9 "Dinit" is a service supervisor with dependency support which can also
10 act as the system "init" program.
12 Specifically it can launch multiple services (generally, "daemon" processes,
13 but see notes below) in parallel, with dependency management (i.e. if one
14 service's operation depends on another, the latter service will be started
17 For "process" services Dinit can monitor the process corresponding to the
18 service, and re-start it if it dies. It does this in an intelligent way,
19 first "rolling back" all dependent services, and restarting them when their
20 dependencies are satisfied.
22 Dinit includes a tool ("dinitctl") to issue commands to the main Dinit
23 process, and a "shutdown" program (with scripts "halt" and "reboot") to
24 manage shutting down and restarting the system.
26 Dinit is designed to work on POSIXy operating systems such as Linux and
27 OpenBSD. It is written in C++ and uses the "Dasynq" event handling library,
28 which was written especially to support Dinit.
30 Development goals include clean design, robustness, portability, and
31 avoiding feature bloat (whilst still handling a variety of use cases).
33 See doc/COMPARISON for a comparison of Dinit with similar software packages.
35 Dinit is licensed under the Apache License, version 2.0. A copy of this
36 license can be found in the LICENSE file.
38 Dinit was written by Davin McCall <davmac@davmac.org>.
40 See BUILD for information on how to build Dinit.
43 Introduction to services
44 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
46 A "service" is nominally a persistent process or system state. The two main
47 types of service are a _process_ service (represented by a an actual process)
48 and a _scripted_ service (which is started and stopped by running a process -
49 often a shell script - to completion). There are also _bgprocess_ services
50 and _internal_services.
52 Many programs that you might want to run under dinit's supervision can run
53 either "in the foreground" or as a daemon ("in the background"), and the
54 choice is dictated by a command line switch (for instance the -D and -F
55 switches to Samba's "smbd"). Although it might seem counterintuitive,
56 the "foreground" mode should be used for programs registered as process
57 services in dinit; this allows dinit to monitor the process.
59 Process services are attractive due to the ease of monitoring (and
60 restarting) the service, however, they have one inherent problem, which is
61 that dinit cannot tell when the service is truly started. Once the process
62 has been launched, dinit assumes that the service has started, but in fact
63 there will be a short delay before the process sets itself up, starts
64 listening on sockets, etc; during this time any other process (including
65 one from a service listed as dependent) which tries to contact it will not
66 be able to do so. In practice, this is not usually a problem (and external
67 solutions, like D-Bus, do exist).
69 A _scripted_ service has separate commands for startup and (optional)
70 shutdown. Scripted services can be used for tasks such as mounting file
71 systems that don't need a persisten process, and in some cases can be used
72 for daemon processes (although Dinit will not be able to supervise a
73 process that is registered as a scripted service).
75 A _bgprocess_ service is a mix between a process service and a scripted
76 service. A command is used to start the service, and once started, the
77 process ID is expected to be available in a file which Dinit can then
78 read. Many existing daemons can operate in this way. The process can only be
79 supervised if Dinit runs as the system "init" (PID 1) - otherwise Dinit can
80 not reliably know when the process has terminated.
82 (Note, use of bgprocess services type requires care. The file from which the
83 PID is read is trusted; Dinit may send signals to the specified PID. It
84 should not be possible for unauthorised users to modify the file contents!)
86 An _internal_ service is just a placeholder service that can be used to
87 describe a set of dependencies. An internal service has no corresponding
91 Service Hiearchy and states
92 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
94 Services can depend on other services for operation, and so form a
95 dependency hierarchy. Starting a service which depends on another
96 causes that other service to start (and the first service waits until
97 the latter has started before its process is launched and it is itself
100 Services are considered _active_ when they are not stopped. Services
101 can also be explicitly marked as active (this normally happens when you
102 explicitly start a service). Finally, a service with an active dependent
103 is also considered active.
105 If a service stops and becomes inactive (i.e. it is not explicitly marked
106 active and has no active dependents) then any services it depends on will
107 also be marked inactive and stopped unless they have other active
108 dependents, or were explicitly started and marked active.
110 What this means is that, in general, starting an (inactive, stopped)
111 service and then stopping it will return the system to its prior state -
112 no dependencies which were started automatically will be left running.
115 Service Description files
116 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
118 Dinit discovers services by reading _service description files_. These files
119 reside in a directory (/etc/dinit.d is the default "system" location) and
120 their name matches the name of the service. Service descriptions are loaded
121 lazily, as needed by Dinit.
123 A service description file consists of a number of parameter settings.
124 Settings in the SDF are denoted as a parameter name followed by either an
125 equal sign or colon and then the parameter value (all on the same line).
126 Comments begin with a hash mark (#) and extend to the end of the line (they
127 must be separated from setting values by at least one whitespace character).
129 Parameter values are interpreted literally, except that:
130 - whitespace is collapsed to a single space
131 - double quotes can be used around all or part(s) of a parameter to prevent
132 whitespace collapse and interpretation of special characters
133 - backslash can be used to 'escape' the next character, preventing any
134 special meaning from being associated with it. It can be used to include
135 non-collapsing whitespace, double-quote marks, and backslashes in the
140 type = process | bgprocess | scripted | internal
144 depends-on = (service name)
145 waits-for = (service name)
147 command = (external script or executable, and arguments)
148 For a 'process' service, this is the process to run.
149 For a 'scripted' service, this command is run to start the service.
151 stop-command = (external script or executable, and arguments)
152 For a 'scripted' service, this command is run to stop the service.
154 restart = yes | true | no | false
155 Specifies whether the service should automatically restart if it becomes
156 stopped (for any reason, including being explicitly requested to stop).
157 Only active services will restart automatically.
159 smooth-recovery = yes | true | no | false
160 For process services only. Specifies that, should the process die, it
161 can be restarted without bringing the service itself down. This means that
162 any dependent services do not need to be stopped/restarted. Such recovery
163 happens regardless of the "restart" setting (if smooth-recovery is enabled,
164 the service does not reach the stopped state when the process terminates
167 restart-limit-interval = XXX.YYYY
168 Specifies the interval, in seconds, over which restarts are limited. If a
169 process automatically restarts more than a certain number of times (default
170 3) in this time interval, it will not restart again. The default value is
171 10 seconds. Use this to prevent broken services from continuously
172 restarting ad infinitum.
174 restart-limit-count = NNN
175 Specifies the maximum number of times that a service can automatically
176 restart over the interval specified by restart-limit-interval (default of
177 10 seconds). Specify a value of 0 to disable the restart limit.
179 pid-file = (path to file)
180 For "bgprocess" type services only; specifies the path of the file where
181 daemon will write its process ID before detaching.
183 depends-on = (service name)
184 This service depends on the named service. Starting this service will
185 start the named service; the command to start this service will not be
186 executed until the named service has started. If the named service is
187 stopped then this service will also be stopped.
189 waits-for = (service name)
190 When this service is started, wait for the named service to finish
191 starting (or to fail starting) before commencing the start procedure
192 for this service. Starting this service will automatically start
195 socket-listen = (socket path)
196 Pre-open a socket for the service and pass it to the service using the
197 Systemd activation protocol. This by itself does not give so called
198 "socket activation", but does allow that any process trying to connect
199 to the specified socket will be able to do so, even before the service
200 is properly prepared to accept connections.
202 socket-permissions = (octal permissions mask)
203 Gives the permissions for the socket specified using socket-listen.
204 Normally this will be 600 (user access only), 660 (user and group
205 access), or 666 (all users).
207 socket-uid = (numeric user id or username)
208 Specifies the user that should own the activation socket. If socket-uid
209 is specified without also specifying socket-gid, then the socket group
210 is the primary group of the specified user (as found in the system user
211 database, normally /etc/passwd). If the socket owner is not specified,
212 the socket will be owned by the user id of the Dinit process.
214 socket-gid = (numeric group id or group name)
215 Specifies the group of the activation socket. See discussion of
218 termsignal = HUP | INT | QUIT | USR1 | USR2
219 Specifies an additional signal to send to the process when requesting it
220 to terminate (applies to 'process' services only). SIGTERM is always
221 sent along with the specified signal, unless the 'nosigterm' setting is
224 options = ( runs-on-console | nosigterm | starts-rwfs | starts-log ) ...
225 Specifies various options for this service:
227 no-sigterm : specifies that the TERM signal should not be send to the
228 process to terminate it. (Another signal can be specified using
229 the "termsignal" setting; if no other signal is specified, NO
230 signal will be sent).
232 runs-on-console : specifies that this service uses the console; its input
233 and output should be directed to the console. A service running
234 on the console prevents other services from running on the
235 console (they will queue for the console).
237 The "interrupt" key (normally control-C) will be active for
238 process / scripted services that run on the console. Handling
239 of an interrupt is determined by the service process, but
240 typically will cause it to terminate.
242 starts-on-console : specifies that this service uses the console during
243 service startup. This is implied by runs-on-console, but can
244 be specified separately for services that need the console
245 while they start but not afterwards.
247 This setting is not applicable to regular "process" services,
248 but can be used for "scripted" and "bgprocess" services. It
249 allows for interrupting startup via the "interrupt" key
250 (normally control-C). This is useful to allow filesystem checks
251 to be interrupted/skipped.
253 starts-rwfs : this service mounts the root filesystem read/write (or at
254 least mounts the normal writable filesystems for the system).
255 This prompts Dinit to create its control socket, if it has not
256 already managed to do so.
258 starts-log : this service starts the system log daemon. Dinit will begin
259 logging via the /dev/log socket.
261 pass-cs-fd : pass an open Dinit control socket to the process when launching
262 it (the DINIT_CS_FD environment variable will be set to the file
263 descriptor of the socket). This allows the service to issue
264 commands to Dinit even if the regular control socket is not
267 Using this option has security implications! The service which
268 receives the control socket must close it before launching any
269 untrusted processes. You should not use this option unless the
270 service is designed to receive a Dinit control socket.
276 You can use the "dinitctl" to start and stop services. Typical invocations
279 dinitctl start <service-name>
280 dinitctl stop <service-name>
281 dinitctl release <service-name>
283 Note that a "start" markes the service active, as well as starting it if it is
284 not already started; the opposite of this is actually "release", which clears
285 the active mark and stops it if it has no active dependent services. The "stop"
286 command by default acts as a "release" which also forces the service to stop
287 (although it may then immediately restart, depending on how it and its
288 dependents are configured).
290 Use the "-s" switch to talk the "system" instance of dinit, rather than a
291 personal instance, e.g:
293 dinitctl -s start mysql # start system mysql service
295 For complete details on the command line, use:
299 You can "pin" a service in either the stopped or started state, which prevents
300 it from changing state either due to a dependency/dependent or a direct
303 dinitctl -s start --pin mysql # start mysql service, pin it as "started"
304 dinitctl -s stop mysql # issues stop, but doesn't take effect due to pin
305 dinitctl -s unpin mysql # release pin; service will now stop
307 You can pin a service in the stopped state in order to make sure it doesn't
308 get started accidentally (either via a dependency or directly). You can also
309 use it to temporarily keep stopped a service that would otherwise restart
310 immediately when you stopped it (because it, or a dependent, is configured
311 to restart automatically).
313 Finally, you can list the state of all loaded services:
317 This may result in something like the following:
330 The above represents a number of started services and one stopped service
331 (mysql). Services transitioning state (starting or stopping) are displayed
332 with an arrow indicating the transition direction:
334 [ <<{-}] mysql # starting
335 [{+}>> ] mysql # stopping
337 Remember that a "starting" service may be waiting for its dependencies to
338 start, and a "stopping" service may be waiting for its dependencies to stop.