STARTPROC(8)						       The SuSE boot concept						      STARTPROC(8)

NAME

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

SYNOPSIS

       startproc  [-fLves]  [[-n ]+/-<prio>]  [-(t|T) <sec>]  [-u user]  [-g group]  [-l log_file|-q|-d]  [-p pid_file] [-i ignore_file] [-c root]
	      [-(w|W <file list>)] /path/to/executable [arguments for executable]

       start_daemon [-fLve] [-n +/-<prio>] [-u user] [-g group] [-l log_file|-q|-d] [-p pid_file] [-i ignore_file]  [-c root]  /path/to/executable
	      [arguments for executable]

SYNOPSIS LSB 3.1
       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.

       Without any option startproc does search for a process by using the full  path  of  the	corresponding  program	and  a	default  pid  file
       (/var/run/<basename>.pid)  which  are  used  together to identify the executable out from the /proc file system (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 (former option -f changed due to the LSB specification).  If this option is specified,
       startproc tries to check against the pid read from this file instead of the default pid file (/var/run/<basename>.pid).	The pid read  from
       this  file  is  compared against the pids of possible running processes that use the specified executable. In order to avoid confusion with
       stale pid files, a not up-to-date pid will be ignored.

       For the possibility of having two different sessions of one binary program, the option -i ignore_file allows to specify a  pid  file  which
       pid number is used to ignore all processes of corresponding process session.

       The option -v makes startproc print out verbose diagnostics.

       The  start_daemon does not support the options -(t|T) <sec> nor -(w|W <file list>) for waiting for success and the option -s for a new ses-
       sion as this variant does not fork to start the executable.

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 variables to the new process: HOME, PATH, SHELL, RUNLEVEL, and PREVLEVEL.

       -p pid_file
	      (Former option -f changed due to the LSB specification.)	Use  an  alternate  pid  file  instead	of  the  default  (/var/run/<base-
	      name>.pid).   The  pid read from this file is being matched against the pid of running processes that have an executable with speci-
	      fied path.  In order to avoid confusion with stale pid files, a not up-to-date pid will be ignored.  Obviously this option does  not
	      work if option -f is specified.

       -i ignore_file
	      The  pid	found  in this file is used as session id of the same binary program which should be ignored by startproc.  Obviously this
	      option does not work if option -f is specified.

       -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 number 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.

       -T <sec>
	      The same as for option -t but wait only on the started process not on childs forked by the process.

       -w     Wait the first started process to terminate before returning.  If the parent process of the daemon does not finish also startproc(8)
	      does not finish.

       -W <file list>
	      Wait on the provided file or list of files separated with colons.  If the files will not be created startproc(8) does not finish.

       -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/send-
	      mail.  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  start-
       proc's  execution. Processes rewriting their zeroth argument or shell scripts (the inode number of the shell executable file is not identi-
       cal 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 processes.  Therefore the parent processes should be
       check out.

       Start_daemon is not able to check for exit status of an executable daemon because after the final execve(3)  the  start_daemon  as  an  own
       process does not exit anymore.

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  Specification (LSB) (see init.d(7)).

SEE ALSO

       checkproc(8), killproc(8), insserv(8), init.d(7), kill(1), skill(1), killall(8), killall5(8), signal(7), proc(5).

COPYRIGHT

       1994-2007 Werner Fink, 1996-2000 SuSE GmbH Nuernberg, Germany.  2007 SuSE LINUX Products GmbH, Nuernberg, Germany.

AUTHOR

       Werner Fink <werner@suse.de>

3rd Berkeley Distribution					   Nov 30, 2007 						      STARTPROC(8)