INITTAB(5)

NAME
inittab - format of the inittab file used by simpleinit (simpleinit-msb)

DESCRIPTION
The /etc/inittab file determines the behaviour of init(8). The inittab format described herein is the one used by simpleinit(8) in the simpleinit-msb variant. The format of /etc/inittab for this version of init is:
    bootprog=program [ arguments ] fileprefix=string (usually directory name) PATH=search path INIT_PATH=search path ttyline:termcap-entry:getty-command finalprog=path quietrollback=yes|no ctrlaltdel=program
Lines beginning with the # character are treated as comments. Equals signs after keywords are optional and the keywords themselves are case-insensitive. Please see documentation for the getty(8) command that you are using, since there are several of these in the Linux community at this time. The fileprefix value is used as prefix for non-absolute pathnames in INIT_PATH and exported in the environment variable INIT_D to programs/scripts started by init. It must end in a '/' if it is a directory. The bootprog value is appended to the fileprefix value, and the result specifies the boot program (usually a script). If bootprog is unspecified, the default boot program is /etc/rc (not appended to fileprefix). The boot program has a special role among boot scripts. It is the first boot script to be started by init(8) and the last boot script to be stopped during shutdown(8). It's role is to tell init, using initctl(8), which services are to be started. In addition to the above, the boot program is also invoked by telinit(8) and in certain cases by initctl(8). But these uses are optional. At the very least the boot program must conform to the BOOT SCRIPT GUIDELINES found in initctl(8). Note that the possibility to specify a directory as bootprog to cause parallel execution of all contained scripts, which is supported by util-linux's simpleinit, has been removed from simpleinit-msb because I object to the idea of non-deterministic behaviour during the boot phase. However, using the shell's ability to start jobs in the background this feature should be easy to emulate from within the boot program. The PATH value is assigned to the PATH environment variable of child processes (boot scripts). This allows them to call other programs without using absolute paths, which makes user space testing easier and adds a bit of robustness against changes. The INIT_PATH value is used by simpleinit(8) itself and by initctl(8) to find the location of scripts to run (if an absolute path is not given). If INIT_PATH contains relative pathnames (i.e. not starting with '/'), those will be appended to fileprefix. The separation between INIT_PATH and PATH allows a boot script to invoke a program of the same name without conflict and without needing to specify absolute paths. The finalprog value specifies the path of a program to run after all getty(8) instances are spawned. At bootup, it is passed the argument 'start'. At shutdown(8), it is called again, this time with the argument 'stop' (see shutdown(8)). The quietrollback value can be set to "yes","true" or "1" to prevent init from reporting the names of processes stopped when initctl(8) is used with the "-r" option. If unset, or set to any other value, init will report the names of services as they are being stopped. Use this option if your service scripts have their own stop messages. The ctrlaltdel program will be called when init receives a SIGINT (see SIGNALS in simpleinit(8)). On ix86 platforms, pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del sends a SIGINT to init.

EXAMPLES
    bootprog     =  rc 3
    fileprefix   =  /sbin/init.d/
    PATH         =  /usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
    INIT_PATH    =  .:rc.1:rc.2:rc.3:rc.4:rc.5:rc.6
    tty1:linux:/sbin/getty 9600 tty1
    tty2:linux:/sbin/getty 9600 tty2
    tty3:linux:/sbin/getty 9600 tty3
    tty4:linux:/sbin/getty 9600 tty4
    # tty5:linux:/sbin/getty 9600 tty5
    # ttyS1:dumb:/sbin/getty 9600 ttyS1
    # ttyS2:dumb:/sbin/getty -m -t60 2400 ttyS2
    finalprog    = /sbin/rc.xdm
    quietrollback= yes
    ctrlaltdel   = /sbin/shutdown -h -q now

FILES
/etc/inittab

SEE ALSO
init(8), simpleinit(8), telinit(8), initctl(8), shutdown(8)