
Mastering Embedded Linux Programming
By :

BusyBox has a minimal init
program that uses a configuration file, /etc/inittab
, to define rules to start programs at boot up and to stop them at shutdown. Usually, the actual work is done by shell scripts which, by convention, are placed in the /etc/init.d
directory.
init
begins by reading the configuration file, /etc/inittab
. This contains a list of programs to run, one per line, with this format:
<id>::<action>:<program>
The role of these parameters is as follows:
id
: The controlling terminal for the command
action
: The conditions to run this command, as shown in the following paragraph
program
: The program to run
The actions are as follows:
sysinit
: Run the program when init
starts, before any of the other types of actions.
respawn
: Run the program and restart it if it terminates. It is used to run a program as a daemon.
askfirst
: This is the same as respawn
, but prints the message Please press Enter to activate this console to the console and runs the program after...