INITCTL(8) System Manager's Manual (smm) INITCTL(8)

initctl — Control tool for Finit

/sbin/initctl [-bcfhjlpqtvV] [COMMAND]

initctl is the official tool for interacting with finit(8). It comes with functions for showing status, querying health of services, as well as editing, enabling and disabling services.

This program follows the usual UNIX command line syntax, with long options starting with two dashes (`-'). The options are as follows:

--batch
Batch mode, no screen size probing. Useful for scripting.
--create
Create missing paths (and files) as needed. Useful with the edit command.
--force
Ignore missing files and arguments, never prompt.
--help
Show built-in help text.
--json
JSON output in status and cond commands.
--noerr
When scripting initctl to stop, start, restart, or signal a task or service, this option can be used to ignore error 69 (no such task or service) and instead return 0 (OK).
--once
Only one lap in commands like top.
--plain
Use plain table headings, no ANSI control characters.
--quiet
Silent, only return status of command.
--no-heading
Skip table headings.
--verbose
Verbose output, where applicable.
--version
Show program version.

initctl debug
Toggle finit (daemon) debug to /dev/console
initctl help
Show built-in help text.
initctl version
Show program version.
initctl ls | list
List all *.conf files in /etc/finit.d
initctl create CONF
Create .conf in /etc/finit.d/available.

Piping the contents into initctl works as one would expect:

echo "task name:foo /tmp/foo.sh -- Foo logger" | initctl create foo
initctl enable foo
initctl reload
initctl delete CONF
Delete .conf in /etc/finit.d/available
initctl show CONF
Show .conf in /etc/finit.d/available
initctl edit CONF
Edit .conf in /etc/finit.d/available
initctl touch CONF
Change (mark as modified) .conf in /etc/finit.d/available, like edit this tells finit that a configuration has been changed and is a candidate to be restarted (or SIGHUP'ed) on initctl reload
initctl enable CONF
Enable .conf in /etc/finit.d/available, i.e., add symlink in /etc/finit.d/enabled
initctl disable CONF
Disable .conf in /etc/finit.d/enabled, i.e., removes symlink.
initctl reload
Reload *.conf in /etc/finit.d, i.e., activates changes.
initctl cond set COND [COND ...]
Set (assert) user-defined condition, +usr/COND
initctl cond get COND
Get (quietly) the status of any condition. Defaults to user-defined condions, but if a slash is detected, e.g., pid/foo or net/eth0/exist, then any condition can be read.

The command is geared for scripting, check the exit code to get the status of the condition: 0 - on, 1 - off, 255 - flux. For a more verbose output, use the -v option.

initctl cond clr | clear COND [COND ...]
Clear (deassert) user-defined condition, -usr/COND
initctl cond status
Show condition status, default cond command. Also supports the -j option for detailed JSON output.
initctl cond dump [TYPE]
Dump all, or a given type of, conditions and their status. Also supports the -j option for detailed JSON output.
initctl ident [NAME]
Display indentities of all run/task/services, or only instances matching NAME. A partial string, e.g., NAM, will not match anything.
initctl log [NAME]
Show ten last Finit, or NAME, messages from syslog.
initctl start NAME[:ID]
Start service by name, with optional ID, e.g., initctl start tty:1
initctl stop NAME[:ID]
Stop/Pause a running service by name.
initctl reload NAME[:ID]
Reload service as if its configuration had changed. Internally, finit marks the named service as "dirty" and turns the state machine, resulting in a SIGHUP or restart of (at least) the named service. Any dependant services are also restarted.

no .conf file is reloaded with this variant of the command. Essentially it is the same as calling restart. Except for two things:

  1. if the service supports HUP, it's signaled instead of stop-started, and
  2. it allows restarting run/task in the same runlevel -- which is otherwise restricted.
initctl signal NAME:[ID] S
Send signal S to service, by name. S may be a complete signal name such as SIGHUP, or short name such as HUP, or the signal number such as 1 (SIGHUP).
initctl restart NAME[:ID]
Restart (stop/start) service by name.
initctl status NAME[:ID]
Show service status, by name. If only NAME is given and multiple instances exits, a summary of all matching instances are shown. Only an exact match displays detailed status for a given instance.

With the -q option this command is silent, provided the NAME[:ID] selection matches a single run/task/service. The exit code of initctl is non-zero if there is a problem. Zero is returned if a run/task has run (at least) once in the current runlevel, and when a service is running (as expected). See the -j option for detailed JSON output suitable for machine parsing.

jq(1) is a useful scripting tool in combination with JSON output.

initctl status
Show status of all services, default command. Also supports the -j option for detailed JSON output.
initctl cgroup
List cgroup config overview.
initctl ps
List processes based on cgroups.
initctl top
Show top-like listing based on cgroups.
initctl plugins
List installed plugins.
initctl runlevel [0-9]
Show or set runlevel: 0 halt, 6 reboot.

If called at boot (runlevel S) to set the runlevel, Finit only schedules the change, effectively overriding the configured runlevel from /etc/finit.conf. Useful to trigger a fail-safe mode, or similar.

initctl reboot
Reboot system, default if reboot is symlinked to initctl.
initctl halt
Halt system, default if halt is symlinked to initctl.
initctl poweroff
Power-off system, default if poweroff is symlinked to initctl.
initctl suspend
Suspend system, default if suspend is symlinked to initctl.
initctl utmp show
Raw dump of UTMP/WTMP db.

finit.conf(5) finit(8)

finit was conceived and reverse engineered by Claudio Matsuoka. Since v1.0, maintained by Joachim Wiberg, with contributions by many others.

June 6, 2021 Linux