- Introduction
- Features
- /etc/finit.conf
- /etc/finit.d
- Runparts & /etc/rc.local
- Bootstrap
- Runlevels
- Inetd
- Hooks, Callbacks & Plugins
- Rebooting & Halting
- Commands & Status
- Building
- Requirements
- Running
- Debugging
- Origin & References
Finit is an EeePC Fastinit inspired clone with process supervision similar to that of D.J. Bernstein's daemontools and Gerrit Pape's runit. It also supports free-form conditions based on events, e.g. triggering on PID file creation, Netlink events like a default route or interfaces coming up, or even custom events. Similar to systemd.
Finit focuses on small and embedded Linux systems, although fully usable on servers and desktops as well. See the contrib section for Debian and Alpine Linux examples.
Traditional SysV init style systems are scripted. For low-resource embedded systems this is quite resource intensive and often leads to long boot times. Finit reduces context switches and forking of shell scripts to provide a swift system bootstrap written entirely in C.
Configuration is read from /etc/finit.conf which details kernel modules to load, services and TTYs to start. When initial bootstrap is done, including setting up networking, /etc/finit.d/ and the familiar /etc/rc.local are run.
Example /etc/finit.conf:
# Fallback if /etc/hostname is missing
host wopr
# Runlevel to start after bootstrap, runlevel 'S'
runlevel 2
# Services to be monitored and respawned as needed
service [S12345] /sbin/watchdogd -L -f -- System watchdog daemon
service [S12345] /sbin/syslogd -n -b 3 -D -- System log daemon
service [S12345] /sbin/klogd -n -- Kernel log daemon
service [2345] /sbin/lldpd -d -c -M1 -H0 -i -- LLDP daemon (IEEE 802.1ab)
# For multiple instances of the same service, add :ID somewhere between
# the service/run/task keyword and the command.
service :1 [2345] /sbin/merecat -n -p 80 /var/www -- Web server
service :2 [2345] /sbin/merecat -n -p 8080 /var/www -- Old web server
# Alternative method instead of below runparts, can also use /etc/rc.local
#task [S] /etc/init.d/keyboard-setup start -- Setting up preliminary keymap
#task [S] /etc/init.d/acpid start -- Starting ACPI Daemon
#task [S] /etc/init.d/kbd start -- Preparing console
# Inetd services to start on demand, with alternate ports and filtering
inetd ftp/tcp nowait [2345] /sbin/uftpd -i -f -- FTP daemon
inetd tftp/udp wait [2345] /sbin/uftpd -i -y -- TFTP daemon
inetd time/udp wait [2345] internal -- UNIX rdate service
inetd time/tcp nowait [2345] internal -- UNIX rdate service
inetd 3737/tcp nowait [2345] internal.time -- UNIX rdate service
inetd telnet/tcp nowait [2345] /sbin/telnetd -i -F -- Telnet daemon
inetd 2323/tcp nowait [2345] /sbin/telnetd -i -F -- Telnet daemon
inetd 222/tcp@eth0 nowait [2345] /sbin/dropbear -i -R -F -- SSH service
inetd ssh/tcp@*,!eth0 nowait [2345] /sbin/dropbear -i -R -F -- SSH service
# Run start scripts from this directory
# runparts /etc/start.d
# Virtual consoles to start built-in getty on
tty [12345] /dev/tty1 115200 linux
tty [12345] /dev/ttyAMA0 115200 vt100
For an example of a full blown embedded Linux, see TroglOS, or take
a look at the contrib/
section with Alpine Linux,
Debian, support and more.
Process Supervision
Start, monitor and restart services should they fail.
Inetd
Finit comes with a built-in inetd server. No need to maintain a separate config file for services that you want to start on demand.
All inetd services started can be filtered per port and inbound interface, reducing the need for a full blown firewall.
Built-in optional inetd services:
- echo RFC862
- chargen RFC864
- daytime RFC867
- discard RFC863
- time (rdate) RFC868
For more information, see doc/inetd.md.
Getty
Finit also comes with a built-in Getty for Linux console TTYs. It can
parse /etc/inittab
and set the speed. Then /bin/login
handles all
nasty bits with PAM etc.
# /etc/finit.conf
tty [12345] /dev/tty1 38400 linux
tty [12345] /dev/ttyAMA0 115200 vt100
Runlevels
Support for SysV init-style runlevels is available, in the same
minimal style as everything else in Finit. The [2345]
syntax can be
applied to service, task, run, inetd, and TTY stanzas.
All services in runlevel S(1) are started first, followed by the desired
run-time runlevel. Runlevel S can be started in sequence by using run [S] cmd
. Changing runlevels at runtime is done like any other init,
e.g. init 4, but also using the more advanced intictl
tool.
Plugins
Plugins can extend the functionality of Finit and hook into the
different stages of the boot process and at runtime. Plugins are
written in C and compiled into a dynamic library loaded automatically by
finit at boot. A basic set of plugins are bundled in the plugins/
directory.
Capabilities:
- Hooks
Hook into the boot at predefined points to extend Finit - I/O
Listen to external events and control Finit behavior/services - Inetd
Extend Finit with internal inetd services, for an example, seeplugins/time.c
Extensions and functionality not purely related to what an /sbin/init
needs to start a system are available as a set of plugins that either
hook into the boot process or respond to various I/O.
For more information, see doc/plugins.md.
At the end of the boot, when networking and all services are up, Finit
calls its built-in run-parts(8) on the runparts <DIR>
directory,
and /etc/rc.local
, in that order if they exist.
runparts /etc/rc.d/
No configuration stanza in /etc/finit.conf
is required for rc.local
.
If it exists and is an executable shell script, finit calls it at the
very end of the boot, before calling the HOOK_SYSTEM_UP
. See more on
hooks in doc/plugins.md, and about the system
bootstrap in doc/bootstrap.md.
Basic support for runlevels is included in Finit from v1.8. By
default all services, tasks, run commands and TTYs listed without a set
of runlevels get a default set [234]
assigned. The default runlevel
after boot is 2.
Finit supports runlevels 0-9, and S, with 0 reserved for halt, 6 reboot and S for services to only run at bootstrap. Runlevel 1 is the single user level, where usually no networking is enabled. In Finit this is more of a policy for the user to define. Normally only runlevels 1-6 are used, and even more commonly, only the default runlevel is used.
To specify an allowed set of runlevels for a service
, run
command,
task
, or tty
, add [NNN]
to your /etc/finit.conf
, like this:
service [S12345] /sbin/syslogd -n -x -- System log daemon
run [S] /etc/init.d/acpid start -- Starting ACPI Daemon
task [S] /etc/init.d/kbd start -- Preparing console
service [S12345] /sbin/klogd -n -x -- Kernel log daemon
tty [12345] /dev/tty1
tty [2] /dev/tty2
tty [2] /dev/tty3
tty [2] /dev/tty4
tty [2] /dev/tty5
tty [2] /dev/tty6
In this example syslogd is first started, in parallel, and then acpid is called using a conventional SysV init script. It is called with the run command, meaning the following task command to start the kbd script is not called until the acpid init script has fully completed. Then the keyboard setup script is called in parallel with klogd as a monitored service.
Again, tasks and services are started in parallel, while run commands are called in the order listed and subsequent commands are not started until a run command has completed.
Switching between runlevels can be done by calling init with a single
argument, e.g. init 5 switches to runlevel 5. When changing
runlevels Finit also automatically reloads all .conf
files in the
/etc/finit.d/
directory. So if you want to set a new system config,
switch to runlevel 1, change all config files in the system, and touch
all .conf
files in /etc/finit.d
before switching back to the
previous runlevel again — that way Finit can both stop old services and
start any new ones for you, without rebooting the system.
Traditionally, rebooting and halting a UNIX system is done by changing
its runlevel. Finit comes with its own tooling providing: shutdown
,
reboot
, poweroff
, and suspend
, but also the traditional init
and
telinit
, as well as a more modern initctl
tool, detailed in the next
section.
For compatibility reasons Finit listens to the same set of signals as BusyBox init. This is not 100% compatible with SysV init, but clearly the more common combination for Finit. For more details, see doc/signals.md.
Finit also listens to the classic SysV init FIFO, used by telinit
.
Support for this is implemented by the initctl.so
plugin. Hence,
telinit q
will work as the UNIX beards intended.
~ # telinit -h
Usage: telinit [OPTIONS] [q | Q | 0-9]
Options:
-h, --help This help text
-V, --version Show Finit version
Commands:
0 Power-off the system, same as initctl poweroff
6 Reboot the system, same as initctl reboot
2, 3, 4, 5 Change runlevel. Starts services in new runlevel, stops any
services in prev. runlevel that are not allowed in new.
q, Q Reload *.conf in /etc/finit.d/, same as initctl reload or
sending SIGHUP to PID 1
1, s, S Enter system rescue mode, runlevel 1
Finit also implements a more modern API to query status, and start/stop
services, called initctl
. Unlike telinit
the initctl
tool does
not return until the given command has fully completed.
~ $ initctl -h
Usage: initctl [OPTIONS] <COMMAND>
Options:
-d, --debug Debug initctl (client)
-v, --verbose Verbose output
-h, --help This help text
Commands:
debug Toggle Finit (daemon) debug
help This help text
reload Reload *.conf in /etc/finit.d/ and activate changes
runlevel [0-9] Show or set runlevel: 0 halt, 6 reboot
status | show Show status of services
cond set <COND> Set (assert) condition => +COND
cond clear <COND> Clear (deassert) condition => -COND
cond flux <COND> Emulate flux condition => ~COND
cond show Show condition status
start <JOB|NAME>[:ID] Start service by job# or name, with optional ID
stop <JOB|NAME>[:ID] Stop/Pause a running service by job# or name
restart <JOB|NAME>[:ID] Restart (stop/start) service by job# or name
reload <JOB|NAME>[:ID] Reload (SIGHUP) service by job# or name
version Show Finit version
For services not supporting SIGHUP
the <!>
notation in the .conf
file must be used to tell Finit to stop and start it on reload
and
runlevel
changes. If <>
holds more conditions,
these will also affect how a service is maintained.
Note: even though it is possible to start services not belonging in the current runlevel these services will not be respawned automatically by Finit if they exit (crash). Hence, if the runlevel is 2, the below Dropbear SSH service will not be restarted if it is killed or exits.
~ $ initctl status -v
1 running 476 [S12345] /sbin/watchdog -T 16 -t 2 -F /dev/watchdog
2 running 477 [S12345] /sbin/syslogd -n -b 3 -D
3 running 478 [S12345] /sbin/klogd -n
4:1 inetd 0 [2345] internal time allow *:37
4:2 inetd 0 [2345] internal time allow *:37
4:3 inetd 0 [2345] internal 3737 allow *:3737
5:1 inetd 0 [2345] /sbin/telnetd allow *:23 deny eth0,eth1
5:2 inetd 0 [2345] /sbin/telnetd allow eth0:2323,eth2:2323,eth1:2323
6:1 inetd 0 [345] /sbin/dropbear allow eth0:222
6:2 inetd 0 [345] /sbin/dropbear allow *:22 deny eth0
Finit is capable of running on both desktop/server systems with udev and
embedded systems that usually come with BusyBox mdev. Finit probes for
them at runtime and expects /dev/
to be writable, usually devtmpfs
.
It is also possible to run on a statically set up /dev
if needed. It
is however not a good idea to have both udev and mdev installed at the
same time, this will lead to unpredictable results.
At boot Finit calls either mdev
or udevd
to populate /dev
, this is
done slightly differently and on systems with udev you might want to add
the following one-shot task early in your /etc/finit.conf
:
run [S] /sbin/udevadm settle --timeout=120 -- Waiting for udev
Finit has a built-in Getty for TTYs, but requires a working /bin/login
or /bin/sh
, if no TTYs are configured in /etc/finit.conf
.
For a fully operational system /var
, /run
and /tmp
must be set up
properly in /etc/fstab
-- which is iterated over at boot.
The built-in Inetd requires /etc/services
and /etc/protocols
to work
with port names rather than numbers.
Having successfully built Finit it may now be time to
take it for a test drive. The make install
attempts to set up finit
as the system system init, /sbin/init
, but this is usually a symlink
pointing to the current init.
So either change the symlink, or change your boot loader (GRUB, LOADLIN, LILO, U-Boot/Barebox or RedBoot) configuration to append the following to the kernel command line:
append="init=/sbin/finit"
Remember to also set up an initial /etc/finit.conf
before rebooting!
Add finit_debug
, or --debug
, to the kernel command line to enable
debug messages.
append="init=/sbin/finit --debug"
To debug startup issues, in particular issues with getty/login, try
configure --enable-fallback-shell
. When no TTYs are detected, and
Finit is configured with this option, Finit will try to start a bare
/bin/sh
on the boot console.
This project is based on the original finit by Claudio Matsuoka which was reverse engineered from syscalls of the EeePC fastinit — "gaps filled with frog DNA …"
Finit is developed and maintained by Joachim Nilsson at GitHub. Please file bug reports, clone it, or send pull requests for bug fixes and proposed extensions.