debian man page for service

service(8)						      System Manager's Manual							service(8)

NAME
       service - run a System V init script

SYNOPSIS
       service SCRIPT COMMAND [OPTIONS]

       service --status-all

       service --help | -h | --version

DESCRIPTION
       service	runs a System V init script in as predictable an environment as possible, removing most environment variables and with the current
       working directory set to /.

       The SCRIPT parameter specifies a System V init script, located in /etc/init.d/SCRIPT.  The  supported  values  of  COMMAND  depend  on  the
       invoked	script.  service passes COMMAND and OPTIONS to the init script unmodified.  All scripts should support at least the start and stop
       commands.  As a special case, if COMMAND is --full-restart, the script is run twice, first with the stop command, then with the start  com-
       mand.

       service --status-all runs all init scripts, in alphabetical order, with the status command.

EXIT CODES
       service calls the init script and returns the status returned by it.

FILES
       /etc/init.d
	      The directory containing System V init scripts.

ENVIRONMENT
       LANG, TERM
	      The only environment variables passed to the init scripts.

SEE ALSO
       /etc/init.d/skeleton,
       update-rc.d(8),
       init(8),
       invoke-rc.d(8).

								     Jan 2006								service(8)