DOC HOME SITE MAP MAN PAGES GNU INFO SEARCH PRINT BOOK
 

idmkinit(ADM)


idmkinit -- read files containing inittab specifications

Syntax

/etc/conf/bin/idmkinit

Description

This command reads the files containing specifications of /etc/inittab entries from /etc/conf/init.d and constructs a new inittab file in /etc/conf/cf.d. It returns 0 on success and a positive number on error.

The files in /etc/conf/init.d are copies of the Init modules in device Driver Software Packages (DSP). There is at most one Init file per DSP. Each file contains one line for each inittab entry to be installed. There may be multiple lines (that is, multiple inittab entries) per file. An inittab entry has the form (the ``id'' field is often called the tag):

id:rstate:action:process

The Init module entry must have one of the following forms:

action:process

rstate:action:process

id:rstate:action:process

When idmkinit encounters an entry of the first type, a valid ``id'' field will be generated, and an ``rstate'' field of 2 (indicating run on init state 2) will be generated. When an entry of the second type is encountered, only the ``id'' field is prefixed. An entry of the third type is incorporated into the new inittab unchanged.

Since add-on inittab entries specify init state 2 for their ``rstate'' field most often, an entry of the first type should almost always be used. An entry of the second type may be specified if you need to specify other than state 2. DSPs should avoid specifying the ``id'' field as in the third entry since other add-on applications or DSPs may have already used the ``id'' value you have chosen. The /etc/init program will encounter serious errors if one or more inittab entries contain the same ``id'' field.

idmkinit determines which of the three forms above is being used for the entry by requiring each entry to have a valid action keyword. Valid action values are as follows:

off respawn ondemand
once wait boot
bootwait powerfail powerwait
initdefault sysinit

See inittab(F) for a description of the action keywords.

The idmkinit command is called automatically upon entering init state 2 on the next system reboot after a kernel reconfiguration to establish the correct /etc/inittab for the running kernel. idmkinit can be called as a user level command to test modification of inittab before a DSP is actually built. It is also useful in installation scripts that do not reconfigure the kernel but need to create inittab entries. In this case, the inittab generated by idmkinit must be copied to /etc/inittab, and a telinit command (see init(M)) must be run to make the new entry take effect.

The command line options are:


-o directory
inittab will be created in the directory specified rather than /etc/conf/cf.d.

-i directory
The ID file init.base, which normally resides in /etc/conf/cf.d, can be found in the directory specified.

-e directory
The Init modules that are usually in /etc/conf/init.d can be found in the directory specified.

Exit values

An exit value of zero indicates success. If an error was encountered, idmkinit will exit with a non-zero value and report an error message. All error messages are designed to be self-explanatory.

See also

idbuild(ADM), idinstall(ADM), idmknod(ADM), init(M), inittab(F)
© 2003 Caldera International, Inc. All rights reserved.
SCO OpenServer Release 5.0.7 -- 11 February 2003