Re: init process in 2.2.19

Jesse Pollard (pollard@tomcat.admin.navo.hpc.mil)
Fri, 27 Apr 2001 07:51:08 -0500 (CDT)


Subba Rao <subba9@home.com>:
> I am trying to add a process which is to be managed by init. I have added the
> following entry to /etc/inittab
>
> SV:2345:respawn:env - PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/bin svscan /service </dev/null 2> dev/console
>
> After saving, I execute the following command:
>
> # kill -HUP 1
>
> This does not start the process I have added. The process that I have added
> only starts when I do:
>
> # init u
> or
> # telinit u
>
> PS - The process will not start even after a reboot. I have to manually do one
> of the above commands as root.
>
> My kernel version is : 2.2.19
> Distro : Slackware
> GCC : gcc version egcs-2.91.66 19990314/Linux (egcs-1.1.2 release)
>
> Any help appreciated.

I'm using Slackware 7.1, so one of the following possible solutions may work:

First
Make sure the daemon is available at boot time - if /usr/local/bin is
where the svscan daemon exists, then /usr/local must be part of the
root file system.

What I do is have a "/host" directory tree on the root file system
for this purpose. Alternatively, I start the daemon when the system
enters multi-user mode (either /etc/rc.d/rc.local, or one of the
already existing scripts related to what the daemon does).

A second possibility (try this first - its easer:
I see that the daemon is to run in modes "2345". There is a possiblity
that you have this entry near the beginning of the inittab. If so, try
putting it at the end. I believe that init runs each line of the
inittab for a given run level in the same order that it appears in the
file. Putting the entry last should allow it to be started AFTER
all file systems are mounted - the entry for multiuser mode is:

# Script to run when going multi user.
rc:2345:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc.M

If your daemon entry follows this line then it may work as you
expect.

Remember, any facility that the daemon depends on must be
initialized before the daemon starts - If it uses the network
then the network needs to be loaded (mine needs sockets loaded...)
before the daemon is started.

Note: since the assumption that the daemon is in /usr/local and
that /usr/local is a separate file system is true, then
you will no longer be able to dismount the /usr/local
file system while in multi-user mode (it's busy). This may
only be relevent to how your backups are done.

BTW, SIGHUP may not be the correct signal - from the init manpage:

SIGHUP
Init looks for /etc/initrunlvl and /var/log/initrun-
lvl. If one of these files exist and contain an
ASCII runlevel, init switches to the new runlevel.
This is for backwards compatibility only! . In the
normal case (the files don't exist) init behaves like
telinit q was executed.

The only documented startup is "init u" or "telinit u". To re-read the
inittab file use "init q" or "telinit q". I suspect the manpage is a
little "inaccurate" in stating that SIGHUP is equivalent to "telinit q"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jesse I Pollard, II
Email: pollard@navo.hpc.mil

Any opinions expressed are solely my own.
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/