README.md
1Android Init Language
2---------------------
3
4The Android Init Language consists of five broad classes of statements:
5Actions, Commands, Services, Options, and Imports.
6
7All of these are line-oriented, consisting of tokens separated by
8whitespace. The c-style backslash escapes may be used to insert
9whitespace into a token. Double quotes may also be used to prevent
10whitespace from breaking text into multiple tokens. The backslash,
11when it is the last character on a line, may be used for line-folding.
12
13Lines which start with a `#` (leading whitespace allowed) are comments.
14
15System properties can be expanded using the syntax
16`${property.name}`. This also works in contexts where concatenation is
17required, such as `import /init.recovery.${ro.hardware}.rc`.
18
19Actions and Services implicitly declare a new section. All commands
20or options belong to the section most recently declared. Commands
21or options before the first section are ignored.
22
23Services have unique names. If a second Service is defined
24with the same name as an existing one, it is ignored and an error
25message is logged.
26
27
28Init .rc Files
29--------------
30The init language is used in plain text files that take the .rc file
31extension. There are typically multiple of these in multiple
32locations on the system, described below.
33
34/init.rc is the primary .rc file and is loaded by the init executable
35at the beginning of its execution. It is responsible for the initial
36set up of the system.
37
38Init loads all of the files contained within the
39/{system,vendor,odm}/etc/init/ directories immediately after loading
40the primary /init.rc. This is explained in more details in the
41Imports section of this file.
42
43Legacy devices without the first stage mount mechanism previously were
44able to import init scripts during mount_all, however that is deprecated
45and not allowed for devices launching after Q.
46
47The intention of these directories is:
48
49 1. /system/etc/init/ is for core system items such as
50 SurfaceFlinger, MediaService, and logd.
51 2. /vendor/etc/init/ is for SoC vendor items such as actions or
52 daemons needed for core SoC functionality.
53 3. /odm/etc/init/ is for device manufacturer items such as
54 actions or daemons needed for motion sensor or other peripheral
55 functionality.
56
57All services whose binaries reside on the system, vendor, or odm
58partitions should have their service entries placed into a
59corresponding init .rc file, located in the /etc/init/
60directory of the partition where they reside. There is a build
61system macro, LOCAL\_INIT\_RC, that handles this for developers. Each
62init .rc file should additionally contain any actions associated with
63its service.
64
65An example is the userdebug logcatd.rc and Android.mk files located in the
66system/core/logcat directory. The LOCAL\_INIT\_RC macro in the
67Android.mk file places logcatd.rc in /system/etc/init/ during the
68build process. Init loads logcatd.rc during the mount\_all command and
69allows the service to be run and the action to be queued when
70appropriate.
71
72This break up of init .rc files according to their daemon is preferred
73to the previously used monolithic init .rc files. This approach
74ensures that the only service entries that init reads and the only
75actions that init performs correspond to services whose binaries are in
76fact present on the file system, which was not the case with the
77monolithic init .rc files. This additionally will aid in merge
78conflict resolution when multiple services are added to the system, as
79each one will go into a separate file.
80
81Actions
82-------
83Actions are named sequences of commands. Actions have a trigger which
84is used to determine when the action is executed. When an event
85occurs which matches an action's trigger, that action is added to
86the tail of a to-be-executed queue (unless it is already on the
87queue).
88
89Each action in the queue is dequeued in sequence and each command in
90that action is executed in sequence. Init handles other activities
91(device creation/destruction, property setting, process restarting)
92"between" the execution of the commands in activities.
93
94Actions take the form of:
95
96 on <trigger> [&& <trigger>]*
97 <command>
98 <command>
99 <command>
100
101Actions are added to the queue and executed based on the order that
102the file that contains them was parsed (see the Imports section), then
103sequentially within an individual file.
104
105For example if a file contains:
106
107 on boot
108 setprop a 1
109 setprop b 2
110
111 on boot && property:true=true
112 setprop c 1
113 setprop d 2
114
115 on boot
116 setprop e 1
117 setprop f 2
118
119Then when the `boot` trigger occurs and assuming the property `true`
120equals `true`, then the order of the commands executed will be:
121
122 setprop a 1
123 setprop b 2
124 setprop c 1
125 setprop d 2
126 setprop e 1
127 setprop f 2
128
129
130Services
131--------
132Services are programs which init launches and (optionally) restarts
133when they exit. Services take the form of:
134
135 service <name> <pathname> [ <argument> ]*
136 <option>
137 <option>
138 ...
139
140
141Options
142-------
143Options are modifiers to services. They affect how and when init
144runs the service.
145
146`capabilities [ <capability>\* ]`
147> Set capabilities when exec'ing this service. 'capability' should be a Linux
148 capability without the "CAP\_" prefix, like "NET\_ADMIN" or "SETPCAP". See
149 http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/capabilities.7.html for a list of Linux
150 capabilities.
151 If no capabilities are provided, then all capabilities are removed from this service, even if it
152 runs as root.
153
154`class <name> [ <name>\* ]`
155> Specify class names for the service. All services in a
156 named class may be started or stopped together. A service
157 is in the class "default" if one is not specified via the
158 class option. Additional classnames beyond the (required) first
159 one are used to group services.
160 The `animation` class should include all services necessary for both
161 boot animation and shutdown animation. As these services can be
162 launched very early during bootup and can run until the last stage
163 of shutdown, access to /data partition is not guaranteed. These
164 services can check files under /data but it should not keep files opened
165 and should work when /data is not available.
166
167`console [<console>]`
168> This service needs a console. The optional second parameter chooses a
169 specific console instead of the default. The default "/dev/console" can
170 be changed by setting the "androidboot.console" kernel parameter. In
171 all cases the leading "/dev/" should be omitted, so "/dev/tty0" would be
172 specified as just "console tty0".
173 This option connects stdin, stdout, and stderr to the console. It is mutually exclusive with the
174 stdio_to_kmsg option, which only connects stdout and stderr to kmsg.
175
176`critical`
177> This is a device-critical service. If it exits more than four times in
178 four minutes or before boot completes, the device will reboot into bootloader.
179
180`disabled`
181> This service will not automatically start with its class.
182 It must be explicitly started by name or by interface name.
183
184`enter_namespace <type> <path>`
185> Enters the namespace of type _type_ located at _path_. Only network namespaces are supported with
186 _type_ set to "net". Note that only one namespace of a given _type_ may be entered.
187
188`file <path> <type>`
189> Open a file path and pass its fd to the launched process. _type_ must be
190 "r", "w" or "rw". For native executables see libcutils
191 android\_get\_control\_file().
192
193`group <groupname> [ <groupname>\* ]`
194> Change to 'groupname' before exec'ing this service. Additional
195 groupnames beyond the (required) first one are used to set the
196 supplemental groups of the process (via setgroups()).
197 Currently defaults to root. (??? probably should default to nobody)
198
199`interface <interface name> <instance name>`
200> Associates this service with a list of the HIDL services that it provides. The interface name
201 must be a fully-qualified name and not a value name. For instance, this is used to allow
202 hwservicemanager to lazily start services. When multiple interfaces are served, this tag should
203 be used multiple times.
204 For example: interface vendor.foo.bar@1.0::IBaz default
205
206`ioprio <class> <priority>`
207> Sets the IO priority and IO priority class for this service via the SYS_ioprio_set syscall.
208 _class_ must be one of "rt", "be", or "idle". _priority_ must be an integer in the range 0 - 7.
209
210`keycodes <keycode> [ <keycode>\* ]`
211> Sets the keycodes that will trigger this service. If all of the keys corresponding to the passed
212 keycodes are pressed at once, the service will start. This is typically used to start the
213 bugreport service.
214
215> This option may take a property instead of a list of keycodes. In this case, only one option is
216 provided: the property name in the typical property expansion format. The property must contain
217 a comma separated list of keycode values or the text 'none' to indicate that
218 this service does not respond to keycodes.
219
220> For example, `keycodes ${some.property.name:-none}` where some.property.name expands
221 to "123,124,125". Since keycodes are handled very early in init,
222 only PRODUCT_DEFAULT_PROPERTY_OVERRIDES properties can be used.
223
224`memcg.limit_in_bytes <value>` and `memcg.limit_percent <value>`
225> Sets the child's memory.limit_in_bytes to the minimum of `limit_in_bytes`
226 bytes and `limit_percent` which is interpreted as a percentage of the size
227 of the device's physical memory (only if memcg is mounted).
228 Values must be equal or greater than 0.
229
230`memcg.limit_property <value>`
231> Sets the child's memory.limit_in_bytes to the value of the specified property
232 (only if memcg is mounted). This property will override the values specified
233 via `memcg.limit_in_bytes` and `memcg.limit_percent`.
234
235`memcg.soft_limit_in_bytes <value>`
236> Sets the child's memory.soft_limit_in_bytes to the specified value (only if memcg is mounted),
237 which must be equal or greater than 0.
238
239`memcg.swappiness <value>`
240> Sets the child's memory.swappiness to the specified value (only if memcg is mounted),
241 which must be equal or greater than 0.
242
243`namespace <pid|mnt>`
244> Enter a new PID or mount namespace when forking the service.
245
246`oneshot`
247> Do not restart the service when it exits.
248
249`onrestart`
250> Execute a Command (see below) when service restarts.
251
252`oom_score_adjust <value>`
253> Sets the child's /proc/self/oom\_score\_adj to the specified value,
254 which must range from -1000 to 1000.
255
256`override`
257> Indicates that this service definition is meant to override a previous definition for a service
258 with the same name. This is typically meant for services on /odm to override those defined on
259 /vendor. The last service definition that init parses with this keyword is the service definition
260 will use for this service. Pay close attention to the order in which init.rc files are parsed,
261 since it has some peculiarities for backwards compatibility reasons. The 'imports' section of
262 this file has more details on the order.
263
264`priority <priority>`
265> Scheduling priority of the service process. This value has to be in range
266 -20 to 19. Default priority is 0. Priority is set via setpriority().
267
268`reboot_on_failure <target>`
269> If this process cannot be started or if the process terminates with an exit code other than
270 CLD_EXITED or an status other than '0', reboot the system with the target specified in
271 _target_. _target_ takes the same format as the parameter to sys.powerctl. This is particularly
272 intended to be used with the `exec_start` builtin for any must-have checks during boot.
273
274`restart_period <seconds>`
275> If a non-oneshot service exits, it will be restarted at its start time plus
276 this period. It defaults to 5s to rate limit crashing services.
277 This can be increased for services that are meant to run periodically. For
278 example, it may be set to 3600 to indicate that the service should run every hour
279 or 86400 to indicate that the service should run every day.
280
281`rlimit <resource> <cur> <max>`
282> This applies the given rlimit to the service. rlimits are inherited by child
283 processes, so this effectively applies the given rlimit to the process tree
284 started by this service.
285 It is parsed similarly to the setrlimit command specified below.
286
287`seclabel <seclabel>`
288> Change to 'seclabel' before exec'ing this service.
289 Primarily for use by services run from the rootfs, e.g. ueventd, adbd.
290 Services on the system partition can instead use policy-defined transitions
291 based on their file security context.
292 If not specified and no transition is defined in policy, defaults to the init context.
293
294`setenv <name> <value>`
295> Set the environment variable _name_ to _value_ in the launched process.
296
297`shutdown <shutdown_behavior>`
298> Set shutdown behavior of the service process. When this is not specified,
299 the service is killed during shutdown process by using SIGTERM and SIGKILL.
300 The service with shutdown_behavior of "critical" is not killed during shutdown
301 until shutdown times out. When shutdown times out, even services tagged with
302 "shutdown critical" will be killed. When the service tagged with "shutdown critical"
303 is not running when shut down starts, it will be started.
304
305`sigstop`
306> Send SIGSTOP to the service immediately before exec is called. This is intended for debugging.
307 See the below section on debugging for how this can be used.
308
309`socket <name> <type> <perm> [ <user> [ <group> [ <seclabel> ] ] ]`
310> Create a UNIX domain socket named /dev/socket/_name_ and pass its fd to the
311 launched process. _type_ must be "dgram", "stream" or "seqpacket". _type_
312 may end with "+passcred" to enable SO_PASSCRED on the socket. User and
313 group default to 0. 'seclabel' is the SELinux security context for the
314 socket. It defaults to the service security context, as specified by
315 seclabel or computed based on the service executable file security context.
316 For native executables see libcutils android\_get\_control\_socket().
317
318`stdio_to_kmsg`
319> Redirect stdout and stderr to /dev/kmsg_debug. This is useful for services that do not use native
320 Android logging during early boot and whose logs messages we want to capture. This is only enabled
321 when /dev/kmsg_debug is enabled, which is only enabled on userdebug and eng builds.
322 This is mutually exclusive with the console option, which additionally connects stdin to the
323 given console.
324
325`task_profiles <profile> [ <profile>\* ]`
326> Set task profiles for the process when it forks. This is designed to replace the use of
327 writepid option for moving a process into a cgroup.
328
329`timeout_period <seconds>`
330> Provide a timeout after which point the service will be killed. The oneshot keyword is respected
331 here, so oneshot services do not automatically restart, however all other services will.
332 This is particularly useful for creating a periodic service combined with the restart_period
333 option described above.
334
335`updatable`
336> Mark that the service can be overridden (via the 'override' option) later in
337 the boot sequence by APEXes. When a service with updatable option is started
338 before APEXes are all activated, the execution is delayed until the activation
339 is finished. A service that is not marked as updatable cannot be overridden by
340 APEXes.
341
342`user <username>`
343> Change to 'username' before exec'ing this service.
344 Currently defaults to root. (??? probably should default to nobody)
345 As of Android M, processes should use this option even if they
346 require Linux capabilities. Previously, to acquire Linux
347 capabilities, a process would need to run as root, request the
348 capabilities, then drop to its desired uid. There is a new
349 mechanism through fs\_config that allows device manufacturers to add
350 Linux capabilities to specific binaries on a file system that should
351 be used instead. This mechanism is described on
352 <http://source.android.com/devices/tech/config/filesystem.html>. When
353 using this new mechanism, processes can use the user option to
354 select their desired uid without ever running as root.
355 As of Android O, processes can also request capabilities directly in their .rc
356 files. See the "capabilities" option below.
357
358`writepid <file> [ <file>\* ]`
359> Write the child's pid to the given files when it forks. Meant for
360 cgroup/cpuset usage. If no files under /dev/cpuset/ are specified, but the
361 system property 'ro.cpuset.default' is set to a non-empty cpuset name (e.g.
362 '/foreground'), then the pid is written to file /dev/cpuset/_cpuset\_name_/tasks.
363 The use of this option for moving a process into a cgroup is obsolete. Please
364 use task_profiles option instead.
365
366
367Triggers
368--------
369Triggers are strings which can be used to match certain kinds of
370events and used to cause an action to occur.
371
372Triggers are subdivided into event triggers and property triggers.
373
374Event triggers are strings triggered by the 'trigger' command or by
375the QueueEventTrigger() function within the init executable. These
376take the form of a simple string such as 'boot' or 'late-init'.
377
378Property triggers are strings triggered when a named property changes
379value to a given new value or when a named property changes value to
380any new value. These take the form of 'property:<name>=<value>' and
381'property:<name>=\*' respectively. Property triggers are additionally
382evaluated and triggered accordingly during the initial boot phase of
383init.
384
385An Action can have multiple property triggers but may only have one
386event trigger.
387
388For example:
389`on boot && property:a=b` defines an action that is only executed when
390the 'boot' event trigger happens and the property a equals b.
391
392`on property:a=b && property:c=d` defines an action that is executed
393at three times:
394
395 1. During initial boot if property a=b and property c=d.
396 2. Any time that property a transitions to value b, while property c already equals d.
397 3. Any time that property c transitions to value d, while property a already equals b.
398
399
400Commands
401--------
402
403`bootchart [start|stop]`
404> Start/stop bootcharting. These are present in the default init.rc files,
405 but bootcharting is only active if the file /data/bootchart/enabled exists;
406 otherwise bootchart start/stop are no-ops.
407
408`chmod <octal-mode> <path>`
409> Change file access permissions.
410
411`chown <owner> <group> <path>`
412> Change file owner and group.
413
414`class_start <serviceclass>`
415> Start all services of the specified class if they are
416 not already running. See the start entry for more information on
417 starting services.
418
419`class_start_post_data <serviceclass>`
420> Like `class_start`, but only considers services that were started
421 after /data was mounted, and that were running at the time
422 `class_reset_post_data` was called. Only used for FDE devices.
423
424`class_stop <serviceclass>`
425> Stop and disable all services of the specified class if they are
426 currently running.
427
428`class_reset <serviceclass>`
429> Stop all services of the specified class if they are
430 currently running, without disabling them. They can be restarted
431 later using `class_start`.
432
433`class_reset_post_data <serviceclass>`
434> Like `class_reset`, but only considers services that were started
435 after /data was mounted. Only used for FDE devices.
436
437`class_restart <serviceclass>`
438> Restarts all services of the specified class.
439
440`copy <src> <dst>`
441> Copies a file. Similar to write, but useful for binary/large
442 amounts of data.
443 Regarding to the src file, copying from symbolic link file and world-writable
444 or group-writable files are not allowed.
445 Regarding to the dst file, the default mode created is 0600 if it does not
446 exist. And it will be truncated if dst file is a normal regular file and
447 already exists.
448
449`domainname <name>`
450> Set the domain name.
451
452`enable <servicename>`
453> Turns a disabled service into an enabled one as if the service did not
454 specify disabled.
455 If the service is supposed to be running, it will be started now.
456 Typically used when the bootloader sets a variable that indicates a specific
457 service should be started when needed. E.g.
458
459 on property:ro.boot.myfancyhardware=1
460 enable my_fancy_service_for_my_fancy_hardware
461
462`exec [ <seclabel> [ <user> [ <group>\* ] ] ] -- <command> [ <argument>\* ]`
463> Fork and execute command with the given arguments. The command starts
464 after "--" so that an optional security context, user, and supplementary
465 groups can be provided. No other commands will be run until this one
466 finishes. _seclabel_ can be a - to denote default. Properties are expanded
467 within _argument_.
468 Init halts executing commands until the forked process exits.
469
470`exec_background [ <seclabel> [ <user> [ <group>\* ] ] ] -- <command> [ <argument>\* ]`
471> Fork and execute command with the given arguments. This is handled similarly
472 to the `exec` command. The difference is that init does not halt executing
473 commands until the process exits for `exec_background`.
474
475`exec_start <service>`
476> Start a given service and halt the processing of additional init commands
477 until it returns. The command functions similarly to the `exec` command,
478 but uses an existing service definition in place of the exec argument vector.
479
480`export <name> <value>`
481> Set the environment variable _name_ equal to _value_ in the
482 global environment (which will be inherited by all processes
483 started after this command is executed)
484
485`hostname <name>`
486> Set the host name.
487
488`ifup <interface>`
489> Bring the network interface _interface_ online.
490
491`insmod [-f] <path> [<options>]`
492> Install the module at _path_ with the specified options.
493 -f: force installation of the module even if the version of the running kernel
494 and the version of the kernel for which the module was compiled do not match.
495
496`interface_start <name>` \
497`interface_restart <name>` \
498`interface_stop <name>`
499> Find the service that provides the interface _name_ if it exists and run the `start`, `restart`,
500or `stop` commands on it respectively. _name_ may be either a fully qualified HIDL name, in which
501case it is specified as `<interface>/<instance>`, or an AIDL name, in which case it is specified as
502`aidl/<interface>` for example `android.hardware.secure_element@1.1::ISecureElement/eSE1` or
503`aidl/aidl_lazy_test_1`.
504
505> Note that these commands only act on interfaces specified by the `interface` service option, not
506on interfaces registered at runtime.
507
508> Example usage of these commands: \
509`interface_start android.hardware.secure_element@1.1::ISecureElement/eSE1`
510will start the HIDL Service that provides the `android.hardware.secure_element@1.1` and `eSI1`
511instance. \
512`interface_start aidl/aidl_lazy_test_1` will start the AIDL service that
513provides the `aidl_lazy_test_1` interface.
514
515`load_system_props`
516> (This action is deprecated and no-op.)
517
518`load_persist_props`
519> Loads persistent properties when /data has been decrypted.
520 This is included in the default init.rc.
521
522`loglevel <level>`
523> Sets init's log level to the integer level, from 7 (all logging) to 0
524 (fatal logging only). The numeric values correspond to the kernel log
525 levels, but this command does not affect the kernel log level. Use the
526 `write` command to write to `/proc/sys/kernel/printk` to change that.
527 Properties are expanded within _level_.
528
529`mark_post_data`
530> Used to mark the point right after /data is mounted. Used to implement the
531 `class_reset_post_data` and `class_start_post_data` commands.
532
533`mkdir <path> [<mode>] [<owner>] [<group>] [encryption=<action>] [key=<key>]`
534> Create a directory at _path_, optionally with the given mode, owner, and
535 group. If not provided, the directory is created with permissions 755 and
536 owned by the root user and root group. If provided, the mode, owner and group
537 will be updated if the directory exists already.
538
539 > _action_ can be one of:
540 * `None`: take no encryption action; directory will be encrypted if parent is.
541 * `Require`: encrypt directory, abort boot process if encryption fails
542 * `Attempt`: try to set an encryption policy, but continue if it fails
543 * `DeleteIfNecessary`: recursively delete directory if necessary to set
544 encryption policy.
545
546 > _key_ can be one of:
547 * `ref`: use the systemwide DE key
548 * `per_boot_ref`: use the key freshly generated on each boot.
549
550`mount_all [ <fstab> ] [--<option>]`
551> Calls fs\_mgr\_mount\_all on the given fs\_mgr-format fstab with optional
552 options "early" and "late".
553 With "--early" set, the init executable will skip mounting entries with
554 "latemount" flag and triggering fs encryption state event. With "--late" set,
555 init executable will only mount entries with "latemount" flag. By default,
556 no option is set, and mount\_all will process all entries in the given fstab.
557 If the fstab parameter is not specified, fstab.${ro.boot.fstab_suffix},
558 fstab.${ro.hardware} or fstab.${ro.hardware.platform} will be scanned for
559 under /odm/etc, /vendor/etc, or / at runtime, in that order.
560
561`mount <type> <device> <dir> [ <flag>\* ] [<options>]`
562> Attempt to mount the named device at the directory _dir_
563 _flag_s include "ro", "rw", "remount", "noatime", ...
564 _options_ include "barrier=1", "noauto\_da\_alloc", "discard", ... as
565 a comma separated string, e.g. barrier=1,noauto\_da\_alloc
566
567`parse_apex_configs`
568> Parses config file(s) from the mounted APEXes. Intended to be used only once
569 when apexd notifies the mount event by setting apexd.status to ready.
570
571`restart <service>`
572> Stops and restarts a running service, does nothing if the service is currently
573 restarting, otherwise, it just starts the service.
574
575`restorecon <path> [ <path>\* ]`
576> Restore the file named by _path_ to the security context specified
577 in the file\_contexts configuration.
578 Not required for directories created by the init.rc as these are
579 automatically labeled correctly by init.
580
581`restorecon_recursive <path> [ <path>\* ]`
582> Recursively restore the directory tree named by _path_ to the
583 security contexts specified in the file\_contexts configuration.
584
585`rm <path>`
586> Calls unlink(2) on the given path. You might want to
587 use "exec -- rm ..." instead (provided the system partition is
588 already mounted).
589
590`rmdir <path>`
591> Calls rmdir(2) on the given path.
592
593`readahead <file|dir> [--fully]`
594> Calls readahead(2) on the file or files within given directory.
595 Use option --fully to read the full file content.
596
597`setprop <name> <value>`
598> Set system property _name_ to _value_. Properties are expanded
599 within _value_.
600
601`setrlimit <resource> <cur> <max>`
602> Set the rlimit for a resource. This applies to all processes launched after
603 the limit is set. It is intended to be set early in init and applied globally.
604 _resource_ is best specified using its text representation ('cpu', 'rtio', etc
605 or 'RLIM_CPU', 'RLIM_RTIO', etc). It also may be specified as the int value
606 that the resource enum corresponds to.
607 _cur_ and _max_ can be 'unlimited' or '-1' to indicate an infinite rlimit.
608
609`start <service>`
610> Start a service running if it is not already running.
611 Note that this is _not_ synchronous, and even if it were, there is
612 no guarantee that the operating system's scheduler will execute the
613 service sufficiently to guarantee anything about the service's status.
614 See the `exec_start` command for a synchronous version of `start`.
615
616> This creates an important consequence that if the service offers
617 functionality to other services, such as providing a
618 communication channel, simply starting this service before those
619 services is _not_ sufficient to guarantee that the channel has
620 been set up before those services ask for it. There must be a
621 separate mechanism to make any such guarantees.
622
623`stop <service>`
624> Stop a service from running if it is currently running.
625
626`swapon_all [ <fstab> ]`
627> Calls fs\_mgr\_swapon\_all on the given fstab file.
628 If the fstab parameter is not specified, fstab.${ro.boot.fstab_suffix},
629 fstab.${ro.hardware} or fstab.${ro.hardware.platform} will be scanned for
630 under /odm/etc, /vendor/etc, or / at runtime, in that order.
631
632`symlink <target> <path>`
633> Create a symbolic link at _path_ with the value _target_
634
635`sysclktz <minutes_west_of_gmt>`
636> Set the system clock base (0 if system clock ticks in GMT)
637
638`trigger <event>`
639> Trigger an event. Used to queue an action from another
640 action.
641
642`umount <path>`
643> Unmount the filesystem mounted at that path.
644
645`umount_all [ <fstab> ]`
646> Calls fs\_mgr\_umount\_all on the given fstab file.
647 If the fstab parameter is not specified, fstab.${ro.boot.fstab_suffix},
648 fstab.${ro.hardware} or fstab.${ro.hardware.platform} will be scanned for
649 under /odm/etc, /vendor/etc, or / at runtime, in that order.
650
651`verity_update_state <mount-point>`
652> Internal implementation detail used to update dm-verity state and
653 set the partition._mount-point_.verified properties used by adb remount
654 because fs\_mgr can't set them directly itself.
655
656`wait <path> [ <timeout> ]`
657> Poll for the existence of the given file and return when found,
658 or the timeout has been reached. If timeout is not specified it
659 currently defaults to five seconds. The timeout value can be
660 fractional seconds, specified in floating point notation.
661
662`wait_for_prop <name> <value>`
663> Wait for system property _name_ to be _value_. Properties are expanded
664 within _value_. If property _name_ is already set to _value_, continue
665 immediately.
666
667`write <path> <content>`
668> Open the file at _path_ and write a string to it with write(2).
669 If the file does not exist, it will be created. If it does exist,
670 it will be truncated. Properties are expanded within _content_.
671
672
673Imports
674-------
675`import <path>`
676> Parse an init config file, extending the current configuration.
677 If _path_ is a directory, each file in the directory is parsed as
678 a config file. It is not recursive, nested directories will
679 not be parsed.
680
681The import keyword is not a command, but rather its own section,
682meaning that it does not happen as part of an Action, but rather,
683imports are handled as a file is being parsed and follow the below logic.
684
685There are only three times where the init executable imports .rc files:
686
687 1. When it imports /init.rc or the script indicated by the property
688 `ro.boot.init_rc` during initial boot.
689 2. When it imports /{system,vendor,odm}/etc/init/ for first stage mount
690 devices immediately after importing /init.rc.
691 3. (Deprecated) When it imports /{system,vendor,odm}/etc/init/ or .rc files
692 at specified paths during mount_all, not allowed for devices launching
693 after Q.
694
695The order that files are imported is a bit complex for legacy reasons
696and to keep backwards compatibility. It is not strictly guaranteed.
697
698The only correct way to guarantee that a command has been run before a
699different command is to either 1) place it in an Action with an
700earlier executed trigger, or 2) place it in an Action with the same
701trigger within the same file at an earlier line.
702
703Nonetheless, the de facto order for first stage mount devices is:
7041. /init.rc is parsed then recursively each of its imports are
705 parsed.
7062. The contents of /system/etc/init/ are alphabetized and parsed
707 sequentially, with imports happening recursively after each file is
708 parsed.
7093. Step 2 is repeated for /vendor/etc/init then /odm/etc/init
710
711The below pseudocode may explain this more clearly:
712
713 fn Import(file)
714 Parse(file)
715 for (import : file.imports)
716 Import(import)
717
718 Import(/init.rc)
719 Directories = [/system/etc/init, /vendor/etc/init, /odm/etc/init]
720 for (directory : Directories)
721 files = <Alphabetical order of directory's contents>
722 for (file : files)
723 Import(file)
724
725
726Properties
727----------
728Init provides state information with the following properties.
729
730`init.svc.<name>`
731> State of a named service ("stopped", "stopping", "running", "restarting")
732
733`dev.mnt.blk.<mount_point>`
734> Block device base name associated with a *mount_point*.
735 The *mount_point* has / replaced by . and if referencing the root mount point
736 "/", it will use "/root", specifically `dev.mnt.blk.root`.
737 Meant for references to `/sys/device/block/${dev.mnt.blk.<mount_point>}/` and
738 `/sys/fs/ext4/${dev.mnt.blk.<mount_point>}/` to tune the block device
739 characteristics in a device agnostic manner.
740
741Init responds to properties that begin with `ctl.`. These properties take the format of
742`ctl.[<target>_]<command>` and the _value_ of the system property is used as a parameter. The
743_target_ is optional and specifies the service option that _value_ is meant to match with. There is
744only one option for _target_, `interface` which indicates that _value_ will refer to an interface
745that a service provides and not the service name itself.
746
747For example:
748
749`SetProperty("ctl.start", "logd")` will run the `start` command on `logd`.
750
751`SetProperty("ctl.interface_start", "aidl/aidl_lazy_test_1")` will run the `start` command on the
752service that exposes the `aidl aidl_lazy_test_1` interface.
753
754Note that these
755properties are only settable; they will have no value when read.
756
757The _commands_ are listed below.
758
759`start` \
760`restart` \
761`stop` \
762These are equivalent to using the `start`, `restart`, and `stop` commands on the service specified
763by the _value_ of the property.
764
765`oneshot_one` and `oneshot_off` will turn on or off the _oneshot_
766flag for the service specified by the _value_ of the property. This is
767particularly intended for services that are conditionally lazy HALs. When
768they are lazy HALs, oneshot must be on, otherwise oneshot should be off.
769
770`sigstop_on` and `sigstop_off` will turn on or off the _sigstop_ feature for the service
771specified by the _value_ of the property. See the _Debugging init_ section below for more details
772about this feature.
773
774Boot timing
775-----------
776Init records some boot timing information in system properties.
777
778`ro.boottime.init`
779> Time after boot in ns (via the CLOCK\_BOOTTIME clock) at which the first
780 stage of init started.
781
782`ro.boottime.init.first_stage`
783> How long in ns it took to run first stage.
784
785`ro.boottime.init.selinux`
786> How long in ns it took to run SELinux stage.
787
788`ro.boottime.init.cold_boot_wait`
789> How long init waited for ueventd's coldboot phase to end.
790
791`ro.boottime.<service-name>`
792> Time after boot in ns (via the CLOCK\_BOOTTIME clock) that the service was
793 first started.
794
795
796Bootcharting
797------------
798This version of init contains code to perform "bootcharting": generating log
799files that can be later processed by the tools provided by <http://www.bootchart.org/>.
800
801On the emulator, use the -bootchart _timeout_ option to boot with bootcharting
802activated for _timeout_ seconds.
803
804On a device:
805
806 adb shell 'touch /data/bootchart/enabled'
807
808Don't forget to delete this file when you're done collecting data!
809
810The log files are written to /data/bootchart/. A script is provided to
811retrieve them and create a bootchart.tgz file that can be used with the
812bootchart command-line utility:
813
814 sudo apt-get install pybootchartgui
815 # grab-bootchart.sh uses $ANDROID_SERIAL.
816 $ANDROID_BUILD_TOP/system/core/init/grab-bootchart.sh
817
818One thing to watch for is that the bootchart will show init as if it started
819running at 0s. You'll have to look at dmesg to work out when the kernel
820actually started init.
821
822
823Comparing two bootcharts
824------------------------
825A handy script named compare-bootcharts.py can be used to compare the
826start/end time of selected processes. The aforementioned grab-bootchart.sh
827will leave a bootchart tarball named bootchart.tgz at /tmp/android-bootchart.
828If two such tarballs are preserved on the host machine under different
829directories, the script can list the timestamps differences. For example:
830
831Usage: system/core/init/compare-bootcharts.py _base-bootchart-dir_ _exp-bootchart-dir_
832
833 process: baseline experiment (delta) - Unit is ms (a jiffy is 10 ms on the system)
834 ------------------------------------
835 /init: 50 40 (-10)
836 /system/bin/surfaceflinger: 4320 4470 (+150)
837 /system/bin/bootanimation: 6980 6990 (+10)
838 zygote64: 10410 10640 (+230)
839 zygote: 10410 10640 (+230)
840 system_server: 15350 15150 (-200)
841 bootanimation ends at: 33790 31230 (-2560)
842
843
844Systrace
845--------
846Systrace (<http://developer.android.com/tools/help/systrace.html>) can be
847used for obtaining performance analysis reports during boot
848time on userdebug or eng builds.
849
850Here is an example of trace events of "wm" and "am" categories:
851
852 $ANDROID_BUILD_TOP/external/chromium-trace/systrace.py \
853 wm am --boot
854
855This command will cause the device to reboot. After the device is rebooted and
856the boot sequence has finished, the trace report is obtained from the device
857and written as trace.html on the host by hitting Ctrl+C.
858
859Limitation: recording trace events is started after persistent properties are loaded, so
860the trace events that are emitted before that are not recorded. Several
861services such as vold, surfaceflinger, and servicemanager are affected by this
862limitation since they are started before persistent properties are loaded.
863Zygote initialization and the processes that are forked from the zygote are not
864affected.
865
866
867Debugging init
868--------------
869When a service starts from init, it may fail to `execv()` the service. This is not typical, and may
870point to an error happening in the linker as the new service is started. The linker in Android
871prints its logs to `logd` and `stderr`, so they are visible in `logcat`. If the error is encountered
872before it is possible to access `logcat`, the `stdio_to_kmsg` service option may be used to direct
873the logs that the linker prints to `stderr` to `kmsg`, where they can be read via a serial port.
874
875Launching init services without init is not recommended as init sets up a significant amount of
876environment (user, groups, security label, capabilities, etc) that is hard to replicate manually.
877
878If it is required to debug a service from its very start, the `sigstop` service option is added.
879This option will send SIGSTOP to a service immediately before calling exec. This gives a window
880where developers can attach a debugger, strace, etc before continuing the service with SIGCONT.
881
882This flag can also be dynamically controlled via the ctl.sigstop_on and ctl.sigstop_off properties.
883
884Below is an example of dynamically debugging logd via the above:
885
886 stop logd
887 setprop ctl.sigstop_on logd
888 start logd
889 ps -e | grep logd
890 > logd 4343 1 18156 1684 do_signal_stop 538280 T init
891 gdbclient.py -p 4343
892 b main
893 c
894 c
895 c
896 > Breakpoint 1, main (argc=1, argv=0x7ff8c9a488) at system/core/logd/main.cpp:427
897
898Below is an example of doing the same but with strace
899
900 stop logd
901 setprop ctl.sigstop_on logd
902 start logd
903 ps -e | grep logd
904 > logd 4343 1 18156 1684 do_signal_stop 538280 T init
905 strace -p 4343
906
907 (From a different shell)
908 kill -SIGCONT 4343
909
910 > strace runs
911
912Host Init Script Verification
913-----------------------------
914
915Init scripts are checked for correctness during build time. Specifically the below is checked.
916
9171) Well formatted action, service and import sections, e.g. no actions without a preceding 'on'
918line, and no extraneous lines after an 'import' statement.
9192) All commands map to a valid keyword and the argument count is within the correct range.
9203) All service options are valid. This is stricter than how commands are checked as the service
921options' arguments are fully parsed, e.g. UIDs and GIDs must resolve.
922
923There are other parts of init scripts that are only parsed at runtime and therefore not checked
924during build time, among them are the below.
925
9261) The validity of the arguments of commands, e.g. no checking if file paths actually exist, if
927SELinux would permit the operation, or if the UIDs and GIDs resolve.
9282) No checking if a service exists or has a valid SELinux domain defined
9293) No checking if a service has not been previously defined in a different init script.
930
931Early Init Boot Sequence
932------------------------
933The early init boot sequence is broken up into three stages: first stage init, SELinux setup, and
934second stage init.
935
936First stage init is responsible for setting up the bare minimum requirements to load the rest of the
937system. Specifically this includes mounting /dev, /proc, mounting 'early mount' partitions (which
938needs to include all partitions that contain system code, for example system and vendor), and moving
939the system.img mount to / for devices with a ramdisk.
940
941Note that in Android Q, system.img always contains TARGET_ROOT_OUT and always is mounted at / by the
942time first stage init finishes. Android Q will also require dynamic partitions and therefore will
943require using a ramdisk to boot Android. The recovery ramdisk can be used to boot to Android instead
944of a dedicated ramdisk as well.
945
946First stage init has three variations depending on the device configuration:
9471) For system-as-root devices, first stage init is part of /system/bin/init and a symlink at /init
948points to /system/bin/init for backwards compatibility. These devices do not need to do anything to
949mount system.img, since it is by definition already mounted as the rootfs by the kernel.
950
9512) For devices with a ramdisk, first stage init is a static executable located at /init. These
952devices mount system.img as /system then perform a switch root operation to move the mount at
953/system to /. The contents of the ramdisk are freed after mounting has completed.
954
9553) For devices that use recovery as a ramdisk, first stage init it contained within the shared init
956located at /init within the recovery ramdisk. These devices first switch root to
957/first_stage_ramdisk to remove the recovery components from the environment, then proceed the same
958as 2). Note that the decision to boot normally into Android instead of booting
959into recovery mode is made if androidboot.force_normal_boot=1 is present in the
960kernel commandline.
961
962Once first stage init finishes it execs /system/bin/init with the "selinux_setup" argument. This
963phase is where SELinux is optionally compiled and loaded onto the system. selinux.cpp contains more
964information on the specifics of this process.
965
966Lastly once that phase finishes, it execs /system/bin/init again with the "second_stage"
967argument. At this point the main phase of init runs and continues the boot process via the init.rc
968scripts.
969