Linux in a Nutshell, 6th Edition

Name

initctl

Synopsis

initctl [options] command

System administration command. initctl sends commands to the Upstart init daemon. Use it to monitor jobs or events, call jobs directly, or send custom events to the daemon.

Options

--show-ids

Show unique process id (pid) as well as the job id.

--by-id

Parameter passed to command is a job id.

--no-wait

When using start, stop, or emit, exit immediately instead of waiting for the request to finish.

--quiet

Only show errors when running the given command.

Commands

These generally apply to upstart jobs. Jobs are usually defined in files located in the /etc/event.d directory. Most commands will accept multiple job names given in a space separated list.

emit event [arguments]

Emit a custom event to which init should respond. Event arguments may be passed in a comma separated list. If any job status changes as a result of the event, print each change.

events

Monitor system events.

list [pattern]

Print a list of all known jobs. If an optional shell style matching pattern is given, only those jobs matching the pattern will be shown.

log-priority priority

Change init message logging priority to one of debug, info, message, warn, error, or fatal.

start job...

Start and print job status changes to screen.

status job...

Print status. The job name, goal (to start or stop) and the current status of the job are shown, along with any associated pids.

stop job...

Stop and print job status changes to screen.

jobs

Monitor job changes, printing changes to the screen.

version

Print version ...