.TH init 8 2012-12-18 "Upstart"
.\"
.SH NAME
init \- Upstart process management daemon
.\"
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B init
.RI [ OPTION ]...
.\"
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B init
is the parent of all processes on the system, it is executed by the kernel
and is responsible for starting all other processes; it is the parent of
all processes whose natural parents have died and it is responsible for
reaping those when they die.

Processes managed by
.B init
are known as jobs and are defined by files in the
.I /etc/init
directory.  See
.BR init (5)
for more details on configuring Upstart.
.\"
.SS Events
.BR init (8)
is an event-based init daemon.  This means that jobs will be automatically
started and stopped by changes that occur to the system state, including
as a result of jobs starting and stopping.

This is different to dependency-based init daemons which start a specified
set of goal jobs, and resolve the order in which they should be started and
other jobs required by iterating their dependencies.

For more information on starting and stopping jobs, as well as emitting
events that will automatically start and stop jobs, see the manual page for
the
.BR initctl (8)
tool.

The primary event is the
.BR startup (7)
event, emitted when the daemon has finished loading its configuration.
Other useful events are the
.BR starting (7),
.BR started (7),
.BR stopping (7)
and
.BR stopped (7)
events emitted as jobs change state.

See
.BR upstart-events (7)
for a summary of well-known events.
.\"
.SS System V compatibility
The Upstart
.BR init (8)
daemon does not keep track of runlevels itself, instead they are implemented
entirely by its userspace tools.  The event emitted to signify a change
of runlevel is the
.BR runlevel (7)
event.  For more information see its manual page.
.\"
.SH OPTIONS
Options are passed to
.BR init (8)
by placing them on the kernel command-line.
.\"
.TP
.B \-\-confdir \fIdirectory\fP
Read job configuration files from a directory other than the default
(\fI/etc/init\fP for process ID 1).

When running as process ID 1, the last directory specified will be used.

In user session mode, multiple directories will be honoured and job
configuration files loaded from the directories in the order specified.
.\"
.TP
.B \-\-default-console \fIvalue\fP
Default value for jobs that do not specify a \(aq\fBconsole\fR\(aq
stanza. This could be used for example to set the default to
\(aq\fBnone\fR\(aq but still honour jobs that specify explicitly
\(aq\fBconsole log\fR\(aq. See
.BR init (5)
for all possible values of
.BR console "."
.\"
.TP
.B \-\-no\-dbus
Do not connect to a D-Bus bus.
.\"
.TP
.B \-\-no\-inherit\-env
Stop jobs from inheriting the initial environment. Only meaningful when
running in user mode.
.\"
.TP
.B \-\-logdir \fIdirectory\fP
Write job output log files to a directory other than
\fI/var/log/upstart\fP (system mode) or \fI$XDG_CACHE_HOME/upstart\fP
(user session mode).
.\"
.TP
.B \-\-no\-log
Disable logging of job output. Note that jobs specifying \(aq\fBconsole
log\fR\(aq will be treated as if they had specified
\(aq\fBconsole none\fR\(aq.
See 
.BR init (5)
for further details.
.\"
.TP
.B \-\-no\-sessions
Disable chroot sessions.
.\"
.TP
.B \-\-no\-startup\-event
Suppress emission of the initial startup event. This option should only
be used for testing since it will stop the 
.BR init (8)
daemon from starting \fBany\fP jobs automatically.
.\"
.TP
.B \-\-session
Connect to the D\-Bus session bus. This should only be used for testing.
.\"
.TP
.B \-\-startup-event \fIevent\fP
Specify a different initial startup event from the standard
.BR startup (7) .
.\"
.TP
.B \-\-user
Starts in user mode, as used for user sessions. Upstart will be run as
an unprivileged user, reading configuration files from configuration
locations as per roughly XDG Base Directory Specification. See 
.BR init (5)
for further details.
.\"
.TP
.B \-q, \-\-quiet
Reduces output messages to errors only.
.\"
.TP
.B \-v, \-\-verbose
Outputs verbose messages about job state changes and event emissions to the
system console or log, useful for debugging boot.
.\"
.TP
.B \-\-version
Outputs version information and exits.
.\"
.SH NOTES
.B init
is not normally executed by a user process, and expects to have a process
id of 1.  If this is not the case, it will actually execute
.BR telinit (8)
and pass all arguments to that.  See that manual page for further
details. However, if the
.B \-\-user
option is specified, it will run as a
.B Session Init
and read alternative configuration files and manage the individual user
session in a similar fashion.

Sending a Session Init a
.I SIGTERM
signal is taken as a request to shutdown due to an impending system
shutdown. In this scenario, the
Session Init will emit the 
.B session\-end
event and  request all running jobs stop. It will attempt to honour jobs
.B kill timeout
values (see
.BR init (5)
for further details). Note however that system policy will prevail: if
jobs request timeout values longer than the system policy allows for
complete system shutdown, it will not be possible to honour them before
the Session Init is killed by the system.
.\"
.SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

When run as a user process, the following variables may be used to find
job configuration files:

.IP \(bu 4
.I $XDG_CONFIG_HOME
.IP \(bu 4
.I $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS
.P

See
.B User Session Mode
in
.BR init (5)
for further details.

.\"
.SH FILES
.\"
.I /etc/init.conf

.I /etc/init/

.I $HOME/.init/

.I $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/upstart/

.I $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/upstart/
.\"
.SH AUTHOR
Written by Scott James Remnant
.RB < scott@netsplit.com >
.\"
.SH REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs at
.RB < https://launchpad.net/upstart/+bugs >
.\"
.SH COPYRIGHT
Copyright \(co 2009\-2012 Canonical Ltd.
.br
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
.\"
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR control\-alt\-delete (7)
.BR init (5)
.BR initctl (8)
.BR runlevel (7)
.BR startup (7)
.BR starting (7)
.BR started (7)
.BR stopping (7)
.BR stopped (7)
.BR telinit (8)
.BR upstart-events (7)