NAME
rc.subr
—
functions used by system shell
scripts
SYNOPSIS
- .
/etc/rc.subr
backup_file
action file current backupbasename
file [suffix]checkyesno
varcheck_pidfile
pidfile procname [interpreter]check_process
procname [interpreter]collapse_backslash_newline
dirname
fileerr
exitval messageload_rc_config
commandload_rc_config_var
command varmount_critical_filesystems
typeno_rc_postprocess
command [arguments]print_rc_metadata
stringprint_rc_normal
[-n
] stringrc_usage
command [...]reverse_list
item [...]run_rc_command
argument [parameters]run_rc_script
file argumentstop_boot
twiddle
wait_for_pids
[pid [...]]warn
messageyesno_to_truefalse
var
DESCRIPTION
rc.subr
contains commonly used shell script functions
which are used by various scripts such as
rc(8),
and the periodic system services which are controlled by
daily.conf(5),
monthly.conf(5),
security.conf(5), and
weekly.conf(5).
The rc.subr
functions are accessed by
sourcing /etc/rc.subr into the current shell.
The following shell functions are available:
backup_file
action file current backup- Make a backup copy of file into
current. If the
rc.conf(5) variable
backup_uses_rcs
is ‘YES’, use
rcs(1) to archive the previous version of
current, otherwise save the previous version of
current as backup.
action may be one of the following:
- add
- file is now being backed up by or possibly re-entered into this backup mechanism. current is created, and if necessary, the rcs(1) files are created as well.
- update
- file has changed and needs to be backed up. If current exists, it is copied to backup or checked into rcs(1) (if the repository file is old), and then file is copied to current.
- remove
- file is no longer being tracked by this backup mechanism. If rcs(1) is being used, an empty file is checked in and current is removed, otherwise current is moved to backup.
basename
file [suffix] Just like basename(1), except implemented using shell built-in commands, and usable before the /usr/bin direcory is available. checkyesno
var- Return 0 if var is defined to ‘YES’,
‘TRUE’, ‘ON’, or ‘1’. Return 1
if var is defined to ‘NO’,
‘FALSE’, ‘OFF’, or ‘0’.
Otherwise, warn that var is not set correctly. The
values are case insensitive.
Note that the warning message shown by this function when var is not set references a manual page where the user can find more information. Its name is picked up from the rcvar_manpage variable.
check_pidfile
pidfile procname [interpreter]- Parses the first word of the first line of pidfile
for a PID, and ensures that the process with that PID is running and its
first argument matches procname. Prints the matching
PID if successful, otherwise nothing. If interpreter
is provided, parse the first line of procname,
ensure that the line is of the form
and use interpreter with its optional arguments and procname appended as the process string to search for.
#! interpreter [...]
check_process
procname [interpreter]- Prints the PIDs of any processes that are running with a first argument
that matches procname.
interpreter is handled as per
check_pidfile
. collapse_backslash_newline
- Copy input to output, collapsing
⟨backslash⟩⟨newline⟩ to nothing, but leaving
other backslashes alone.
dirname
file Just like dirname(1), except implemented using shell built-in commands, and usable before the /usr/bin direcory is available. err
exitval message- Display an error message to stderr, log it to the system
log using logger(1), and
exit
with an exit value of exitval. The error message consists of the script name (from $0), followed by “: ERROR: ”, and then message. load_rc_config
command- Source in the
rc.conf(5) configuration files for command.
First, /etc/rc.conf is sourced if it has not yet
been read in. Then,
/etc/rc.conf.d/command is
sourced if it is an existing file. The latter may also contain other
variable assignments to override
run_rc_command
arguments defined by the calling script, to provide an easy mechanism for an administrator to override the behaviour of a given rc.d(8) script without requiring the editing of that script. load_rc_config_var
command var- Read the rc.conf(5) variable var for
command and set in the current shell, using
load_rc_config
in a sub-shell to prevent unwanted side effects from other variable assignments. mount_critical_filesystems
type- Go through a list of critical file systems, as found in the rc.conf(5) variable critical_filesystems_type, mounting each one that is not currently mounted.
no_rc_postprocess
command [arguments]- Execute the specified command with the specified arguments, in such a way
that its output bypasses the post-processor that
rc(8)
uses for most commands. This implies that the output will not appear in
the /var/run/rc.log file, and will appear on the
console regardless of the value of rc_silent. This
is expected to be useful for interactive commands, and this mechanism is
automatically used by
run_rc_command
when a script contains the rcorder(8) keyword “interactive”.If invoked from a context that does not appear to be under the control of rc(8), then the command is executed without special treatment.
print_rc_metadata
string- Print the specified string in such a way that it
should be handled as meta-data by the
rc(8)
post-processor. If invoked from a context that does not appear to be under
the control of rc(8), then the string is discarded.
Any rc.d(8) script may invoke this function with an argument that begins with “note:”, followed by one line of arbitrary text; the text will be logged by rc(8) but will not be displayed on the console.
The use of arguments that do not begin with “note:” is reserved for internal use by rc(8) and
rc.subr
. print_rc_normal
[-n
] string- Print the specified string in such a way that it
should be handled as normal output by the
rc(8)
post-processor. If invoked from a context that does not appear to be under
the control of rc(8), then the string is printed to
standard output.
If the
-n
flag is specified, then the string is printed without a newline.Intended use cases include:
- An rc.d script can use “print_rc_normal
-n
” to print a partial line in such a way that it appears immediately instead of being buffered by rc(8)'s post-processor. - An rc.d script that is run via the no_rc_postprocess function (so most of its output is invisible to rc(8)'s post-processor) can use print_rc_normal to force some of its output to be seen by the post-processor.
- An rc.d script can use “print_rc_normal
rc_usage
command [...]- Print a usage message for $0, with commands being the list of valid arguments prefixed by “[fast|force|one]”.
reverse_list
item [...]- Print the list of items in reverse order.
run_rc_command
argument [parameter ...]- Run the argument method for the current
rc.d(8) script, based on the settings of various shell variables.
run_rc_command
is extremely flexible, and allows fully functional rc.d(8) scripts to be implemented in a small amount of shell code. The optional set of parameters is passed verbatim to the command, but not to its pre/post hooks.argument is searched for in the list of supported commands, which may be one of:
- start
- Start the service. This should check that the service is to be started as specified by rc.conf(5). Also checks if the service is already running and refuses to start if it is. This latter check is not performed by standard NetBSD scripts if the system is starting directly to multi-user mode, to speed up the boot process.
- stop
- If the service is to be started as specified by rc.conf(5), stop the service. This should check that the service is running and complain if it's not.
- restart
- Perform a stop then a start. Defaults to displaying the process ID of the program (if running).
- rcvar
- Display which rc.conf(5) variables are used to control the startup of the service (if any).
If pidfile or procname is set, also support:
Other supported commands are listed in the optional variable extra_commands.
argument may have one of the following prefixes which alters its operation:
- fast
- Skip the check for an existing running process, and sets rc_fast=YES.
- force
- Skip the checks for rcvar being set to yes, and sets rc_force=YES. This ignores argument_precmd returning non-zero, and ignores any of the required_* tests failing, and always returns a zero exit status.
- one
- Skip the checks for rcvar being set to yes, but performs all the other prerequisite tests.
run_rc_command
uses the following shell variables to control its behaviour. Unless otherwise stated, these are optional.- name
- The name of this script. This is not optional.
- rcvar
- The value of rcvar is checked with
checkyesno
to determine if this method should be run. - rcvar_manpage
- The manual page containing information about rcvar. It will be part of the warning message shown when rcvar is undefined. Defaults to rc.conf(5).
- command
- Full path to the command. Not required if argument_cmd is defined for each supported keyword.
- command_args
- Optional arguments and/or shell directives for command.
- command_interpreter
- command
is started with
which results in its ps(1) command being
#! command_interpreter [...]
so use that string to find the PID(s) of the running command rather than ‘command_interpreter [...] command
command
’. - extra_commands
- Extra commands/keywords/arguments supported.
- pidfile
- Path to pid file. Used to determine the PID(s) of the running command.
If pidfile is set, use
to find the PID. Otherwise, if command is set, use
check_pidfile $pidfile $procname
to find the PID.check_process $procname
- procname
- Process name to check for. Defaults to the value of command.
- required_dirs
- Check for the existence of the listed directories before running the default start method.
- required_files
- Check for the readability of the listed files before running the default start method.
- required_vars
- Perform
checkyesno
on each of the list variables before running the default start method. - ${name}_chdir
- Directory to
cd
to before running command, if ${name}_chroot is not provided. - ${name}_chroot
- Directory to chroot(8) to before running command. Only supported after /usr is mounted.
- ${name}_env
- List of additional or modified environment variables to set when starting command.
- ${name}_flags
- Arguments to call command with. This is usually set
in rc.conf(5), and not in the
rc.d(8) script. The environment variable
‘
flags
’ can be used to override this. - ${name}_nice
- nice(1) level to run command as. Only supported after /usr is mounted.
- ${name}_user
- User to run command as, using chroot(8). if ${name}_chroot is set, otherwise uses su(1). Only supported after /usr is mounted.
- ${name}_group
- Group to run the chrooted command as.
- ${name}_groups
- Comma separated list of supplementary groups to run the chrooted command with.
- argument_cmd
- Shell commands which override the default method for argument.
- argument_precmd
- Shell commands to run just before running argument_cmd or the default method for argument. If this returns a non-zero exit code, the main method is not performed. If the default method is being executed, this check is performed after the required_* checks and process (non-)existence checks.
- argument_postcmd
- Shell commands to run if running argument_cmd or the default method for argument returned a zero exit code.
- sig_stop
- Signal to send the processes to stop in the default
stop method. Defaults to
SIGTERM
. - sig_reload
- Signal to send the processes to reload in the default
reload method. Defaults to
SIGHUP
.
For a given method argument, if argument_cmd is not defined, then a default method is provided by run_rc_command:
- Argument
- Default method
- start
- If command is not running and
checkyesno
rcvar succeeds, start command. - stop
- Determine the PIDs of command with
check_pidfile
orcheck_process
(as appropriate),kill
sig_stop those PIDs, and runwait_for_pids
on those PIDs. - reload
- Similar to stop, except that it uses
sig_reload instead, and doesn't run
wait_for_pids
. - restart
- Runs the stop method, then the start method.
- status
- Show the PID of command, or some other script specific status operation.
- poll
- Wait for command to exit.
- rcvar
- Display which rc.conf(5) variable is used (if any). This method always works, even if the appropriate rc.conf(5) variable is set to ‘NO’.
The following variables are available to the methods (such as argument_cmd) as well as after
run_rc_command
has completed:- rc_arg
- Argument provided to run_rc_command, after fast and force processing has been performed.
- rc_flags
- Flags to start the default command with. Defaults to
${name}_flags, unless overridden by the environment
variable ‘
flags
’. This variable may be changed by the argument_precmd method. - rc_pid
- PID of command (if appropriate).
- rc_fast
- Not empty if “fast” prefix was used.
- rc_force
- Not empty if “force” prefix was used.
run_rc_script
file argument- Start the script file with an argument of
argument, and handle the return value from the
script.
Various shell variables are unset before file is started:
name, command, command_args, command_interpreter, extra_commands, pidfile, rcvar, required_dirs, required_files, required_vars, argument_cmd, argument_precmd. argument_postcmd.The startup behaviour of file depends upon the following checks:
- If file ends in .sh, it is sourced into the current shell.
- If file appears to be a backup or scratch file (e.g., with a suffix of ‘~’, ‘#’, ‘.OLD’, or ‘.orig’), ignore it.
- If file is not executable, ignore it.
- If the rc.conf(5) variable rc_fast_and_loose is empty, source file in a sub shell, otherwise source file into the current shell.
- If file contains the
rcorder(8) keyword “interactive”, then
the command is executed using
no_rc_postprocess
.
stop_boot
- Prevent booting to multiuser mode. If the
autoboot
variable is ‘yes’, then a
SIGTERM
signal is sent to the parent process (which is assumed to be
rc(8)). Otherwise, the shell exits with status
1
. twiddle
- Display one of the characters ‘/, -, \, |’, followed by a backspace. Repeated calls to this function will create the appearance of a spinning symbol, as a different character is displayed on each call. Output is to /dev/tty, so this function may be useful even inside a script whose output has been redirected.
wait_for_pids
[pid [...]]- Wait until all of the provided pids don't exist any more, printing the list of outstanding pids every two seconds.
warn
message- Display a warning message to stderr and log it to the system log using logger(1). The warning message consists of the script name (from $0), followed by “: WARNING: ”, and then message.
yesno_to_truefalse
var- Change the value of the specified variable from any of the forms
acceptable to the
checkyesno
function, to “true” or “false”.
FILES
- /etc/rc.subr
- The
rc.subr
file resides in /etc.
SEE ALSO
HISTORY
rc.subr
appeared in
NetBSD 1.3. The
rc.d(8) support functions appeared in NetBSD
1.5. Support for the
rc(8)
post-processor appeared in NetBSD 6.0.