## Starting Services 



It is common for a system to host a number of services. These may be started in several different fashions, each having different advantages.



Software installed from a port or the packages collection will often place a script in `/usr/pkg/share/examples/rc.d` which is invoked at system startup with a `start` argument, and at system shutdown with a `stop` argument. This is the recommended way for starting system-wide services that are to be run as `root`, or that expect to be started as `root`. These scripts are registered as part of the installation of the package, and will be removed when the package is removed.



A generic startup script in `/usr/pkg/share/examples/rc.d` looks like:



    

    #!/bin/sh

    echo -n ' FooBar'

    

    case "$1" in

    start)

            /usr/pkg/bin/foobar

            ;;

    stop)

            kill -9 `cat /var/run/foobar.pid`

            ;;

    
*)

            echo "Usage: `basename $0` {start|stop}" >&2

            exit 64

            ;;

    esac

    

    exit 0

    





The startup scripts of DragonFly will look in `/usr/pkg/share/examples/rc.d` for scripts that have an `.sh` extension and are executable by `root`. Those scripts that are found are called with an option `start` at startup, and `stop` at shutdown to allow them to carry out their purpose. So if you wanted the above sample script to be picked up and run at the proper time during system startup, you should save it to a file called `FooBar.sh` in `/usr/local/etc/rc.d` and make sure it is executable. You can make a shell script executable with [chmod(1)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command=chmod&section=1) as shown below:



    

    # chmod 755 "FooBar.sh"





Some services expect to be invoked by [inetd(8)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command=inetd&section=8) when a connection is received on a suitable port. This is common for mail reader servers (POP and IMAP, etc.). These services are enabled by editing the file `/etc/inetd.conf`. See [inetd(8)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command=inetd&section=8) for details on editing this file.



Some additional system services may not be covered by the toggles in `/etc/rc.conf`. These are traditionally enabled by placing the command(s) to invoke them in `/etc/rc.local` (which does not exist by default). Note that `rc.local` is generally regarded as the location of last resort; if there is a better place to start a service, do it there.



 **Note:** Do ***not*** place any commands in `/etc/rc.conf`. To start daemons, or run any commands at boot time, place a script in `/usr/pkg/share/examples/rc.d` instead.



It is also possible to use the [cron(8)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command=cron&section=8) daemon to start system services. This approach has a number of advantages, not least being that because [cron(8)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command=cron&section=8) runs these processes as the owner of the `crontab`, services may be started and maintained by non-`root` users.



This takes advantage of a feature of [cron(8)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command=cron&section=8): the time specification may be replaced by `@reboot`, which will cause the job to be run when [cron(8)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command=cron&section=8) is started shortly after system boot.







CategoryHandbook

CategoryHandbook-configuration