INSSERV(8) System Manager's Manual INSSERV(8)
NAME
insserv - boot sequence organizer using LSB init.d script dependency
information
SYNOPSIS
insserv [-v] [-c <config>] [-p <path>] [-d] [-f]
[[/]path/to/init.d/]script ...
insserv [-v] [-c <config>] [-p <path>]
[[/]path/to/init.d/]script[,start=<lvl1,lvl2,...>,stop=<lvl1,lvl2,...>]
insserv [-v] [-c <config>] [-p <path>] -r [-d] [-f]
[[/]path/to/init.d/]script ...
insserv -h
DESCRIPTION
insserv is a low level tool used by update-rc.d which enables an in-
stalled system init script (`boot script') by reading the comment
header of the script, e.g.:
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: boot_facility_1 [ boot_facility_2 ...]
# Required-Start: boot_facility_1 [ boot_facility_2 ...]
# Required-Stop: boot_facility_1 [ boot_facility_2 ...]
# Should-Start: boot_facility_1 [ boot_facility_2 ...]
# Should-Stop: boot_facility_1 [ boot_facility_2 ...]
# X-Start-Before: boot_facility_1 [ boot_facility_2 ...]
# X-Stop-After: boot_facility_1 [ boot_facility_2 ...]
# Default-Start: run_level_1 [ run_level_2 ...]
# Default-Stop: run_level_1 [ run_level_2 ...]
# X-Interactive: true
# Short-Description: single_line_description
# Description: multiline_description
### END INIT INFO
and calculating the dependencies between all scripts. It is not recom-
mended to execute insserv directly unless you know exactly what you're
doing, doing so may render your boot system inoperable. update-rc.d is
the recommended interface for managing init scripts. Please be aware
that the line
# Required-Stop: boot_facility_1 [ boot_facility_2 ...]
declares facilities which must be available during shutdown of the ser-
vice declared in the Provides tag. Same holds true for
# Should-Stop: boot_facility_1 [ boot_facility_2 ...]
which declares facilities which should be available during shutdown of
the service declared in the Provides tag. In both cases the script
system should avoid stopping services which are declared by these two
Stop tags until the script including these tags is stopped.
The optional X-Interactive keyword implies that the script using this
keyword should be started alone in a concurrent boot configuration be-
cause it interact with the user at the console. Only the value `true'
is recognised. All others are ignored.
The optional X-Start-Before keyword implies that the script using this
keyword should be started before the specified service names. Whereas
the optional X-Stop-After keyword implies that the script using this
keyword should be stopped after the specified service names. Both im-
plies that those services now depend on the specifying script. With
known dependencies and runlevel(s) insserv sets and reorders the corre-
sponding symbolic links of the concerned runlevels directories.
insserv scans for System Facilities in the configuration file /etc/in-
sserv.conf and each file in the directory /etc/insserv.conf.d/. Each
line which begins with $ and a following name defines a system facility
accordingly to the Linux Standard Base Specification (LSB), All names
followed by such a system facility will declare the required dependen-
cies of the facility. Here is an example for /etc/insserv.conf:
# All local filesystems are mounted
# (done during boot phase)
$local_fs boot
# Low level networking
$network network route
# Named is operational
$named named
# All remote filesystems are mounted
# (in some cases /usr may be remote).
$remote_fs $local_fs nfs
# System logger is operational
$syslog syslog
# All network daemons are running (This was removed in LSB 1.2)
$netdaemons portmap inetd
# Services which need to be interactive
<interactive> boot.crypto
Names starting with a `+' sign are marked as optional. If the service
with the name after the plus sign is available it will be used, if not
available it is ignored silently. Words beginning with < and ending
with > are keywords. Currently <interactive> is the only know keyword
for marking a service as an interactive one, e.g., a service which re-
quires a passphrase or password input during boot or runlevel change.
The special facility $null is used to enforce an empty dependency in
case of Should-Stop and Required-Stop.
In addition to the defined System Facilities in the configuration file
/etc/insserv.conf, insserv also knows the special facility $all. This
facility indicates that a service should be inserted at the end of all
services at starting and at the very beginning at stopping. Clearly
all services using this facility will be grouped into one starting or
stopping order.
OPTIONS
Currently the following options are recognized by insserv:
-v, --verbose
Perform operation with more diagnostic messages printed on
stderr.
-q, --silent
Perform operations silently. This blocks warning messages from
being printed to stderr. Only fatal error messages are printed.
-c <config>, --config <config>
Specify path to the insserv.conf file and the insserv.conf.d di-
rectory. Useful for testing.
-i, --insserv-dir
The insserv program will try to place dependency information in
the /etc/init.d directory. When using the -i flag, the user can
specify an alternative directory for dependency information.
This is typically used when debugging insserv.
-o <path>, --override <path>
LSB comment headers found in this path will override existing
LSB comment headers of scripts in the init.d directory (default
path is /etc/insserv/overrides/).
-p <path>, --path <path>
Specify path to init.d directory. Useful for testing.
-n, --dryrun, --dry-run
Do not update symlinks. Does not create depend.boot, de-
pend.start, and depend.stop files.
-s, --showall, --show-all
Output runlevel and sequence information. Do not update sym-
links.
-r, --remove
Remove the listed scripts from all runlevels.
-d, --default
Use default runlevels as defined in the scripts. This may re-
store an edited runlevel link scheme.
-f, --force
Ignore if a required service is missed. Beside this if start
and or stop levels are specified on the command line the default
levels of the script will be ignored.
-u <path>, --upstart-job <path>
Path to replace existing upstart job path. (default path is
/lib/init/upstart-job).
-h, --help
Print out short usage message.
But you may use the argument syntax described in the following section.
ARGUMENTS
[[/]path/to/init.d/]
Relative or absolute path to the init scripts base directory.
This defaults to /etc/init.d/ in compliance with the LSB speci-
fication. In this case insserv does not add or remove a script
to the runlevels declared in the script headers, but may re-or-
der the runlevels if the order of the currently enabled scripts
has changed (see option -d). Note that if a relative path is
used insserv has to be called from the root directory.
[[/]path/to/init.d/]script ...
List of scripts which have to be added to the runlevels. If a
path is used it should point to the absolute or relative loca-
tion of the boot scripts. insserv checks for the existence of
these scripts. For the runlevels the information found in the
script is used.
[[/]path/to/init.d/]script[,start=<lvl1,lvl2,...>]
List of scripts which have to be added to the specified run-
levels to be started with. You may use this extension to over-
ride the default values for start and stop runlevels of the
script. Note that lvl1, lvl2, ... are the known runlevels ex-
plained above. The extension ,stop=<lvl1,lvl2,...> is also pos-
sible.
-r [[/]path/to/init.d/]script ...
List of scripts which should be removed from the runlevels. If
a path is used it should point to the absolute or relative loca-
tion of the boot scripts. insserv checks for the existence of
these scripts.
OVERRIDES
Beside using the extensions ,start=<lvl1,lvl2,...> and
,stop=<lvl1,lvl2,...> it is possible to use override files replace a
LSB comment header or simple provide a missing LSB comment header.
This can be done by placing a file with the new LSB comment header us-
ing the same name as the boot or init script in the directory /etc/in-
sserv/overrides/. For third party boot scripts without LSB header it
is possible to add a file with the same name in the directory
/usr/share/insserv/overrides/ to make them completely LSB compliant.
UPSTART JOB COMPATIBILITY
To allow upstart jobs to work as init.d scripts, insserv will recognize
a symlink from path/to/init.d/script to /lib/init/upstart-job as up-
start jobs, and instead of reading the header from the file will run
the script with the argument lsb-header to get the script header.
EXIT CODES
The exit codes have the following conditions:
0 Service was successfully installed or removed
1 Service was not installed or removed
NOTE
Please be aware that the following patterns of boot script file names
will be not accepted by insserv:
*.dpkg*
*.rpm*
*.ba*
*.old
*.new
*.org
*.orig
*.save
*.swp
*.core
*~
with the wildcard character *. Beside this all boot script file names
beginning with one of the following characters
$.#%_+-\*[]^:()~
will be ignored. Administrators can further filter files by extension
in the /etc/init.d/ directory by creating a text file called /etc/in-
sserv/file-filters. The file-filters configuration file lists (one per
line) extensions which should be ignored by insserv as it parses the
/etc/init.d/ directory. An example of /etc/insserv/file-filters might
look like this:
git
svn
html
BUGS
Boot scripts sometimes lack a LSB comment header. Contact a package
maintainer or developer of the software which provides the script to
have a LSB comment header added to it.
FILES
/etc/insserv.conf
configuration file for insserv which defines the LSB System Fa-
cilities.
/etc/insserv.conf.d/
directory for further configuration files for declaring LSB Sys-
tem Facilities.
/etc/insserv/overrides/
path to replace existing LSB comment headers with the comment
headers found in this path.
/etc/insserv/file-filters
configuration file which lists file extensions (one per line) we
should ignore when parsing the init.d directory.
/etc/init.d/
path to the init script base directory as required by the Linux
Standard Base Specification (LSB).
/etc/init.d/.depend.boot,
/etc/init.d/.depend.start,
/etc/init.d/.depend.stop
The make(1) like dependency files produced by insserv for boot-
ing, starting, and stopping with the help of startpar(1).
SEE ALSO
init(8), startpar(1).
COPYRIGHT
2000-2009 Werner Fink,
2009 SuSE Linux Products GmbH Nuernberg, Germany.
2000-2003 SuSE GmbH Nuernberg, Germany,
2007-2009 SuSE Linux Products GmbH Nuernberg, Germany.
2019- Jesse Smith
AUTHOR
Werner Fink <feedback@suse.de>
CONTRIBUTORS
Petter Reinholdtsen
Kel Modderman
3rd Berkeley Distribution July 29, 2008 INSSERV(8)