README.md

aquabsd-init

*** ⚠️⚠️⚠️ CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION, MUCH OF THIS WORK IS STILL PRIVATE ⚠️⚠️⚠️ ***

Replacement for the Research Unix-style init system on aquaBSD. init is the first process launched on the system, and is the one which is at the root of all subsequent processes. It launches, manages, and maintains background services (e.g. sshd, ntpd, dhclient).

It also launches the AQUA WM, keeps the Pat Shack repository up to date (through the patd daemon), and handles AQUA app permissions.

Services & dependencies

Services can either be system-wide (located in /etc/init/services or /usr/local/etc/init/services for third-party packages) or user-specific (located in ~/.local/etc/init/services - these services are started with the relevant user permissions). Each service is a directory containing a desc.json file, which tells init information about the service in question (notably its name, dependencies, and what actions to take), and some other private files the service has access to. Here is an example desc.json file:

{
	"name": "sshd", // colloquial name, displayed to the user
	"desc": "SSH daemon",

	"exec": "/usr/sbin/sshd",
	"stop": "bin/stop",

	// custom commands provided by the service

	"cmds": {
		"sanity": {
			"desc": "Perform sanity check on configuration.",
			"exec": "bin/sanity"
		},

		"keygen": {
			"desc": "Generate host keys.",
			"exec": "bin/keygen"
		},
	},

	"deps": [ "LOGIN", "FILESYSTEM" ], // other services the service depends on
	"before": [] // which services must the service absolutely finish before
}

(Similar to /etc/rc.d/sshd on FreeBSD.)

init starts off by reading all these desc.json files for each service, and then building a graph out of them. This graph can be exported as a GraphViz file by running:

% service -g

Third party services

Care must be taken so that no two services directories have the same name, so third-party packages which may need to install additional services to the system are encouraged to:

• Install services into /usr/local/etc/init/services instead of /etc/init/services. This is so that there's absolutely no chance of a naming conflict with the base system.
• Name services and service directories in a unique way (e.g., package_name.service_version.service_name - this is however not a strict requirement by aquaBSD). A friendlier name may be used as the name member in desc.json though.

Dummy services

It is sometimes useful to have so-called "dummy" services to act as layers of abstraction above groups of related services. They are typically denoted by uppercase letters, but this is not a strict requirement by aquaBSD. Here is an example desc.json file:

{
	"name": "NETWORKING",
	"desc": "Dummy service for services which require networking to be operational before starting.",

	"deps": [ "netif", "netwait", "netoptions", "routing", "ppp", "ipfw", "stf", "defaultroute", "route6d", "resolv", "bridge", "static_arp", "static_ndp" ]
}

(Similar to /etc/rc.d/NETWORKING on FreeBSD.)

/etc/rc compatibility

The init found on versions of Research Unix and BSD usually runs a script located at /etc/rc, which in turn runs services as other scripts in /etc/rc.d and /usr/local/etc/rc.d. These scripts will be parsed and read just as before, as many packages still assume this init system. On NetBSD & FreeBSD, the rcorder utility was used to resolve dependencies between these; in aquaBSD, this utility no longer exists in the base system, and its functionality has been taken over by init.

The /etc/rc.conf configuration file from the NetBSD & FreeBSD init systems is ignored. Some of the configuration options present in there have been moved over to sysctl OID's. Please don't take this as a cue to put your configurations in /boot/loader.conf though, that's a bad idea 😉

libinit

A library called libinit is available to programs, which provides an interface for interacting with the init system and services. E.g., given the correct user permissions, it can restart services or communicate with them.