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INITTAB(5)            Linux System Administrator's Manual           INITTAB(5)



NAME
       inittab  -  format of the inittab file used by the sysv-compatible init
       process

DESCRIPTION
       The inittab file describes which processes are started  at  bootup  and
       during  normal  operation  (e.g. /etc/init.d/boot, /etc/init.d/rc, get-
       tys...).  Init(8) distinguishes multiple runlevels, each of  which  can
       have  its  own  set of processes that are started.  Valid runlevels are
       0-6 plus A, B, and C for ondemand entries.  An  entry  in  the  inittab
       file has the following format:

              id:runlevels:action:process

       Lines beginning with `#' are ignored.

       id     is a unique sequence of 1-4 characters which identifies an entry
              in inittab (for versions of sysvinit compiled with the old libc5
              (< 5.2.18) or a.out libraries the limit is 2 characters).

              Note:  traditionally,  for  getty and other login processes, the
              value of the id field is kept the same as the suffix of the cor-
              responding  tty,  e.g. 1 for tty1. Some ancient login accounting
              programs might expect this, though I can't think of any.

       runlevels
              lists the runlevels for which the  specified  action  should  be
              taken.

       action describes which action should be taken.

       process
              specifies  the  process  to  be  executed.  If the process field
              starts with a `+' character, init will  not  do  utmp  and  wtmp
              accounting  for  that  process.   This is needed for gettys that
              insist on doing their own utmp/wtmp housekeeping.  This is  also
              a historic bug.

       The  runlevels field may contain multiple characters for different run-
       levels.  For example, 123 specifies that the process should be  started
       in  runlevels 1, 2, and 3.  The runlevels for ondemand entries may con-
       tain an A, B, or C.  The runlevels field of sysinit, boot, and bootwait
       entries are ignored.

       When the system runlevel is changed, any running processes that are not
       specified for the new runlevel are killed,  first  with  SIGTERM,  then
       with SIGKILL.

       Valid actions for the action field are:

       respawn
              The  process  will  be  restarted  whenever  it terminates (e.g.
              getty).

       wait   The process will be started once when the specified runlevel  is
              entered and init will wait for its termination.

       once   The process will be executed once when the specified runlevel is
              entered.

       boot   The process will be executed during system boot.  The  runlevels
              field is ignored.

       bootwait
              The  process  will  be  executed  during system boot, while init
              waits for its termination (e.g. /etc/rc).  The  runlevels  field
              is ignored.

       off    This does nothing.

       ondemand
              A  process  marked  with  an  ondemand runlevel will be executed
              whenever the specified ondemand runlevel is called.  However, no
              runlevel change will occur (ondemand runlevels are `a', `b', and
              `c').

       initdefault
              An initdefault entry specifies  the  runlevel  which  should  be
              entered  after system boot.  If none exists, init will ask for a
              runlevel on the console. The process field is ignored.

       sysinit
              The process will be executed during system boot. It will be exe-
              cuted before any boot or  bootwait entries.  The runlevels field
              is ignored.

       powerwait
              The process will be executed when the power goes down.  Init  is
              usually  informed  about this by a process talking to a UPS con-
              nected to the computer.  Init will wait for the process to  fin-
              ish before continuing.

       powerfail
              As  for  powerwait,  except that init does not wait for the pro-
              cess's completion.

       powerokwait
              This process will be executed as soon  as  init  is  informormed
              that the power has been restored.

       powerfailnow
              This process will be executed when init is told that the battery
              of the external UPS is almost empty and  the  power  is  failing
              (provided  that  the external UPS and the monitoring process are
              able to detect this condition).

       resume This process will be executed when init is told  by  the  kernel
              that  Software Suspend has resumed the machine. This way you may
              specify userland programs what can restore hardware  states  the
              kernel cannot (for example svgatextmode and hdparm).

       ctrlaltdel
              The  process will be executed when init receives the SIGINT sig-
              nal.  This means that someone on the system console has  pressed
              the CTRL-ALT-DEL key combination. Typically one wants to execute
              some sort of shutdown either to get into single-user level or to
              reboot the machine.

       kbrequest
              The  process  will  be executed when init receives a signal from
              the keyboard handler that a special key combination was  pressed
              on the console keyboard.

              The  documentation  for  this function is not complete yet; more
              documentation can be found in the kbd-x.xx packages (most recent
              was kbd-0.94 at the time of this writing). Basically you want to
              map some keyboard combination to  the  "KeyboardSignal"  action.
              For  example,  to  map  Alt-Uparrow  for  this  purpose  use the
              following in your keymaps file:

              alt keycode 103 = KeyboardSignal


EXAMPLES
       This is an example of a inittab which resembles the old Linux inittab:

              # inittab for linux
              id:1:initdefault:
              rc::bootwait:/etc/rc
              1:1:respawn:/etc/getty 9600 tty1
              2:1:respawn:/etc/getty 9600 tty2
              3:1:respawn:/etc/getty 9600 tty3
              4:1:respawn:/etc/getty 9600 tty4

       This inittab file executes /etc/rc during boot and starts mingettys  on
       tty1-tty4.

       A  more  elaborate  inittab  with different runlevels (see the comments
       inside):

              # Level to run in
              id:2:initdefault:

              # Boot-time system configuration/initialization script.
              si:I:bootwait:/etc/init.d/boot

              # Runlevel 0  is  System halt   (Never use this as initdefault!)
              # Runlevel 1  is  Single user mode
              # Runlevel 2  is  Local multiuser without remote network (e.g. NFS)
              # Runlevel 3  is  Full multiuser with network
              # Runlevel 4  is  Not used
              # Runlevel 5  is  Full multiuser with network and xdm
              # Runlevel 6  is  System reboot (Never use this as initdefault!)

              l0:0:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 0
              l1:1:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 1
              l2:2:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 2
              l3:3:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 3
              l4:4:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 4
              l5:5:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 5
              l6:6:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 6

              # What to do in single-user mode
              ls:S:wait:/etc/init.d/rc S
              ~~:S:respawn:/sbin/sulogin

              # What to do at the "3 finger salute".
              ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t5 -h now

              # Runlevel 2 upto 5: mingetty on console.
              # level 2, 3, and 5 also getty on serial port S0.
              1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty --noclear tty1
              2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2
              3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3
              4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4
              5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5
              6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6
              S0:235:respawn:/sbin/agetty -L 9600 ttyS0 vt102

              # modem getty(s),
              # /dev/modem is a link to the modem device.
              #mo:235:respawn:/usr/sbin/mgetty -s 38400 modem
              mo:235:respawn:/sbin/uugetty modem M19200



FILES
       /etc/inittab

AUTHOR
       Init was written by Miquel van Smoorenburg (miquels@cistron.nl).   This
       manual  page  was written by Sebastian Lederer (lederer@francium.infor-
       matik.uni-bonn.de) and modified by Michael Haardt  (u31b3hs@pool.infor-
       matik.rwth-aachen.de).

SEE ALSO
       init(8), telinit(8), init.d(7), agetty(8), mgetty(8)



                                  Dec 4, 2001                       INITTAB(5)


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