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Next Generation Init System ( initng )

1 Introduction
1.1 Developers
2 Initng: An Overview
2.1 The Next Generation Control (ngc) 3 How to get initng
3.1 How to Install
3.2 Caveats/Known Issues
4 Terms of Licensing
5 Development

1 Introduction

Initng is a full replacement of the old and in many ways deprecated sysvinit tool. It is designed with speed in mind, doing as much as possible asynchronously. In other words: It will boot your unix-system much faster, and give you more control and statistics over your system.

The basic premise is that startup commands can be launched as soon as their dependencies are met. This limits the effect of bottlenecks like I/O operations; while one program is performing I/O, another can be utilizing the processor. Initng tracks the individual service dependencies in its configuration files.

It is designed to use a minimum of system resources and to boot your system quickly and safely.

Website: http://www.initng.org
Mailing list: http://www.initng.org/wiki/Contact_Lists

This package currently includes:

initng sysvinit replacement; handles system & service control
ngc an application for controlling initng
plugins initng uses plugins to provide some functions

1.1 Developers

If you find this little piece of software useful, please email me <jimmy.wennlund@gmail.com> with some feedback.

Jimmy Wennlund <jimmy.wennlund@gmail.com>
I am the original author of the initng project, which was created in my spare time and mostly for fun. I live in Sweden, outside Uppsala.

2 Initng: An Overview

On boot, initng will be started as the first process (pid = 1) by the kernel. At first, initng will parse configuration files located in /etc/initng for critical information such as runlevel and service data. After that, all services required by the default runlevel will be started as soon as their dependencies are met, allowing services to run in parallel. This asynchronous execution can dramatically improve boot time by better utilizing the system resources (especially in the case of multiprocessor systems).

Service monitoring is also available, automatically respawing daemons that die without being explicitly shutdown, a critical feature for server systems that require constant uptime.

The system gives complete control over how your system boots in the traditional services and runlevels model. Startup status is presented in a percentile fashion, as well as the launch time for each individual service. This allows easier tracking of what services add the most time to startup.

Another feature is the "really warm reboot". Using 'ngc -x' will bring down all services and soft reboot your system, from user level in only a few seconds.

2.1 The Next Generation Control (ngc)

Using the included ngc control program to communicate with initng in a two-way communication, checking the status of all services, browse history, bring services up and down, reboot or halt, and change runlevels.

Executing 'ngc -h' will display the command's help and description.

3 How to get initng

For now, a test or relay first beta is located at http://jw.dyndns.org/initng/. You are free to test AT YOUR OWN RISK! REMEMBER, this is a beta release and many new features that are on the TODO list are not yet fixed.

3.1 How to Install

Download the latest version from here (http://jw.dyndns.org/initng/).
Unzip the tarball, enter the directory, and install as super-user

# tar -zxvf initng-<version>.tar.gz # cd initng-<version>

# cmake
# make install

3. Instruct your bootloader to use the initng instead of the traditional 'init'

WARNING: initng is beta software, and must be used with caution. However, it can be installed side-by-side with init. It is recommended that you duplicate the relevant blocks of your bootloader configuration to add the above changes. That is, copy your existing entry (eg, the one labeled "linux") to a new section (say, "linux-initng") before you add the "init=" line. This way you can always boot with the original (default) init.

LILO Edit lilo.conf and add the line append="init=/sbin/initng" after the image specifier.

# Sample LILO entry
image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.9

      root = /dev/hda6
      label = linux-initng
      append = "init=/sbin/initng"
      read-only

GRUB Edit /etc/grub/grub.conf and append init=/sbin/initng to the image specifier

# Sample GRUB entry
title linux-initng
kernel (hd0,1)/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 init=/sbin/initng

[Note: 'make uninstall' is available]

        <jimmy.wennlund@gmail.com>
        +46 737 623932