FreeBSD-init

The FreeBSD init system is called rc.

Documentation

official tutorial	https://docs.freebsd.org/en/articles/rc-scripting/#rcng-dummy
man rc.subr	https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=rc.subr
man rc	https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=rc
man rcorder	https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=rcorder

Locations

/etc/rc.d/*	system rc scripts
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/*	user rc scripts
/etc/rc.subr	available rc script methods

Notes

freebsd rc usage

freebsd rc syntax

freebsd rc troubleshooting

Init Scripting

NOTE:

Checkout the following initscripts (in my saltstack repostiory) for simple examples:

• taskwarrior's taskd
• minecraft

https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/articles/rc-scripting/rcng-dummy.html	Official Documentation
/etc/rc.subr	Library of rc-script functions

Debugging

You can create 'debug mode' for a particular init script by adding the following lines to it's init script (just below the shebang), then rebooting and checking /tmp/output.txt.

set -xv
exec 1>/tmp/output.txt 2>&1

Daemonize Non-Daemon Programs

FreeBSD provides the program daemon which manages forking processes along with their pidfile. Simply use this as your command instead. Note that you will need to manage your status/stop manually if running the program this way.

pidfile=/var/run/program_name.pid

is_running(){
    if [ -f $pidfile ]; then
        pgrep `cat $pidfile`
        return $0
    fi

    return 1
}

program_status(){
    if is_running; then
        echo "${name} is running"
    else
        echo "${name} is not running"
    fi
}

program_stop() {
    if is_running; then
        echo "stopping ${name}"
        kill -15 `cat pidfile`
    else
        echo "${name} is not running"
    fi
}


status_cmd=program_status
stop_cmd=program_stop

command="/usr/sbin/daemon"
command_args="-u $command_user -f -p $pidfile    $program_name -x -y -z"