INITTAB(5)

NAME
inittab - commands for init to execute

DESCRIPTION
/etc/inittab contains commands for the init(8) daemon of the general form: ``If you're in this runlevel, run this command with these arguments''.

Blank lines and leading spaces and tabs are ignored. Lines whose first non-space character is an octothorpe (#) are comments, and are ignored.

The runlevel is either an @ or a combination of s, m, h, r and b.

@   Is a placeholder for inittab commands (ctrlaltdel) which do not require a runlevel

b   Is for processes that need to run when the machine is first booting.

s   Is for processes that run in single-user mode.

m   Is for processes that run in multi-user mode. r,h Are for processes that run before the machine reboots or halts.

The command is either ctrlaltdel, which is executed whenever init(8) catches a SIGINT signal; once, which is executed once when the runlevel is entered; and again, which is kept running while the machine is in the runlevel. Additionally, the command initdefault, is accepted for historical reasons, but it's pretty meaningless.

When a command is executed, it runs the arguments as a process. These arguments are run directly, so i/o redirection and pipelines are not understood.

SAMPLE INITTAB
If init(8)can'tfindaninittab,itwillusethefollowingtrivial one.
s:initdefault:
s:respawn:/bin/sh

SEE ALSO
init(8)

AUTHOR
David Parsons
(orc@pell.chi.il.us)