init
Section: File Formats (5)
Updated: 2011-05-12
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NAME
init - Upstart init daemon job configuration
SYNOPSIS
- /etc/init/
-
Default location of system job configuration files.
- $HOME/.init/
-
Default location of user job configuration files.
DESCRIPTION
On startup, the Upstart
init(8)
daemon reads its job configuration from files in the
/etc/init/
directory, and watches for future changes to these files using
inotify(7).
If D-Bus has been configured to allow non-privileged users to invoke all
Upstart D-Bus methods, Upstart is also able to manage User Jobs. See
User Jobs
for further details.
To be considered by Upstart, files in this directory must have a
recognized suffix and may also be present in sub-directories. There are
two recognized suffixes:
- •
-
Files ending in
.conf
are called configuration files, or simply "conf files" for short.
These are the primary vehicle for specifying a job.
- •
-
Files ending in
.override
are called override files. If an override file is present, the stanzas
it contains take precedence over those equivalently named stanzas in the
corresponding configuration file contents for a particular job.
The main use for override files is to modify how a job will run without
having to modify its configuration file directly. See the section
Override File Handling below for further details.
A job can thus be defined by either:
- •
-
A single configuration file.
- •
-
A single configuration file and a single override file.
Unless explicitly stated otherwise, any reference to a jobs
configuration can refer both to a configuration file or an override
file.
Each configuration file defines the template for a single service
(long-running process or daemon) or task (short-lived process).
Note that a configuration file is not itself a job: it is a description
of an environmenta job could be run in. A job is the runtime embodiment
of a configuration file.
The configuration file name as displayed by Upstart and associated
tooling is taken from its relative path within the directory without the
extension. For example a configuration file
/etc/init/rc-sysinit.conf
is named
rc-sysinit,
while a configuration file
/etc/init/net/apache.conf
is named
net/apache.
Since override files only modify the way a configuration file is
interpreted, they are not named.
Configuration files are plain text and should not be executable.
User Jobs
A User Job is a job configuration file created by a non-privileged user
in their
$HOME/.init/
directory. Job configuration files in this directory have the same
syntax as system job configuration files.
Files in this directory will be read and an
inotify(7)
watch created the first time a user runs
initctl(8).
Any user can create user jobs, but that user can control
only
jobs they create.
Users are able to manage their jobs using the standard
initctl(8)
facility.
Note that stanzas which manipulate resources limits may cause a job to
fail to start should the value provided to such a stanza attempt to
exceed the maximum value the users privilege level allows.
Note that a user job configuration file cannot have the same name as a
system job configuration file.
Chroot Support
Upstart is able to manage jobs within a chroot(2). To control jobs
within the chroot environment, use the standard
initctl(8)
facility. Note that it is not necessary to install D-Bus within the
chroot (in fact it is not recommended).
Note that User Jobs can be created within a chroot environment.
Configuration File Format
Each line begins with a configuration stanza and continues until either
the end of the line or a line containing a closing stanza. Line breaks
within a stanza are permitted within single or double quotes, or if
preceeded by a blackslash.
If a stanza is duplicated, the last occurence will be used. Unrecognized
stanzas will generate parse errors, which will stop a job from running.
Stanzas and their arguments are delimited by whitespace, which consists
of one or more space or tab characters which are otherwise ignored unless
placed within single or double quotes.
Comments begin with a `#' and continue until the end of the line. Blank
lines and lines consisting only of whitespace or comments are ignored.
Process definition
The primary use of jobs is to define services or tasks to be run by the
init(8)
daemon. Each job may have one or more different processes run as part
of its lifecycle, with the most common known as the main process.
The main process is defined using either the
exec
or
script
stanzas, only one of which is permitted. These specify the executable
or shell script that will be run when the job is considered to be running.
Once this process terminates, the job stops.
All processes are run with the full job environment available as
environment variables in their process.
- exec COMMAND [ ARG ]...
-
This stanza defines the process to be run as the name of an executable
on the filesystem, and zero or more arguments to be passed to it. Any
special characters, e.g. quotes or `$' specified will result in the
entire command being passed to a shell for expansion.
exec /usr/sbin/acpid -c $EVENTSDIR -s $SOCKET
- script ... end script
-
This stanza defines the process to be run as a shell script that will
be executed using
sh(1).
The
-e
shell option is always used, so any command that fails will terminate
the script.
The
script
stanza appears on its own on a line, the script is everything up until
the first
end script
stanza appearing on its own on a line.
script
dd bs=1 if=/proc/kmsg of=$KMSGSINK
exec /sbin/klogd -P $KMSGSINK
end script
There are an additional four processes that may be run as part of the job's
lifecycle. These are specified as the process name, followed by an
exec
or
script
stanza.
- pre-start exec|script...
-
This process will be run after the job's
starting(7)
event has finished, but before the main process is run. It is typically
used to prepare the environment, such as making necessary directories.
- post-start exec|script...
-
This process will be run before the job's
started(7)
event is emitted, but after the main process has been spawned. It is
typically used to send necessary commands to the main process, or to
delay the
started(7)
event until the main process is ready to receive clients.
- pre-stop exec|script...
-
This process is run if the job is stopped by an event listed in its
stop on
stanza or by the
stop(8)
command. It will be run before the job's
stopping(7)
event is emitted and before the main process is killed. It is typically
used to send any necessary shutdown commands to the main process, and it
may also call the
start(8)
command without arguments to cancel the stop.
- post-stop exec|script...
-
This process is run after the main process has been killed and before
the job's
stopped(7)
event is emitted. It is typically used to clean up the environment,
such as removing temporary directories.
All of these processes, including the main process, are optional.
Services without a main process will appear to be running until they are
stopped: this is commonly used to define states such as runlevels. It
is permissable to have no main process, but to have
pre-start
and
post-stop
processes for the state.
-
pre-start exec ifup -a
post-stop exec ifdown -a
Event definition
Jobs can be manually started and stopped at any time by a system adminstrator
using the
start(8)
and
stop(8)
tools, however it is far more useful for jobs to be started and stopped
automatically by the
init(8)
daemon when necessary.
This is done by specifying which events should cause your job to be
started, and which cause your process to be stopped again.
The set of possible events is limitless, however there are a number of
standard events defined by the
init(8)
daemon and
telinit(8)
tools that you will want to use.
When first started, the
init(8)
daemon will emit the
startup(7)
event. This will activate jobs that implement System V compatibility and
the
runlevel(7)
event. As jobs are started and stopped, the
init(8)
daemon will emit the
starting(7),
started(7),
stopping(7)
and
stopped(7)
events on their behalf.
- start on EVENT [[KEY=]VALUE]... [and|or...]
-
The
start on
stanza defines the set of events that will cause the job to be automatically
started. Each
EVENT
is given by its name. Multiple events are permitted using the
and
&
or
operators, and complex expressions may be performed with parentheses (within
which line breaks are permitted).
You may also match on the environment variables contained within the event
by specifying the
KEY
and expected
VALUE.
If you know the order in which the variables are given to the event you may
omit the
KEY.
VALUE
may contain wildcard matches and globs as permitted by
fnmatch(3)
and may expand the value of any variable defined with the
env
stanza.
Negation is permitted by using
!=
between the
KEY
and
VALUE.
start on started gdm or started kdm
start on device-added SUBSYSTEM=tty DEVPATH=ttyS*
start on net-device-added INTERFACE!=lo
- stop on EVENT [[KEY=]VALUE]... [and|or...]
-
The
stop on
stanza defines the set of events that will cause the job to be automatically
stopped. It has the same syntax as
start on.
VALUE
may additionally expand the value of any variable that came from the
job's start environment (either the event or the command that started it).
stop on stopping gdm or stopping kdm
stop on device-removed DEVPATH=$DEVPATH
- manual
-
This stanza will disregard any
previously seen
start on
definition. By adding this stanza on any line below the
start on
definition, it provides the ability to stop a job from being
automatically started. When specified, the only way to start such a job
is via start (8).
Job environment
Each job is run with the environment from the events or commands that
started it. In addition, you may define defaults in the job which may
be overridden later and specify which environment variables are exported
into the events generated for the job.
The special
UPSTART_EVENTS
environment variable contains the list of events that started the job,
it will not be present if the job was started manually.
In addition, the
pre-stop
and
post-stop
scripts are run with the environment of the events or commands that
stopped the job. The
UPSTART_STOP_EVENTS
environment variable contains the list of events that stopped the job,
it will not be present if the job was stopped manually.
All jobs also contain the
UPSTART_JOB
and
UPSTART_INSTANCE
environment variables, containing the name of the job and instance. These
are mostly used by the
initctl(8)
utility to default to acting on the job the commands are called from.
- env KEY[=VALUE]
-
Defines a default environment variable, the value of which may be overriden
by the event or command that starts the job.
If 'KEY=VALUE' is specified, the variable KEY is given the value VALUE.
If only 'KEY' is given, then the value is taken from the
init(8)
daemon's own environment.
- export KEY
-
Exports the value of an environment variable into the
starting(7),
started(7),
stopping(7)
and
stopped(7)
events for this job
and to all resultant events
(not just those relating to the current job).
Services, tasks and respawning
Jobs are
services
by default. This means that the act of starting the job is considered
to be finished when the job is running, and that even exiting with a
zero exit status means the service will be respawned.
- task
-
This stanza may be used to specify that the job is a
task
instead. This means that the act of starting the job is not considered
to be finished until the job itself has been run and stopped again, but
that exiting with a zero exit status means the task has completed
successfully and will not be respawned.
The
start(8)
command, and any
starting(7)
or
stopping(7)
events will block only until a service is running or until a task has
finished.
- respawn
-
A service or task with this stanza will be automatically started if it
should stop abnormally. All reasons for a service stopping, except
the
stop(8)
command itself, are considered abnormal. Tasks may exit with a zero
exit status to prevent being respawned.
- respawn limit COUNT INTERVAL
-
Respawning is subject to a limit, if the job is respawned more than
COUNT
times in
INTERVAL
seconds, it will be considered to be having deeper problems and will
be stopped. Default COUNT is 10. Default INTERVAL is 5 seconds.
This only applies to automatic respawns and not the
restart(8)
command.
- normal exit STATUS|SIGNAL...
-
Additional exit statuses or even signals may be added, if the job
process terminates with any of these it will not be considered to have
failed and will not be respawned.
normal exit 0 1 TERM HUP
Instances
By default, only one instance of any job is permitted to exist at one
time. Attempting to start a job when it's already starting or running
results in an error. Note that a job is considered to be running if its
pre-start process is running.
Multiple instances may be permitted by defining the names of those
instances. If an instance with the same name is not already starting
or running, a new instance will be started instead of returning an
error.
- instance NAME
-
This stanza defines the names of instances, on its own its not particularly
useful since it would just define the name of the single permitted instance,
however
NAME
expands any variable defined in the job's environment.
These will often be variables that you need to pass to the process anyway,
so are an excellent way to limit the instances.
instance $CONFFILE
exec /sbin/httpd -c $CONFFILE
instance $TTY
exec /sbin/getty -8 38300 $TTY
These jobs appear in the
initctl(8)
output with the instance name in parentheses, and have the
INSTANCE
environment variable set in their events.
Documentation
Upstart provides several stanzas useful for documentation and external
tools.
- description DESCRIPTION
-
This stanza may contain a description of the job.
description "This does neat stuff"
- author AUTHOR
-
This stanza may contain the author of the job, often used as a contact
for bug reports.
author "Scott James Remnant <scott@netsplit.com>"
- version VERSION
-
This stanza may contain version information about the job, such as revision
control or package version number. It is not used or interpreted by
init(8)
in any way.
version "$Id$"
- emits EVENT...
-
All processes on the system are free to emit their own events by using the
initctl(8)
tool, or by communicating directly with the
init(8)
daemon.
This stanza allows a job to document in its job configuration what events
it emits itself, and may be useful for graphing possible transitions.
The
initctl(8) check-config
command attempts to use this stanza to resolve events.
EVENT
can be either a literal string or a string including shell
wildcard meta-characters (asterisk ('*'), question mark
('?'), and square brackets ('[' and ']')).
Meta-characters are useful to allow
initctl(8) check-config
to resolve a class of events, such as those emitted by
upstart-udev-bridge(8).
- usage USAGE
-
This stanza may contain the text used by
initctl(8) usage
command. This text may be also shown when commands
start(8),
stop(8)
or
status(8)
fail.
usage "tty DEV=ttyX - where X is console id"
Process environment
Many common adjustments to the process environment, such as resource
limits, may be configured directly in the job rather than having to handle
them yourself.
- console none|log|output|owner
-
-
none
-
If none is specified, the jobs standard input, standard output
and standard error file descriptors are connected to
/dev/null.
Any output generated by a job will be discarded.
This used to be the default prior to the introduction of log in
Upstart 1.4.
-
log
-
Only applies to system jobs:
if specified by user jobs, the job will be considered to have specified
the value
none.
For system jobs, if log is specified, standard input is connected
to
/dev/null,
and standard output and standard error are connected to a pseudo-tty
which logs all job output.
Output is logged to file
/var/log/upstart/<job-log-file>.
If a job has specified instance,
<job-log-file>
will equate to
<job>-<instance>.log
where '<instance>' is replaced by the specific instance value and
'<job>' is replaced with the job name (job configuration file
name, without the extension). If instance is not specified,
<job-log-file>
will be
<job>.log
where '<job>' is replaced with the job name.
If log files already exist, they are appended to.
All slash ('/') characters in
<job-log-file>
are replaced with underscore ('_') characters. For example,
any output from the 'wibble' instance of the 'foo/bar' job
would be encoded in file 'foo_bar-wibble.log' in the log file
directory. This gives the log file directory a flat structure.
If the directory for system jobs does not exist, job output for each job
will be cached until the job finishes. Thus, the boot process
must
ensure that the directory is available as soon as possible since any job
that finishes before a writeable disk is available will not be able to
take advantage of this facility.
If it is not possible to write to any log file due to lack of disk
space, the job will be considered to have specified a
console
value of
none
and all subsequent job output will be discarded.
If the logger detects that the file it is about to write to was deleted,
it will re-open the file first.
Care should be taken if the log directory is a mount point since any job
that starts before that mount is available and which produces output will
then attempt to write logs to the mount point, not to the mounted
directory. This may give the impression that log data has not been
recorded. A strategy to handle this situation is to ensure the mount
point directory is not writeable such that logs will only be written
when the mount has succeeded (assuming the mount itself is writeable and
has sufficient space).
Note that since
log
utilizes pseudo-ttys, your kernel must support these. If it does not,
the console value will be modified automatically to
none.
Further, note that it may be necessary to increase the number of
available pty devices; see
pty(7)
for details.
Under Linux, full Unix 98 pty support requires that the
devpts
filesystem be mounted.
If pty setup fails for any reason, an error message will be displayed
and the job's console value will be reset to
none.
-
output
-
If output is specified, the standard input, standard output and
standard error file descriptors are connected to
/dev/console.
-
owner
-
The owner value is special: it not only connects the job to the
system console but sets the job to be the owner of the system console,
which means it will receive certain signals from the kernel when special
key combinations such as Control-C are pressed.
- umask UMASK
-
A common configuration is to set the file mode creation mask for the
process.
UMASK
should be an octal value for the mask, see
umask(2)
for more details.
- nice NICE
-
Another common configuration is to adjust the process's nice value,
see
nice(1)
for more details.
- oom score ADJUSTMENT|never
-
Normally the OOM killer regards all processes equally, this stanza
advises the kernel to treat this job differently.
ADJUSTMENT
may be an integer value from
-999
(very unlikely to be killed by the OOM killer) up to
1000
(very likely to be killed by the OOM killer). It may also be the special
value
never
to have the job ignored by the OOM killer entirely.
- chroot DIR
-
Runs the job's processes in a
chroot(8)
environment underneath
DIR
Note that
DIR
must have all the necessary system libraries for the process to be run,
often including
/bin/sh
- chdir DIR
-
Runs the job's processes with a working directory of
DIR
instead of the root of the filesystem.
- limit LIMIT SOFT|unlimited HARD|unlimited
-
Sets initial system resource limits for the job's processes.
LIMIT
may be one of
core,
cpu,
data,
fsize,
memlock,
msgqueue,
nice,
nofile,
nproc,
rss,
rtprio,
sigpending
or
stack.
Limits are specified as both a
SOFT
value and a
HARD
value, both of which are integers. The special value
unlimited
may be specified for either.
- setuid USERNAME
-
Changes to the user
USERNAME
before running any job process.
If this stanza is unspecified, all job processes will run as root in the
case of system jobs, and as the user in the case of user jobs.
Note that system jobs using the
setuid
stanza are still system jobs, and can not be controlled by an
unprivileged user, even if the
setuid
stanza specifies that user.
- setgid GROUPNAME
-
Changes to the group
GROUPNAME
before running any job process.
If this stanza is unspecified, the primary group of the user specified
in the
setuid
block is used for all job processes. If both stanzas are unspecified,
all job processes will run with its group ID set to 0 in the case of
system jobs, and as the primary group of the user in the case of User
Jobs.
Override File Handling
Override files allow a jobs environment to be changed without modifying
the jobs configuration file. Rules governing override files:
- •
-
If a job is embodied with only a configuration file, the contents of
this file define the job.
- •
-
If an override files exists where there is no existing cofiguration
file, the override file is ignored.
- •
-
If both a configuration file and an override file exist for a job
and both files are syntactically correct:
-
- •
-
stanzas in the override file will take precedence over stanzas present
in the corresponding configuration file.
- •
-
stanzas in the override file which are not present in the corresponding
configuration file will be honoured when the job runs.
- •
-
If both a configuration file and an override file exist for a job and
subsequently the override file is deleted, the configuration file is
automatically reloaded with the effect that any changes introduced by
the override file are undone and the configuration file alone now defines
the job.
- •
-
If both a configuration file and an override file exist for a job and
subsequently the configuration file is deleted, a new instance of the
job can no longer be started (since without a corresponding
configuration file an override file is ignored).
- •
-
If both a configuration file and an override file exist for a job and
any of the contents of the override file are invalid, the override file
is ignored and only the contents of the configuration file are
considered.
Miscellaneous
- kill signal SIGNAL
-
Specifies the stopping signal,
SIGTERM
by default, a job's main process will receive when stopping the
running job.
kill signal INT
- kill timeout INTERVAL
-
Specifies the interval between sending the job's main process the
"stopping" (see above) and
SIGKILL
signals when stopping the running job. Default is 5 seconds.
- expect stop
-
Specifies that the job's main process will raise the
SIGSTOP
signal to indicate that it is ready.
init(8)
will wait for this signal before running the job's post-start script,
or considering the job to be running.
init(8)
will send the process the
SIGCONT
signal to allow it to continue.
- expect daemon
-
Specifies that the job's main process is a daemon, and will fork twice
after being run.
init(8)
will follow this daemonisation, and will wait for this to occur before
running the job's post-start script or considering the job to be running.
Without this stanza
init(8)
is unable to supervise daemon processes and will believe them to have
stopped as soon as they daemonise on startup.
- expect fork
-
Specifies that the job's main process will fork once after being run.
init(8)
will follow this fork, and will wait for this to occur before
running the job's post-start script or considering the job to be running.
Without this stanza
init(8)
is unable to supervise forking processes and will believe them to have
stopped as soon as they fork on startup.
RESTRICTIONS
The use of symbolic links in job configuration file directories is not
supported since it can lead to unpredicable behaviour resulting from
broken or inaccessible links (such as would be caused by a link crossing
a filesystem boundary to a filesystem that has not yet been mounted).
BUGS
The
and
and
or
operators allowed with
start on
and
stop on
do not work intuitively: operands to the right of either operator are
only evaluated once and state information is then discarded. This can
lead to jobs with complex
start on or stop on conditions
not behaving as expected
when restarted. For example, if a job
encodes the following condition:
start on A and (B or C)
When 'A' and 'B' become true, the condition is satisfied so
the job will be run. However, if the job ends and subsequently 'A'
and 'C' become true, the job will not be re-run even though
the condtion is satisfied. Avoid using complex conditions with jobs
which need to be restarted.
FILES
- /etc/init/*.conf
-
System job configuration files.
- /etc/init/*.override
-
System job override files.
- $HOME/.init/*.conf
-
User job configuration files.
Note that you may make the directory
$HOME/.init/
a symbolic link to
$HOME/.config/upstart/.
- $HOME/.init/*.override
-
User job override files.
- /var/log/upstart/*.log
-
Default location of system job output logs.
AUTHOR
Manual page written by Scott James Remnant
<
scott@netsplit.com>
and James Hunt
<
james.hunt@canonical.com>
.
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs at
<
https://launchpad.net/upstart/+bugs>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2009-2011 Canonical Ltd.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
SEE ALSO
init(8)
initctl(8)
sh(1)
upstart-events(7)
pty(7)
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- User Jobs
-
- Chroot Support
-
- Configuration File Format
-
- Process definition
-
- Event definition
-
- Job environment
-
- Services, tasks and respawning
-
- Instances
-
- Documentation
-
- Process environment
-
- Override File Handling
-
- Miscellaneous
-
- RESTRICTIONS
-
- BUGS
-
- FILES
-
- AUTHOR
-
- REPORTING BUGS
-
- COPYRIGHT
-
- SEE ALSO
-
© Andrew Scott 2006 -
2024,
All Rights Reserved