opendarwin man page for systemstarter

SystemStarter(8)					    BSD System Manager's Manual 					  SystemStarter(8)

NAME
     SystemStarter -- Start, stop, and restart system services

SYNOPSIS
     SystemStarter [-gvxdDqn] [action [service]]

DESCRIPTION
     The SystemStarter utility may be used to start, stop, and restart the system services which are described in the /Library/StartupItems/ and
     /System/Library/StartupItems/ paths.

     The optional action argument specifies which action SystemStarter performs on the startup items.  The optional service argument specifies
     which startup items to perform the action on.  If no service is specified, all startup items will be acted on; otherwise, only the item pro-
     viding the service, any items it requires, or any items that depend on it will be acted on.

     During boot SystemStarter is invoked by rc (see rc(8)) and is responsible for starting all startup items in an order that satisfies each
     item's requirements.

ACTIONS
     start    start all items, or start the item that provides the specified service and all items providing services it requires.

     stop     stop all items, or stop the item that provides the specified service and all items that depend on it.

     restart  restart all items, or restart the item providing the specified service.

OPTIONS
     -g       graphical startup

     -v       verbose (text mode) startup

     -x       safe mode startup (only run Apple-provided items)

     -r       keep running after last startup item completes, in graphical startup only

     -d       print debugging output

     -D       print debugging output and dependencies

     -q       be quiet (disable debugging output)

     -n       don't actually perform action on items (no-run mode)

NOTES
     Unless an explicit call to ConsoleMessage is made, SystemStarter examines the exit status of the startup item scripts to determine the suc-
     cess or failure of the services provided by that script.

     In Darwin it is preferable to create custom startup items than to modify rc, and at some point SystemStarter may entirely encompass the role
     of rc.

FILES
     /Library/StartupItems/	    User-installed startup items.
     /System/Library/StartupItems/  System-provided startup items.

SEE ALSO
     ConsoleMessage(8)

     rc(8)

     http://www.opensource.apple.com/projects/documentation/howto/html/SystemStarter_HOWTO.html

HISTORY
     The SystemStarter utility appeared in Darwin 1.0

     SystemStarter was extended in Darwin 6.0 to support partial startup and interprocess communication.

Darwin								  April 12, 2002							    Darwin