Manual pages › File formats and configuration files (4)

inittab(4)

what init starts, at boot and at each run level

Package: amxbase, added for amigaux.

This package comes with every 1.1 install; without it, the original page is inittab-original(4).

NAME

inittab - what init starts, at boot and at each run level

SYNOPSIS

/etc/inittab

DESCRIPTION

init(1M) reads /etc/inittab at boot and whenever the run level changes, and starts, waits for or restarts the commands it lists. The file shipped with the base package is the system's own, from release 2.1p2a, with one line added.

Format

Each entry is one line of four fields separated by colons:

id:rstate:action:process

id: one to four characters naming the entry, unique in the file.
rstate: the run levels (0-6, s) at which the entry applies, written together (as in 23); empty for every level.
action: how init treats the process:

sysinit: run, and waited for, at boot before init asks for or enters a run level; these entries run in the order they are written.
bootwait: run once, when the system first enters a listed run level, and waited for.
wait: run, and waited for, on entering a listed run level.
respawn: kept running: started again whenever it ends.
powerfail: run when init is told of a power failure.
initdefault: not a process: its rstate is the run level to enter at boot.

process: the command, given to sh(1) to run; the rest of the line after a # is a comment.

A line that starts with # is a comment.

The shipped entries

The first line sets run level 2 as the one the system boots to. The sysinit entries then run, in this order:

dlm, the line the base package adds: /sbin/modadmin -B loads the kernel modules marked for boot. It is the first sysinit entry because the drivers it loads (the network, the console and the monitor switch among them) must be there before the entries after it use them.
autopush(1M) with /etc/amiga.ap, the STREAMS modules pushed on the console devices;
the console set-up (sioc, and /dev/syscon linked to the console);
/etc/sysinit, the system's own early checks.

After them come /etc/brc (at boot), one /etc/rc script for each run level (rc0, rc1, rc2, rc3, and rc6 for a reboot), the power-failure shutdown, the service access controller sac(1M), and the console login. Logins on the serial ports and the other screens are set up with pmadm(1M), not here.

An update of the base package keeps an edited /etc/inittab and puts the new default beside it as /etc/inittab.new.

The system's own page for this file, where it is installed, is shown by man -a inittab.

FILES

/etc/inittab: this file.