STARTPROC(8) The SuSE boot concept STARTPROC(8)NAME
Startproc - Start processes identified by path name
Start_daemon - Start processes identified by path name
SYNOPSIS
startproc [-fLves] [-x] [[-n ]+/-<prio>] [-(t|T) <sec>] [-u user]
[-g group] [-l log_file|-q|-d] [-p pid_file] [-i ignore_file]
[-c root] [-(w|W <file list>)] /path/to/executable [arguments
for executable]
start_daemon [-fLve] [-x] [-n +/-<prio>] [-u user] [-g group]
[-l log_file|-q|-d] [-p pid_file] [-i ignore_file] [-c root]
/path/to/executable [arguments for executable]
SYNOPSIS LSB 3.1start_daemon [-f] [-n +/-<prio>] /path/to/executable [arguments for
executable]
DESCRIPTION
startproc and the LSB variant start_daemon check for all processes of
the specified executable and starts it if no processes are found. Note
that startproc is designed to start a daemon but not a kernel thread or
a program which enables a kernel thread.
Without any option startproc does search for a process by using the
full path of the corresponding program and a default pid file
(/var/run/<basename>.pid) which are used together to identify the exe‐
cutable out from the /proc file system (see proc(5)). Only if the
inode number (/proc/<pid>/exe) and the full name are unavailable
(/proc/<pid>/cmdline) or if the executable changes its zeroth argument,
startproc uses the base name (/proc/<pid>/stat) to identify the running
program.
Extended functionality is provided by the -p option (former option -f
changed due to the LSB specification). If this option is specified,
startproc tries to check against the pid read from this file instead of
the default pid file (/var/run/<basename>.pid). The pid read from this
file is compared against the pids of possible running processes that
use the specified executable. In order to avoid confusion with stale
pid files, a not up-to-date pid will be ignored.
For the possibility of having two different sessions of one binary pro‐
gram, the option -i ignore_file allows to specify a pid file which pid
number is used to ignore all processes of corresponding process ses‐
sion.
The option -v makes startproc print out verbose diagnostics.
The start_daemon does not support the options -(t|T) <sec> nor
-(w|W <file list>) for waiting for success and the option -s for a new
session as this variant does not fork to start the executable.
REQUIRED
/path/to/executable
Specifies the executable by its full path name. This argument is
always required. Everything that follows this path is considered
options for the executable to be launched. Further information
can be obtained from the respective manpage(s).
OPTIONS
[-n ]+/-<prio>
Set the nice level for the process. If used, this option should
always be the first in the command line. The nice level <prio>
may be specified in the range between -20 and +20. Only root is
allowed to set negative nice values.
-e Bequeath only a minimal set of environment variables to the new
process: HOME, PATH, SHELL, RUNLEVEL, and PREVLEVEL.
-p pid_file
(Former option -f changed due to the LSB specification.) Use an
alternate pid file instead of the default (/var/run/<base‐
name>.pid). The pid read from this file is being matched
against the pid of running processes that have an executable
with specified path. In order to avoid confusion with stale pid
files, a not up-to-date pid will be ignored. Obviously this
option does not work if option -f is specified.
-i ignore_file
The pid found in this file is used as session id of the same
binary program which should be ignored by startproc. Obviously
this option does not work if option -f is specified.
-f This option is required by the Linux Standard Base Specification
(LSB). With this option the start of a process is forced.
-g group
Sets the group ID of the process to gid.
-l log_file
Redirect the process standard output and standard error to the
file log_file.
-L This option causes symlinks to be followed, as the like-named
option in ls(1). BR Note : for the file name the original name
of the program is used instead of the name of the symbolic link.
-c root
Change root directory to root. Services which have been started
with this option can only be checked by checkproc(8) and sig‐
naled by killproc(8) if checkproc(8) and killproc(8) are called
with the same option argument for the option -c.
-q Equals to -l /dev/null (supresses output).
-d Let startproc expect that the started service will do a dialog
by prompting for, e.g. a passphrase. This option implies a
timeout of 15 seconds (-t 15).
-s Starts the process in a new session. The new task is a process
group leader and has no controlling tty.
-t <sec>
The number of seconds to wait after the successful start of a
service. This options accepts the number of seconds to wait.
You can specify some units after a given number: s for seconds,
m for minutes, and h for hours to wait.
-T <sec>
The same as for option -t but wait only on the started process
not on childs forked by the process.
-w Wait the first started process to terminate before returning.
If the parent process of the daemon does not finish also start‐
proc(8) does not finish.
-W <file list>
Wait on the provided file or list of files separated with
colons. If the files will not be created startproc(8) does not
finish.
-u user
Sets the user ID of the process to user.
-v Verbose output.
-x Tells startproc as well as start_daemon to use the upto 15 byte
long filename name found in /proc/<pid>/stat to be able to iden‐
tify scripts overwriting their command line.
EXAMPLE
startproc /usr/sbin/sendmail
starts /usr/sbin/sendmail if no sendmail process is found. If a
pid file sendmail.pid exists in /var/run/, then the pid found in
this file is used to search the process table for a process with
an executable that matches the specified pathname,
/usr/sbin/sendmail. If no matching process is found,
/usr/sbin/sendmail is launched.
startproc -p /var/myrun/lpd.pid /usr/sbin/lpd
starts /usr/sbin/lpd if there is no process with the pid found
in /var/myrun/lpd.pid and no process in the actual process table
exists that uses the specified binary.
EXIT CODES
The exit codes have the following LSB conform conditions:
0 Success
1 Generic or unspecified error
2 Invalid or excess argument(s)
4 Insufficient privilege(s)
5 Program is not installed
7 Program is not running
In some error cases, diagnostic output is sent to standard error, or,
if standard error is not available, syslogd(8) is being used.
NOTE
startproc is a replacement for the Bourne shell function daemon found
in the widely used SysVinit package of Miquel van Smoorenburg,
<miquels@cistron.nl>. startproc is not useful to start kernel threads.
This should be done by service utilities designed for the purpose to
accomplish this task.
BUGS
Identifying a process based on the executable file and the correspond‐
ing inode number only works if the process stays alive during start‐
proc's execution. Processes rewriting their zeroth argument or shell
scripts (the inode number of the shell executable file is not identical
to that of the script file) may not be identified by a filename path.
Startproc does not start a process if there already exists one being in
the zombie state. Zombies are processes which arn't alive but listed
in the process table to have the exit status ready for the correspond‐
ing parent processes. Therefore the parent processes should be check
out.
Start_daemon is not able to check for exit status of an executable dae‐
mon because after the final execve(3) the start_daemon as an own
process does not exit anymore.
FILES
/proc/ path to the proc file system (see proc(5)).
/etc/init.d/
path to the SuSE boot concept script base directory as required
by the Linux Standard Base Specification (LSB) (see
init.d(7)).
SEE ALSOcheckproc(8), killproc(8), insserv(8), init.d(7), kill(1), skill(1),
killall(8), killall5(8), signal(7), proc(5).
COPYRIGHT
1994-2007 Werner Fink, 1996-2000 SuSE GmbH Nuernberg, Germany. 2007
SuSE LINUX Products GmbH, Nuernberg, Germany.
AUTHOR
Werner Fink <werner@suse.de>
3rd Berkeley Distribution Nov 30, 2007 STARTPROC(8)
