
rc::bootwait:/etc/rc
1:1:respawn:/etc/getty 9600 tty1
2:1:respawn:/etc/getty 9600 tty2
3:1:respawn:/etc/getty 9600 tty3
4:1:respawn:/etc/getty 9600 tty4
This inittab file executes /etc/rc during boot and starts gettys on tty1-tty4.
A more elaborate inittab with different runlevels (see the comments inside):
# Level to run in
id:2:initdefault:
# Boot-time system configuration/initialization script.
si::sysinit:/etc/init.d/rcS
# What to do in single-user mode.
~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin
# /etc/init.d executes the S and K scripts upon change
# of runlevel.
#
# Runlevel 0 is halt.
# Runlevel 1 is single-user.
# Runlevels 2-5 are multi-user.
# Runlevel 6 is reboot.
l0:0:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 0
l1:1:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 1
l2:2:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 2
l3:3:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 3
l4:4:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 4
l5:5:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 5
l6:6:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 6
# What to do at the "3 finger salute".
ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t1 -h now
# Runlevel 2,3: getty on virtual consoles
# Runlevel 3: getty on terminal (ttyS0) and modem (ttyS1)
1:23:respawn:/sbin/getty tty1 VC linux
2:23:respawn:/sbin/getty tty2 VC linux
3:23:respawn:/sbin/getty tty3 VC linux
4:23:respawn:/sbin/getty tty4 VC linux
S0:3:respawn:/sbin/getty -L 9600 ttyS0 vt320
S1:3:respawn:/sbin/mgetty -x0 -D ttyS1
FILES
/etc/inittab
AUTHOR
Init was written by Miquel van Smoorenburg (miquels@cistron.nl). This manual page was written by Sebastian Lederer (led‐
erer@francium.informatik.uni-bonn.de) and modified by Michael Haardt (u31b3hs@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de).
SEE ALSO
init(8), telinit(8)
Dec 4, 2001 INITTAB(5)
===========================================
> * https://manpages.debian.org/wheezy/systemd-sysv/runlevel.8.en.html
Which is even older with a 1997 origin date.
I won't waste the bandwidth by copy/pasteing that one too, but I think I
might have made the point, the point being that those of us still on
wheezy because its generally dead stable, have had zero introduction
to these new methods. So please quit assuming we know all about them.
We don't. If indeed they aren't applicable to wheezy, then it does put
another point on the argument that our docs are incomplete and/or out
of date.
So we've come full circle I believe.
Have a nice day Jonathan.
Cheers, Gene Heskett
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
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