/usr/share/doc/runit/faq.html

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<title>runit - Frequently asked questions</title>
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<a href="http://smarden.org/pape/">G. Pape</a><br>
<a href="index.html">runit</a><br>
<hr>
<h1>runit - Frequently asked questions</h1>
<hr>
<a href="#what">
What's runit, why is it that different
</a><br>
<a href="#help">
I need some help with runit, what should I do
</a><br>
<!--
<a href="#service">
What is a service, what a service daemon
</a><br>
-->
<a href="#license">
What's the license, is runit free software
</a><br>
<p>
<a href="#run">
How do I run a service under runit service supervision
</a><br>
<a href="#create">
How do I create a new service directory
</a><br>
<!--
<a href="#log">
What is a log service
</a><br>
-->
<a href="#createlog">
How do I create a new service directory with an appendant log service
</a><br>
<a href="#tell">
How do I tell runit about a new service
</a><br>
<a href="#control">
How do I start, stop, or restart a service
</a><br>
<a href="#signal">
How can I send signals to a service daemon
</a><br>
<a href="#status"> 
How can I query the status of a service
</a><br>
<a href="#remove">
How do I remove a service
</a><br>
<p>
<a href="#depends">
How do I make a service depend on another service
</a><br>
<!--
<a href="#strongdepends">
How can I make a service affect a dependant service
</a><br>
-->
<p>
<a href="#runlevels">
What about runlevels
</a><br>
<a href="#lsb">
What about LSB init scripts compliance
</a><br>
<p>
<a href="#user">
Is it possible to allow a user other than root to control a service
</a><br>
<a href="#userservices">
Does runit support user-specific services?
</a><br>
<a href="#readonlyfs">
Does runit work on a read-only filesystem
</a><br>

<hr>
<a name="what"><h3>
What's runit, why is it that different
</h3></a>
What is this runit init scheme about? 
Why is it that different from sysvinit and other init schemes?
<p>
Answer:
Please see the <a href="index.html">introduction</a>, and web page about
runit's <a href="benefits.html">benefits</a>.

<hr>
<a name="help"><h3>
I need some help with runit, what should I do
</h3></a>
I have a question, runit is doing something wrong, or I'm doing something
wrong, what should I do?
<p>
Answer:
First see the documentation, especially this list of
<a href="faq.html">frequently asked questions</a>, and the man pages
if you have a question about a specific runit program.
If that still doesn't answer your question, try to search the
<a href="http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.sysutils.supervision.general">
supervision mailing list archive</a>.
Finally, if this fails, feel free to post your question to the
<a href="http://skarnet.org/lists/">supervision mailing list</a>.

<!--
<hr>
<a name="service"><h3>
What is a service, what a service daemon
</h3></a>
The runit documentation talks about services and service daemons.
What actually is a service, and what a service daemon?
<p>
Answer:
-->

<hr>
<a name="license"><h3>
What's the license, is runit free software
</h3></a>
I would like to distribute runit, in source and binary form.
Am I allowed to do so?
<p>
Answer:
runit is free software, it's licensed under a three-clause BSD alike
license.
See the file <tt>package/COPYING</tt> in the runit tarball.

<hr>
<a name="run"><h3>
How do I run a service under runit service supervision
</h3></a>
I want a service to be run under runit service supervision, so that it's
automatically started on system boot, and supervised while system uptime.
How does that work?
<p>
Answer:
runit doesn't use the usual <tt>/etc/init.d/</tt> init script interface,
but uses a directory per service.
To integrate a service into the runit init scheme,
<a href="#create">create a service directory</a> for the service, and
<a href="#tell">tell runit</a> about it.

<hr>
<a name="create"><h3>
How do I create a new service directory
</h3></a>
How do I create a service directory for the use with runit?
<p>
Answer:
Service directories usually are placed into the <tt>/etc/sv/</tt>
directory.
Create a new directory for your service in <tt>/etc/sv/</tt>, put a
<tt>./run</tt> script into it, and make the script executable.
Note that for the use with runit,
<a href="#service">service daemons</a> must not put themself into the
background, but must run in the foreground.
Here's a simple example for a <tt>getty</tt> service:
<pre>
 $ cat /etc/sv/getty-2/run
 #!/bin/sh
 exec getty 38400 tty2 linux
 $ 
</pre>
Note the <tt>exec</tt> in the last line, it tells the shell that
interprets the script to replace itself with the service daemon
<tt>getty</tt>; this is necessary to make
<a href="#control">controlling the service</a> work properly.

<!--
<hr>
<a name="log"><h3>
What is a log service
</h3></a>
Additionally to supervising a service runit can supervise an appendant
log service.
What does that mean?
<p>
Answer:
-->

<hr>
<a name="createlog"><h3>
How do I create a new service directory with an appendant log service
</h3></a>
How do I create a service directory with an appendant log service for the
use with runit?
<p>
Answer:
First <a href="#create">create the service directory</a> for the service.
Then create a subdirectory <tt>./log</tt> in the service directory, again
put a <tt>./run</tt> script into it, and make the script executable.
The <tt>./run</tt> script must run a service logging daemon, normally
this is the <a href="svlogd.8.html">svlogd</a> program.
See the <a href="runsv.8.html">runsv</a> man page for details.
Here's an example of a <tt>./log/run</tt> script:
<pre>
 $ cat /etc/sv/socklog-klog/log/run
 #!/bin/sh
 exec chpst -ulog svlogd -tt ./main
 $ 
</pre>

<hr>
<a name="tell"><h3>
How do I tell runit about a new service
</h3></a>
I created a service directory for a service that should run under runit
service supervision.
How do I tell runit about the new service directory, so that it picks
up and runs the service by default?
<p>
Answer:
Create a symbolic link in <tt>/service/</tt> pointing to the service
directory, runit will pick up the service within the next five seconds,
and automatically start it on system boot.
E.g.:
<pre>
 # ln -s /etc/sv/getty-2 /service/
</pre>

<hr>
<a name="control"><h3>
How do I start, stop, or restart a service
</h3></a>
I want to stop a service temporarily, and probably restart is later, or
I want to have it restarted immediately.
How can I control a service running under runit service supervision?
<p>
Answer:
Use the <a href="sv.8.html">sv</a> program.
E.g., to restart the <tt>socklog-unix</tt> service, do:
<pre>
 # sv restart socklog-unix
</pre>

<hr>
<a name="signal"><h3>
How can I send signals to a service daemon
</h3></a>
I want to send a service daemon the HUP signal, to have it re-read its
configuration, or I want to send it the INT signal.
How can a send signals to a service daemon?
<p>
Answer:
Use the <a href="sv.8.html">sv</a> program.
E.g., to send the <tt>dhcp</tt> service the HUP signal, do:
<pre>
 # sv hup dhcp
</pre>

<hr>
<a name="status"><h3>
How can I query the status of a service
</a></h3>
I want to now the status of a service, whether it is up and available,
or down as requested, or so.
How can I find out this information?
<p>
Answer:
User the <a href="sv.8.html">sv</a> program.
E.g., to query or check the status of the <tt>socklog-unix</tt> service,
do:
<pre>
 # sv status socklog-unix
</pre>
or
<pre>
 # sv check socklog-unix
</pre>

<hr>
<a name="remove"><h3>
How do I remove a service
</h3></a>
I want to remove a service that currently runs under runit service
supervision.
How do I tell runit?
<p>
Answer:
Remove the symbolic link in <tt>/service/</tt> pointing to the service
directory, runit recognizes the removed service within the next five
seconds, then stops the service, the optional log service, and finally the
supervisor process.
E.g.:
<pre>
 # rm /service/getty-2
</pre>

<hr>
<a name="depends"><h3>
How do I make a service depend on another service
</a></h3>
I have a service that needs another service to be available before it can
start.
How can I tell runit about this dependency?
<p>
Answer:
Make sure in the <tt>./run</tt> script of the dependant service that the
service it depends on is available before the service daemon starts.
The <a href="sv.8.html">sv</a> program can be used for that.
E.g. the <tt>cron</tt> service wants the <tt>socklog-unix</tt> system
logging service to be available before starting the <tt>cron</tt> service
daemon, so no logs get lost:
<pre>
 $ cat /etc/sv/cron/run
 #!/bin/sh
 sv start socklog-unix || exit 1
 exec cron -f
 $ 
</pre>
See also the <a href="dependencies.html">documentation</a>.

<!--
<hr>
<a name="strongdepends"><h3>
How can I make a service affect a dependant service
</a></h3>
<a href="#depends">This dependency</a> is not enough.
I have a service that needs to be stopped or restarted, whenever a service
it depends on stops or restarts.
How can I tell runit about that a service affects a dependant service in
such a way?
<p>
Answer:
First think about whether you really need this, it almost never should be
necessary.
If you really need this,
-->

<hr>
<a name="runlevels"><h3>
What about runlevels
</a></h3>
Other init schemes support runlevels, what about runit?
<p>
Answer:
runit supports runlevels, even more flexible than traditional init schemes.
See <a href="runlevels.html">the documentation</a>.

<hr>
<a name="lsb"><h3>
What about LSB init scripts compliance
</a></h3>
I know about the <a href="sv.8.html">sv</a> program to control a service,
but have applications that rely on the <tt>/etc/init.d/</tt> scripts
interface as defined through LSB.
Do I need to change the application to work with runit?
<p>
Answer:
You don't need to change the application.
The <a href="sv.8.html">sv</a> program supports the <tt>/etc/init.d/</tt>
script interface
<a href="http://refspecs.freestandards.org/LSB_2.1.0/LSB-generic/LSB-generic/iniscrptact.html">
as defined through LSB</a>.
To make this script interface work for a service, create a symbolic link
in <tt>/etc/init.d/</tt>, named as the service daemon, pointing to the
<a href="sv.8.html">sv</a> program, e.g. for the <tt>cron</tt> service:
<pre>
 # ln -s /bin/sv /etc/init.d/cron
 # /etc/init.d/cron restart
 ok: run: cron: (pid 5869) 0s
 # 
</pre>

<hr>
<a name="user"><h3>
Is it possible to allow a user other than root to control a service
</a></h3>
Using the <a href="sv.8.html">sv</a> program to control a service, or query
its status informations, only works as root.
Is it possible to allow non-root users to control a service too?
<p>
Answer:
Yes, you simply need to adjust file system permissions for the
<tt>./supervise/</tt> subdirectory in the service directory.
E.g.: to allow the user <tt>burdon</tt> to control the service
<tt>dhcp</tt>, change to the <tt>dhcp</tt> service directory, and do
<pre>
 # chmod 755 ./supervise
 # chown burdon ./supervise/ok ./supervise/control ./supervise/status
</pre>
This works similarly with groups, of course.

<hr>
<a name="userservices"><h3>
Does runit support user-specific services?
</a></h3>
It's very nice to simply
<a href="#tell">create symbolic links</a> to add system-wide services.
Does this work for user-specific services too?
<p>
Answer:
Yes.
E.g.: to provide the user <tt>floyd</tt> with facility to manage services
through <tt>~/service/</tt>, <a href="#createlog">create a service</a>
<tt>runsvdir-floyd</tt> with the following run script and a usual log/run
script, and <a href="#tell">tell runit</a> about the service
<pre>
 #!/bin/sh
 exec 2>&1
 exec chpst -ufloyd runsvdir /home/floyd/service
</pre>
Now <tt>floyd</tt> can create services on his own, and manage them through
symbolic links in <tt>~/service/</tt> to have them run under his user id.

<hr>
<a name="readonlyfs"><h3>
Does runit work on a read-only filesystem
</a></h3>
On my system <tt>/etc/</tt> is mounted read-only by default.
runit uses many files in <tt>/etc/</tt> it needs to write to, like
<tt>/etc/runit/stopit</tt>, and the <tt>./supervise/</tt>
subdirectories in the service directories.
How can I make runit work on my system?
<p>
Answer:
Use symbolic links, runit deals with them well, even with dangling
symlinks.
E.g., make a ramdisk available at a moint point, say <tt>/var/run/</tt>,
and create symbolic links for the files and directories that runit needs
to write access to pointing into <tt>/var/run/</tt>:
<pre>
 # ln -s /var/run/runit.stopit /etc/runit/stopit
 # ln -s /var/run/sv.getty-2 /etc/sv/getty-2/supervise
</pre>

<hr>
<address><a href="mailto:pape@smarden.org">
Gerrit Pape &lt;pape@smarden.org&gt;
</a></address>
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runit 2.1.2-3 / usr / share / doc / runit / faq.html
