.TH DINIT "1" "June 2017" "Dinit 0.06" "Dinit \- service management system"
.SH NAME
dinit \- supervise processes and manage services
.\"
.SH SYNOPSIS
.\"
.B dinit
[\-s] [\-d \fIdir\fR] [\-p \fIpath\fR] [\fIservice-name\fR]
.\"
.SH DESCRIPTION
.\"
\fBDinit\fR is a process supervisor and service manager which can also
function as a system \fBinit\fR process. It has a small but functional
feature set, offering service dependency handling, parallel startup,
automatic rate-limited restart of failing processes, and service control
functions.
.LP
Dinit reads service descriptions from files located in the service
description directory, normally \fI/etc/dinit.d\fR for the system instance
or \fI$HOME/dinit.d\fR when run as a user process. See \fBSERVICE
DESCRIPTION FILES\fR for details.
.\"
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
\fB\-d\fR \fIdir\fP, \fB\-\-services\-dir\fR \fIdir\fP
Specifies \fIdir\fP as the directory containing service definition files.
.TP
\fB\-p\fR \fIpath\fP, \fB\-\-socket-path\fR \fIpath\fP
Species \fIpath\fP as the path to the control socket used to listen for
commands from the \fBdinitctl\fR program.
.TP
\fB\-s\fR, \fB\-\-system\fR
Run as the system init process. This is the default if invoked as PID 1.
This option affects the default service definition directory and
control socket path.
.TP
\fB\-\-help\fR
display this help and exit
.TP
\fIservice-name\fR
Specifies the name of the service that should be started (along with its
dependencies). If not specified, defaults to \fIboot\fR (which requires
that a suitable service description for the \fIboot\fR service exists).
.\"
.SH SERVICE DESCRIPTION FILES
.\"
Service description files specify the various attributes of a service. A
service description file is named after the service it represents, and is
a plain-text file with simple key-value format. The description files are
located in the service description directory (which defaults to
\fI/etc/dinit.d\fR for the system process).
.LP
All services have a \fItype\fR and a set of \fIdependencies\fR. Service
types are discussed in the following subsection. If a service depends on
another service, then starting the first service causes the second to start
also (and the second service must complete its startup before the first
is considered started). Similarly, if one service depends on another which
becomes stopped, the first service must also stop.
.LP
Service description files are read by Dinit on an "as needed" basis. Once a
service description has been read there is no way (yet) to alter it.
.\"
.SS SERVICE TYPES
.\"
There are four basic types of service:
.IP \(bu
\fBProcess\fR services. This kind of service runs as a single process; starting
the service simply requires starting the process; stopping the service is
accomplished by stopping the process (via sending it a signal).
.IP \(bu
\fBBgprocess\fR services ("background process" services). This kind of
service is similar to a regular process service, but the process daemonizes
or otherwise forks from the original process which starts it, and the
process ID is written to a file. Dinit can read the process ID from the
file and, if it is running as the system init process, can supervise it.
.IP \(bu
\fBScripted\fR services are services which are started and stopped by a
command (which need not actually be a script, despite the name). They can
not be supervised.
.IP \(bu
\fBInternal\fR services do not run as an external process at all. They can
be started and stopped without any external action. They are useful for
grouping other services (via service dependencies).
.\"
.SS SERVICE PROPERTIES
.\"
This section described the various service properties that can be specified
in a service description file. Each line of the file can specify a single
property value, expressed as "\fIproperty-name\fR = \fIvalue\fR". Comments
begin with a hash mark (#) and extend to the end of the line (they must be
separated from setting values by at least one whitespace character). Values
are interpreted literally, except that:
.\"
.IP \(bu
White space (comprised of spaces, tabs, etc) is collapsed to a single space.
.IP \(bu
Double quotes (") can be used around all or part of a property value, to
prevent whitespace collapse and prevent interpretation of other special
characters (such as "#") inside the quotes. The quote characters are not
considered part of the parameter value.
.IP \(bu
A backslash (\\) can be used to escape the next character, causing it to
lose any special meaning and become part of the property value. A double
backslash (\\\\) is collapsed to a single backslash within the parameter
value.
.LP
The following properties can be specified:
.TP
\fBtype\fR = {process | bgprocess | scripted | internal}
Specifies the service type.
.TP
\fBcommand\fR = \fIcommand-string\fR
Specifies the command, including command-line arguments, for starting the
process. Applies only to \fBprocess\fR, \fBbgprocess\fR and \fBscripted\fR
services.
.TP
\fBstop\-command\fR = \fIcommand-string\fR
Specifies the command to stop the service. Applicable only to \fBscripted\fR
services.
.TP
\fBrestart\fR = {yes | true | no | false}
Indicates whether the service should automatically restart if it stops for
any reason (including unexpected process termination, service dependency
stopping, or user-initiated service stop).
.TP
\fBsmooth-recovery\fR = {yes | true | no | false}
Applies only to \fBprocess\fR and \fBbgprocess\fR services. When set true/yes,
an automatic process restart can be performed without first stopping any
dependent services. This setting is meaningless if the \fBrestart\fR setting
is set to false.
.TP
\fBrestart-delay\fR = \fIXXX.YYYY\fR
Specifies the minimum time between automatic restarts. Enforcing a sensible
minimum prevents Dinit from consuming a large number of process cycles in
case a process continuously fails immediately after it is started. The
default is 0.2 (200 milliseconds).
.TP
\fBrestart-limit-interval\fR = \fIXXX.YYYY\fR
Sets the interval, in seconds, over which restarts are limited. If a process
automatically restarts more than a certain number of times (specified by the
\fBrestart-limit-count\fR setting) in this time interval, it will not restart
again. The default value is 10 seconds.
.TP
\fBrestart-limit-count\fR = \fINNN\fR
Specifies the maximum number of times that a service can automatically restart
over the interval specified by \fBrestart-limit-interval\fR. Specify a value
of 0 to disable the restart limit.
.TP
\fBpid-file\fR = \fIpath-to-file\fR
For \fBbgprocess\fR type services only; specifies the path of the file where
daemon will write its process ID before detaching. Dinit will read the
contents of this file when starting the service, once the initial process
exits, will supervise the process with the discovered process ID, and may
send signals to the process ID to stop the service; if Dinit runs as a
privileged user the path should therefore not be writable by unprivileged
users.
.TP
\fBdepends-on\fR = \fIservice-name\fR
This service depends on the named service. Starting this service will start
the named service; the command to start this service will not be executed
until the named service has started. If the named service is stopped then
this service will also be stopped.
.TP
\fBwaits-for\fR = \fIservice-name\fR
When this service is started, wait for the named service to finish starting
(or to fail starting) before commencing the start procedure for this service.
Starting this service will automatically start the named service. If the
named service fails to start, this service will start as usual (subject to
other dependencies being met).
.TP
\fBsocket-listen\fR = \fIsocket-path\fR
Pre-open a socket for the service and pass it to the service using the
\fBsystemd\fR activation protocol. This by itself does not give so called
"socket activation", but does allow that any process trying to connect to the
specified socket will be able to do so, even before the service is properly
prepared to accept connections.
.TP
\fBsocket-permissions\fR = \fIoctal-permissions-mask\fR
Gives the permissions for the socket specified using \fBsocket-listen\fR.
Normally this will be 600 (user access only), 660 (user and group
access), or 666 (all users). The default is 666.
.TP
\fBsocket-uid\fR = {\fInumeric-user-id\fR | \fIusername\fR}
Specifies the user that should own the activation socket. If
\fBsocket-uid\fR is specified without also specifying \fBsocket-gid\fR, then
the socket group is the primary group of the specified user (as found in the
system user database, normally \fI/etc/passwd\fR). If the socket owner is not
specified, the socket will be owned by the user id of the Dinit process.
.TP
\fBsocket-gid\fR = {\fInumeric-group-id\fR | \fIgroup-name\fR}
Specifies the group of the activation socket. See discussion of
\fBsocket-uid\fR.
.TP
\fBtermsignal\fR = {HUP | INT | QUIT | USR1 | USR2}
Specifies an additional signal to send to the process when requesting it
to terminate (applies to 'process' services only). SIGTERM is always
sent along with the specified signal, unless the \fBnosigterm\fR option is
specified via the \fBoptions\fR parameter.
.TP
\fBoptions\fR = {runs\-on\-console | nosigterm | starts\-rwfs | starts\-log}...
Specifies various options for this service:
.RS
.TP
\fBno-sigterm\fR
specifies that the TERM signal should not be send to the process to terminate
it. (Another signal can be specified using the \fBtermsignal\fR setting; if no
other signal is specified, no signal will be sent, which usually means that
the service will not terminate).
.TP
\fBruns-on-console\fR
specifies that this service uses the console; its input and output should be
directed to the console (or precisely, to the device to which Dinit's standard
output stream is connected). A service running on the console prevents other
services from running on the console (they will queue for the console).

The \fIinterrupt\fR key (normally control-C) will be active for process / scripted
services that run on the console. Handling of an interrupt is determined by
the service process, but typically will cause it to terminate.
.TP
\fBstarts-on-console\fR
specifies that this service uses the console during service startup. This is
implied by \fBruns-on-console\fR, but can be specified separately for services
that need the console while they start but not afterwards.

This setting is not applicable to regular \fBprocess\fR services, but can be
used for \fBscripted\fR and \fBbgprocess\fR services. It allows for
interrupting startup via the \fIinterrupt\fR key (normally control-C). This is
useful to allow filesystem checks to be interrupted/skipped.
.TP
\fBstarts-rwfs\fR
this service mounts the root filesystem read/write (or at least mounts the
normal writable filesystems for the system). This prompts Dinit to create its
control socket, if it has not already managed to do so.
.TP
\fBstarts-log\fR
this service starts the system log daemon. Dinit will begin logging via the
\fI/dev/log\fR socket.
.TP
\fBpass-cs-fd\fR
pass an open Dinit control socket to the process when launching it (the
\fIDINIT_CS_FD\fR environment variable will be set to the file descriptor of
the socket). This allows the service to issue commands to Dinit even if the
regular control socket is not available yet.

Using this option has security implications! The service which receives the
control socket must close it before launching any untrusted processes. You
should not use this option unless the service is designed to receive a Dinit
control socket.
.RE
.TP
\fBlogfile\fR = \fIlog-file-path\fR
Specifies the log file for the service. Output from the service process
will go this file.
.LP
The next section contains example service descriptions including some of the
parameters and options described above.
.\"
.SS EXAMPLES
.LP
Here is an example service description for the \fBmysql\fR database server.
It has a dependency on the \fBrcboot\fR service (not shown) which is
expected to have set up the system to a level suitable for basic operation.

.RS
.nf
.gcolor yellow
# mysqld service
type = process
command = /usr/bin/mysqld --user=mysql
logfile = /var/log/mysqld.log
smooth-recovery = true
restart = false
depends-on = rcboot # Basic system services must be ready
.gcolor
.RE
.fi
.LP
Here is an examples for a filesystem check "service", run by a script
(\fI/etc/dinit.d/rootfscheck.sh\fR). The script may need to reboot the
system, but the control socket may not have been created, so it uses the
\fBpass-cs-fd\fR option to allow the \fBreboot\fR command to issue control
commands to Dinit. It runs on the console, so that output is visible and
the process can be interrupted using control-C.

.RS
.nf
.gcolor yellow
# rootfscheck service
type = scripted
command = /etc/dinit.d/rootfscheck.sh
restart = false
options = starts-on-console pass-cs-fd
depends-on = early-filesystems  # /proc and /dev
depends-on = device-node-daemon
.gcolor
.fi
.RE

More examples are provided with the Dinit distribution.
.\"
.SH SIGNALS
.LP
When run as a system process, SIGINT stops all services and performs a reboot (on Linux, this signal can be
generated using the control-alt-delete key combination); SIGTERM stops services and halts the system; and
SIGQUIT performs an immediate shutdown with no service rollback.
LP
When run as a user process, SIGINT and SIGTERM both stop services and exit Dinit; SIGQUIT exits Dinit
immediately.
.\"
.SH SEE ALSO
.\"
\fBdinitctl\fR(1).
.\"
.SH AUTHOR
Dinit, and this manual, were written by Davin McCall.