rcS(5) Debian Administrator's Manual rcS(5)
NAME
rcS - variables that affect the behavior of boot scripts
DESCRIPTION
The /etc/default/rcS file contains variable settings in POSIX format:
VAR=VAL
Only one assignment is allowed per line. Comments (starting with '#') are also allowed.
OPTIONS
The following variables can be set.
TMPTIME
On boot the files in /tmp will be deleted if their modification time, file status time and access time are all at least TMPTIME days
ago. A value of 0 means that files are removed regardless of age. If you don't want the system to clean /tmp then set TMPTIME to a
negative value (e.g., -1) or to the word infinite.
SULOGIN
Setting this to yes causes init to spawn a sulogin on the console early in the boot process. If the administrator does not login
then the sulogin session will time out after 30 seconds and the boot process will continue.
DELAYLOGIN
Normally the system will not let non-root users log in until the boot process is complete and the system has finished switching to
the default runlevel (usually level 2). However, in theory it is safe to log in a bit earlier, namely, as soon as inetd has
started. Setting the variable to no allows earlier login; setting the variable to yes prevents it.
Some details: The DELAYLOGIN variable controls whether or not the file /var/lib/initscripts/nologin is created during the boot
process and deleted at the end of it. /etc/nologin is normally a symbolic link to the latter location, and the login(1) program
refuses to allow non-root logins so long as (the target of) /etc/nologin exists. If you set the variable to no then it is advisable
to ensure that /var/lib/initscripts/nologin does not exist.
VERBOSE
Setting this option to no (in lower case) will make the boot process a bit less verbose. Setting this option to yes will make the
boot process a bit more verbose.
FSCKFIX
When the root and all other file systems are checked, fsck is invoked with the -a option which means "autorepair". If there are
major inconsistencies then the fsck process will bail out. The system will print a message asking the administrator to repair the
file system manually and will present a root shell prompt (actually a sulogin prompt) on the console. Setting this option to yes
causes the fsck commands to be run with the -y option instead of the -a option. This will tell fsck always to repair the file sys-
tems without asking for permission.
ASYNCMOUNTNFS
Set this to 'no' to disable asynchronous mounting of network drives when the network interfaces are mounted, and instead do it only
once when the machine boots. The default is 'yes'. It is useful to disable this on machines where the root file system is NFS,
until ifup from ifupdown works properly in such setup.
NOTE
The EDITMOTD, RAMRUN and UTC variables are no longer used. The RAMLOCK, RAMSHM and RAMTMP variables have been moved to /etc/default/tmpfs;
RAMSHM and RAMTMP settings in rcS are used (if set) for backward compatibility, but will be overridden by settings enabled in
/etc/default/tmpfs. See tmpfs(5) for further details. The settings are not automatically migrated to /etc/default/tmpfs. Please update
/etc/default/tmpfs appropriately. The UTC setting is replaced by the UTC or LOCAL setting in /etc/adjtime, and should have been migrated
automatically. See hwclock(5) and hwclock(8) for further details on configuring the system clock.
AUTHOR
Miquel van Smoorenburg <miquels@cistron.nl> Roger Leigh <rleigh@debian.org>
SEE ALSO
hwclock(5), hwclock(8), inetd(8), init(8), inittab(5), login(1), tmpfs(5).
21 May 2012 rcS(5)