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start-stop-daemon(8)		dpkg utilities		  start-stop-daemon(8)



NAME
       start-stop-daemon - start and stop system daemon programs

SYNOPSIS
       start-stop-daemon -S|--start options [--] arguments

       start-stop-daemon -K|--stop options

       start-stop-daemon -H|--help

       start-stop-daemon -V|--version

DESCRIPTION
       start-stop-daemon  is  used  to control the creation and termination of
       system-level processes.	 Using	the  --exec,  --pidfile,  --user,  and
       --name  options,  start-stop-daemon  can be configured to find existing
       instances of a running process.

       With --start, start-stop-daemon checks for the existence of a specified
       process.  If such a process exists, start-stop-daemon does nothing, and
       exits with error status 1 (0 if --oknodo is specified).	If such a pro
       cess does not exist, it starts an instance, using either the executable
       specified by --exec, (or, if specified, by --startas).	Any  arguments
       given after -- on the command line are passed unmodified to the program
       being started.

       With --stop, start-stop-daemon also checks for the existence of a spec
       ified  process.	 If  such a process exists, start-stop-daemon sends it
       the signal specified by --signal, and exits with error  status  0.   If
       such  a process does not exist, start-stop-daemon exits with error sta
       tus 1 (0 if --oknodo  is  specified).  If  --retry  is  specified  then
       start-stop-daemon will check that the process(es) have terminated.

       Note:  unless --pidfile is specified, start-stop-daemon behaves similar
       to killall(1).  start-stop-daemon will scan the process	table  looking
       for  any  processes  which  match the process name, uid, and/or gid (if
       specified). Any matching process will prevent --start from starting the
       daemon.	All  matching processes will be sent the KILL signal if --stop
       is specified. For daemons which have long-lived children which need  to
       live through a --stop you must specify a pidfile.


OPTIONS
       -x|--exec executable
	      Check  for  processes  that  are	instances  of  this executable
	      (according to /proc/pid/exe).

       -p|--pidfile pid-file
	      Check whether a process has created the file pid-file.

       -u|--user username|uid
	      Check for processes owned by the user specified by  username  or
	      uid.

       -g|--group group|gid
	      Change to group or gid when starting the process.

       -n|--name process-name
	      Check  for  processes  with  the name process-name (according to
	      /proc/pid/stat).

       -s|--signal signal
	      With --stop, specifies the signal to  send  to  processes  being
	      stopped (default 15).

       -R|--retry timeout|schedule
	      With  --stop,  specifies	that  start-stop-daemon  is  to  check
	      whether the process(es) do  finish.  It  will  check  repeatedly
	      whether  any  matching processes are running, until none are. If
	      the processes do not exit it will then take  further  action  as
	      determined by the schedule.

	      If  timeout  is  specified instead of schedule then the schedule
	      signal/timeout/KILL/timeout is used, where signal is the	signal
	      specified with --signal.

	      schedule	is  a  list of at least two items separated by slashes
	      (/); each item may be -signal-number  or	[-]signal-name,  which
	      means  to send that signal, or timeout, which means to wait that
	      many seconds for processes to exit, or forever, which  means  to
	      repeat the rest of the schedule forever if necessary.

	      If  the end of the schedule is reached and forever is not speci
	      fied, then start-stop-daemon exits with error status  2.	 If  a
	      schedule	is  specified, then any signal specified with --signal
	      is ignored.

       -a|--startas pathname
	      With --start, start the process specified by pathname.   If  not
	      specified, defaults to the argument given to --exec.

       -t|--test
	      Print  actions  that  would  be taken and set appropriate return
	      value, but take no action.

       -o|--oknodo
	      Return exit status 0 instead of 1 if no actions are  (would  be)
	      taken.

       -q|--quiet
	      Do  not  print  informational  messages; only display error mes
	      sages.

       -c|--chuid username|uid
	      Change to this username/uid before starting the process. You can
	      also  specify a group by appending a :, then the group or gid in
	      the same way as you would for the chown command  (user:group).
	      When  using  this  option  you must realize that the primary and
	      supplemental groups are set as well, even if the --group	option
	      is not specified. The --group option is only for groups that the
	      user isnt normally a member of (like adding per  process	group
	      membership for generic users like nobody).

       -r|--chroot root
	      Chdir  and  chroot  to  root before starting the process. Please
	      note that the pidfile is also written after the chroot.

       -d|--chdir path
	      Chdir to path before starting the process. This  is  done  after
	      the chroot if the -r|--chroot option is set. When not specified,
	      start-stop-daemon will chdir to the root directory before start
	      ing the process.

       -b|--background
	      Typically  used  with  programs  that dont detach on their own.
	      This option will force start-stop-daemon to fork before starting
	      the  process,  and  force  it  into  the	background.   WARNING:
	      start-stop-daemon cannot check the exit status  if  the  process
	      fails  to  execute for any reason. This is a last resort, and is
	      only meant for programs that either make	no  sense  forking  on
	      their  own,  or where its not feasible to add the code for them
	      to do this themself.

       -N|--nicelevel int
	      This alters the priority of the process before starting it.

       -k|--umask mask
	      This sets the umask of the process before starting it.

       -m|--make-pidfile
	      Used when starting a program that does not create  its  own  pid
	      file.  This  option  will make start-stop-daemon create the file
	      referenced with --pidfile and place the pid into it just	before
	      executing  the  process. Note, the file will not be removed when
	      stopping the program.  NOTE: This feature may not  work  in  all
	      cases.  Most  notably when the program being executed forks from
	      its main process. Because of this it is usually only useful when
	      combined with the --background option.

       -v|--verbose
	      Print verbose informational messages.

       -H|--help
	      Print help information; then exit.

       -V|--version
	      Print version information; then exit.


AUTHORS
       Marek Michalkiewicz  based on a pre
       vious version by Ian Jackson .

       Manual page by Klee Dienes , partially reformatted by Ian
       Jackson.



Debian Project			  2006-02-28		  start-stop-daemon(8)




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