startproc(8)

NAME

Startproc - Start processes identified by path name
Start_daemon - Start processes identified by path name

SYNOPSIS

startproc  [-f]  [-L]  [[-n  ]+/-<prio>] [-s] [-t sec] [-u
user] [-g  group]  [-v]  [-e]  [-l  log_file  |-q|-d]  [-p
pid_file]  [-c  root]  /path/to/executable  [arguments for
executable]
start_daemon  [-f]  [-n   +/-<prio>]   /path/to/executable
[arguments for executable]

DESCRIPTION

startproc and the LSB variant start_daemon check for all processes of the specified executable and starts it if no
processes are found. Note that startproc is designed to start a daemon but not a kernel thread or a program which
enables a kernel thread.

startproc does not use the pid to search for a process but the full path of the corresponding program which is used
to identify the executable (see proc(5)). Only if the
inode number (/proc/<pid>/exe) and the full name are
unavailable (/proc/<pid>/cmdline) or if the executable
changes its zeroth argument, startproc uses the base name (/proc/<pid>/stat) to identify the running program.

Extended functionality is provided by the -p option (for
mer option -f changed due to the LSB specification).
pid_file. If this option is specified, startproc tries to check against the pid read from this file instead of the
default (/var/run/<basename>.pid). The pid read from this file is compared against the pids of possible running pro
cesses that use the specified executable. In order to
avoid confusion with stale pid files, a not up-to-date pid
will be ignored.

The option -v makes startproc print out verbose diagnos tics.

REQUIRED

/path/to/executable: Specifies the executable by its full path name.
This argument is always required. Everything that
follows this path is considered options for the
executable to be launched. Further information can
be obtained from the respective manpage(s).

OPTIONS

[-n ]+/-<prio>: Set the nice level for the process. If used, this
option should always be the first in the command
line. The nice level <prio> may be specified in the range between -20 and +20. Only root is
allowed to set negative nice values.
-e Bequeath only a minimal set of environment vari: ables to the new process: HOME, PATH, SHELL, RUN LEVEL, and PREVLEVEL.
-p pid_file: (Former option -f changed due to the LSB specifica
tion.) Use an alternate pid file instead of the
default (/var/run/<basename>.pid). The pid read from this file is being matched against the pid of
running processes that have an executable with
specified path. of the program. In order to avoid
confusion with stale pid files, a not up-to-date
pid will be ignored.
-f This option is required by the Linux Standard Base: Specification (LSB). With this option the start of
a process is forced.
-g group: Sets the group ID of the process to gid.
-l log_file: Redirect the process standard output and standard
error to the file log_file.
-L This option causes symlinks to be followed, as the: like-named option in ls(1). BR Note : for the file
name the original name of the program is used
instead of the name of the symbolic link.
-c root: Change root directory to root. Services which have
been started with this option can only be checked
by checkproc(8) and signaled by killproc(8) if checkproc(8) and killproc(8) are called with the same option argument for the option -c.
-q Equals to -l /dev/null (supresses output).
-d Let startproc expect that the started service will: do a dialog by prompting for, e.g. a passphrase.
This option implies a timeout of 15 seconds (-t
15).
-s Starts the process in a new session. The new task: is a process group leader and has no controlling
tty.
-t sec The number of seconds to wait after the successful: start of a service. This options accepts the num
ber of seconds to wait. You can specify some units
after a given number: s for seconds, m for minutes,
and h for hours to wait.
-u user: Sets the user ID of the process to user.
-v Verbose output.

EXAMPLE

startproc /usr/sbin/sendmail: starts /usr/sbin/sendmail if no sendmail process is found. If a pid file sendmail.pid exists in /var/run/, then the pid found in this file is used to search the process table for a process with an
executable that matches the specified pathname,
/usr/sbin/sendmail. If no matching process is found, /usr/sbin/sendmail is launched.
startproc -p /var/myrun/lpd.pid /usr/sbin/lpd: starts /usr/sbin/lpd if there is no process with the pid found in /var/myrun/lpd.pid and no process in the actual process table exists that uses the
specified binary.

EXIT CODES

The exit codes have the following LSB conform conditions:: 0 Success
1 Generic or unspecified error
2 Invalid or excess argument(s)
4 Insufficient privilege(s)
5 Program is not installed
7 Program is not running
In some error cases, diagnostic output is sent to standard
error, or, if standard error is not available, syslogd(8) is being used.

NOTE

startproc is a replacement for the Bourne shell function daemon found in the widely used SysVinit package of Miquel van Smoorenburg, <miquels@cistron.nl>. startproc is not useful to start kernel threads. This should be done by
service utilities designed for the purpose to accomplish
this task.

BUGS

Identifying a process based on the executable file and the
corresponding inode number only works if the process stays
alive during startproc's execution. Processes rewriting
their zeroth argument or shell scripts (the inode number
of the shell executable file is not identical to that of
the script file) may not be identified by a filename path.

Startproc does not start a process if there already exists one being in the zombie state. Zombies are processes
which arn't alive but listed in the process table to have
the exit status ready for the corresponding parent pro
cesses. Therefore the parent processes should be check
out.

FILES

/proc/ path to the proc file system (see proc(5)).

/etc/init.d/: path to the SuSE boot concept script base directory
as required by the Linux Standard Base Specifica
tion (LSB) (see init.d(7)).

COPYRIGHT

1994-2000 Werner Fink, 1996-2000 SuSE GmbH Nuernberg, Ger
many.

AUTHOR

Werner Fink <werner@suse.de>

docs.sk

comprehensive documentation repository

See also