man chkconfig (8): enable or disable system services

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

chkconfig is used to manipulate the runlevel links at boot time (see init.d(7)). It can be thought of as a frontend to insserv(8). Chkconfig can run in six different modes: terse list mode, set mode, edit mode, list mode, add mode and delete mode. The last three modes were added for compatiblity reasons.

TERSE LIST MODE

This mode lists the state of the specified services, or all known services if no service name was provided. Every printed line consists of the name of the service and the runlevels the service is configured for at the moment. If it is configured in no runlevel, off is used instead, if it is configured in the runlevels defined as a default by the start script, on is used. If the service is an enabled inetd or xinetd service, inetd and xinetd are used. Inetd/xinetd services are configured in /etc/inetd.d and /etc/xinetd.d, respectively. You can use the -A or --allservices parameter to get all services (even the boot.*-services) listed.

If chkconfig is called without arguments, all services are listed in terse mode.

SET MODE

Set mode is used to configure at which runlevel a service should be started. The arguments must be specified as pairs of service name and new state. You can use on and off as special states to select the default set of runlevels or to disable a service completely. You can use inetd or xinetd to configure a service managed by the inetd/xinetd daemons.

Insserv can calculate dependencies for only one service at the same time. To work around this limitation imposed by insserv, chkconfig uses the '-f' option of insserv when it reads the list of services from standard input. Note that --force switches off all dependency checks and could lead to depending services no longer working, use with care.

If no services are specified, chkconfig reads lines from standard input. Each line must consist of a service/state pair. As this is exactly the output of the terse list mode, this can be used to reconfigure a service specification saved by a former run.

If the option -f or --force is also given, insserv is called with a '-f' option.

EDIT MODE

This mode is a combination of the terse list mode and set mode. It writes the state of all specified services (or all known services, if no service was provided) into a temporary file, starts an editor and re-configures all services to reflect the states of the changed temporary file.

CHECK MODE

This mode can be used to check the state of a service. chkconfig exits with a return code of '0' if the service is enabled in all of the specified runlevels, otherwise the exit status is '1'. If chkconfig is called with only a service name the current runlevel of the system is used for checking.

LIST MODE

List mode prints for each specified service a line that consists of the service name and for runlevels zero to six on or off depending if the service will be started or not. on will be printed in bright green if the output is written to a terminal. If the --deps option is given, the names of the services that must be started before this service is appended to each line. The inetd/xinetd services are listed in extra sections.

You can use the -A or --allservices parameter to get all services (even the boot.*-services) listed.

ADD MODE

Calls insserv to enable a service and uses list mode to display the new setting afterwards.

DEL MODE

Same as add mode, but disable the service.

OTHER OPTIONS

When no service names are given on the command line, chkconfig defaults to all known services excluding those that are not enabled in runlevels 1 to 6 and start with 'boot.'. Use the --allservices or -A option if you want to see such services as well.

EXAMPLES

: chkconfig

list the runlevel configuration of all known services

: chkconfig apache

list the runlevel configuration of the apache web server

: chkconfig -t apache xntpd

list the runlevel configuration of the apache web server and the network time protocol daemon.

: chkconfig apache on

configure the apache web server to be started on next boot time.

: chkconfig apache 5

configure the apache web server to be started only if the system reaches runlevel 5.

: chkconfig apache 35

configure the apache web server for runlevel 3 and 5.

: chkconfig apache on xntpd off

configure two services

: chkconfig finger xinetd

configure a xinetd service

: chkconfig -A >~root/chkconfig.save

backup the current configuration

: chkconfig -s <~root/chkconfig.save

restore the configuration

: chkconfig -e apache xntpd

change the runlevel configuration interactively

: chkconfig -e

change the runlevel configuration of all services interactively

FILES

/etc/init.d/: path to the boot script base directory as required by the Linux Standard Base Specification (LSB).
/etc/inetd.d/: path to the inetd services. See the inetd manpage to find out how to enable this feature.
/etc/xinetd.d/: path to the xinetd services.

COPYRIGHT

2003 SuSE Linux AG, Nuernberg, Germany.

AUTHOR

Michael Schroeder <[email protected]>