Init Scripts

Init scripts configure the daemons of the Linux system. Init scripts are run to start required processes as part of the boot process. In OpenWrt init is implemented with init.d. The init process that calls the scripts at boot time is provided by Busybox. This article explains how init.d scripts work and how to create them. Note that this is mostly equivalent to other init.d implementations and in-depth documentation can be found elsewhere.

Init scripts are explained best by example. Suppose we have a daemon we want to handle by init.d. We create a file /etc/init.d/example, which as a bare minimum looks as follows:

#!/bin/sh /etc/rc.common# Example script# Copyright (C) 2007 OpenWrt.org START=10STOP=15 start() {                echo start        # commands to launch application}                  stop() {                  echo stop        # commands to kill application }

This init script is just a shell script. The first line is a shebang line that uses /etc/rc.common as a wrapper to provide its main and default functionality and to check the script prior to execution.

 Look inside rc.common to understand its functionality.

By this rc.common template, the available commands for an init scripts are as follows:

      start   Start the service      stop    Stop the service      restart Restart the service      reload  Reload configuration files (or restart if that fails)      enable  Enable service autostart      disable Disable service autostart

All these arguments can be passed to the script when run. For example, to restart the service call it with restart:

root@OpenWrt:/# /etc/init.d/example restart

The script's necessary start() and stop() functions determine the core steps necessary to start and stop this service.

• start() - these commands will be run when it is called with 'start' as its parameter.
• stop() - these commands will be run when it is called with 'stop' as its parameter.

The START= and STOP= lines determine at which point in the init sequence this script gets executed. At boot time init.d just starts executing scripts it finds in /etc/rc.daccording to their file names. The init scripts can be placed here as symbolic links to the init.d scripts in /etc/init.d/. Using the enable and disable commands this is done automatically. In this case:

• START=10 - this means the file will be symlinked as /etc/rc.d/S10example - in other words, it will start after the init scripts with START=9 and below, but before START=11 and above.
• STOP=15 - this means the file will be symlinked as /etc/rc.d/K15example - this means it will be stopped after the init scripts with STOP=14 and below, but before STOP=16 and above. This is optional.

 If multiple init scripts have the same start value, the call order is determined by the alphabetical order of the init script's names.

 Don't forget to make sure the script has execution permission, by running chmod +x /etc/init.d/example.

If you add a section like the one below:

boot() {        echo boot        # commands to run on boot}

In that case these commands will be run on boot, instead of those in the start() section, which is normally run at boot when  boot() is not defined. This is handy for things that need to be done on boot, but not every time the program it calls has to restart.

You can add your own custom commands by using the EXTRA_COMMANDS variable, and provide help for those commands with the EXTRA_HELP variable, then adding sections for each of your custom commands:

EXTRA_COMMANDS="custom"EXTRA_HELP="        custom  Help for the custom command" custom() {        echo "custom command"        # do your custom stuff}

If you run the script with this code added, with no parameters, this is what you'll see:

root@OpenWrt:/# /etc/init.d/exampleSyntax: /etc/init.d/example [command]Available commands:        start   Start the service        stop    Stop the service        restart Restart the service        reload  Reload configuration files (or restart if that fails)        enable  Enable service autostart        disable Disable service autostart        custom  Help for the custom command

If you have multiple custom commands to add, you can add help text for each of them:

EXTRA_COMMANDS="custom1 custom2 custom3"EXTRA_HELP=<<EOF        custom1 Help for the custom1 command        custom2 Help for the custom2 command        custom3 Help for the custom3 commandEOF custom1 () {        echo "custom1"        # do the stuff for custom1}custom2 () {        echo "custom2"        # do the stuff for custom2}custom3 () {        echo "custom3"        # do the stuff for custom3}

In order to automatically start the init script on boot, it must be installed into /etc/rc.d/ (see above).

Invoke the "enable" command to run the initscript on boot:

root@OpenWrt:/# /etc/init.d/example enable

This will create one or more symlinks in /etc/rc.d/ which automatically execute at boot time (see Boot process)) and shutdown. This makes the application behave as a system service, by starting when the device boots and stopping at shutdown, as configured in the init.d script.

To disable the script, use the "disable" command:

root@OpenWrt:/# /etc/init.d/example disable

which is configured to remove the symlinks again.

The current state can be queried with the "enabled" command:

root@OpenWrt:/# /etc/init.d/example enabled && echo onon

Many useful daemons are included in the official binaries, but they are not enabled by default. For example, the cron daemon is not activated by default, thus only editing the crontab won't do anything. You have to either start the daemon with /etc/init.d/cron start or enable it with /etc/init.d/cron enable. You can disable, stop and restart most of those daemons, too.

To query the state of all init scripts, you can use the command below:

for F in /etc/init.d/* ; do $F enabled && echo $F on || echo $F **disabled**; done

root@OW2:~# for F in /etc/init.d/* ; do $F enabled && echo $F on || echo $F **disabled**; done/etc/init.d/boot on/etc/init.d/collectd on.../etc/init.d/led on/etc/init.d/log on/etc/init.d/luci_statistics on/etc/init.d/miniupnpd **disabled**/etc/init.d/network on/etc/init.d/odhcpd on...