| Android Init Language |
| --------------------- |
| |
| The Android Init Language consists of five broad classes of statements: |
| Actions, Commands, Services, Options, and Imports. |
| |
| All of these are line-oriented, consisting of tokens separated by |
| whitespace. The c-style backslash escapes may be used to insert |
| whitespace into a token. Double quotes may also be used to prevent |
| whitespace from breaking text into multiple tokens. The backslash, |
| when it is the last character on a line, may be used for line-folding. |
| |
| Lines which start with a `#` (leading whitespace allowed) are comments. |
| |
| System properties can be expanded using the syntax |
| `${property.name}`. This also works in contexts where concatenation is |
| required, such as `import /init.recovery.${ro.hardware}.rc`. |
| |
| Actions and Services implicitly declare a new section. All commands |
| or options belong to the section most recently declared. Commands |
| or options before the first section are ignored. |
| |
| Services have unique names. If a second Service is defined |
| with the same name as an existing one, it is ignored and an error |
| message is logged. |
| |
| |
| Init .rc Files |
| -------------- |
| The init language is used in plain text files that take the .rc file |
| extension. There are typically multiple of these in multiple |
| locations on the system, described below. |
| |
| `/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc` is the primary .rc file and is loaded by the init executable at the |
| beginning of its execution. It is responsible for the initial set up of the system. |
| |
| Init loads all of the files contained within the |
| `/{system,system_ext,vendor,odm,product}/etc/init/` directories immediately after loading |
| the primary `/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc`. This is explained in more details in the |
| [Imports](#imports) section of this file. |
| |
| Legacy devices without the first stage mount mechanism previously were |
| able to import init scripts during mount_all, however that is deprecated |
| and not allowed for devices launching after Q. |
| |
| The intention of these directories is: |
| |
| 1. /system/etc/init/ is for core system items such as |
| SurfaceFlinger, MediaService, and logd. |
| 2. /vendor/etc/init/ is for SoC vendor items such as actions or |
| daemons needed for core SoC functionality. |
| 3. /odm/etc/init/ is for device manufacturer items such as |
| actions or daemons needed for motion sensor or other peripheral |
| functionality. |
| |
| All services whose binaries reside on the system, vendor, or odm |
| partitions should have their service entries placed into a |
| corresponding init .rc file, located in the /etc/init/ |
| directory of the partition where they reside. There is a build |
| system macro, LOCAL\_INIT\_RC, that handles this for developers. Each |
| init .rc file should additionally contain any actions associated with |
| its service. |
| |
| An example is the userdebug logcatd.rc and Android.mk files located in the |
| system/core/logcat directory. The LOCAL\_INIT\_RC macro in the |
| Android.mk file places logcatd.rc in /system/etc/init/ during the |
| build process. Init loads logcatd.rc during the mount\_all command and |
| allows the service to be run and the action to be queued when |
| appropriate. |
| |
| This break up of init .rc files according to their daemon is preferred |
| to the previously used monolithic init .rc files. This approach |
| ensures that the only service entries that init reads and the only |
| actions that init performs correspond to services whose binaries are in |
| fact present on the file system, which was not the case with the |
| monolithic init .rc files. This additionally will aid in merge |
| conflict resolution when multiple services are added to the system, as |
| each one will go into a separate file. |
| |
| Versioned RC files within APEXs |
| ------------------------------- |
| |
| With the arrival of mainline on Android Q, the individual mainline |
| modules carry their own init.rc files within their boundaries. Init |
| processes these files according to the naming pattern `/apex/*/etc/*rc`. |
| |
| Because APEX modules must run on more than one release of Android, |
| they may require different parameters as part of the services they |
| define. This is achieved, starting in Android T, by incorporating |
| the SDK version information in the name of the init file. The suffix |
| is changed from `.rc` to `.#rc` where # is the first SDK where that |
| RC file is accepted. An init file specific to SDK=31 might be named |
| `init.31rc`. With this scheme, an APEX may include multiple init files. An |
| example is appropriate. |
| |
| For an APEX module with the following files in /apex/sample-module/apex/etc/: |
| |
| 1. init.rc |
| 2. init.32rc |
| 4. init.35rc |
| |
| The selection rule chooses the highest `.#rc` value that does not |
| exceed the SDK of the currently running system. The unadorned `.rc` |
| is interpreted as sdk=0. |
| |
| When this APEX is installed on a device with SDK <=31, the system will |
| process init.rc. When installed on a device running SDK 32, 33, or 34, |
| it will use init.32rc. When installed on a device running SDKs >= 35, |
| it will choose init.35rc |
| |
| This versioning scheme is used only for the init files within APEX |
| modules; it does not apply to the init files stored in /system/etc/init, |
| /vendor/etc/init, or other directories. |
| |
| This naming scheme is available after Android S. |
| |
| Actions |
| ------- |
| Actions are named sequences of commands. Actions have a trigger which |
| is used to determine when the action is executed. When an event |
| occurs which matches an action's trigger, that action is added to |
| the tail of a to-be-executed queue (unless it is already on the |
| queue). |
| |
| Each action in the queue is dequeued in sequence and each command in |
| that action is executed in sequence. Init handles other activities |
| (device creation/destruction, property setting, process restarting) |
| "between" the execution of the commands in activities. |
| |
| Actions take the form of: |
| |
| on <trigger> [&& <trigger>]* |
| <command> |
| <command> |
| <command> |
| |
| Actions are added to the queue and executed based on the order that |
| the file that contains them was parsed (see the Imports section), then |
| sequentially within an individual file. |
| |
| For example if a file contains: |
| |
| on boot |
| setprop a 1 |
| setprop b 2 |
| |
| on boot && property:true=true |
| setprop c 1 |
| setprop d 2 |
| |
| on boot |
| setprop e 1 |
| setprop f 2 |
| |
| Then when the `boot` trigger occurs and assuming the property `true` |
| equals `true`, then the order of the commands executed will be: |
| |
| setprop a 1 |
| setprop b 2 |
| setprop c 1 |
| setprop d 2 |
| setprop e 1 |
| setprop f 2 |
| |
| If the property `true` wasn't `true` when the `boot` was triggered, then the |
| order of the commands executed will be: |
| |
| setprop a 1 |
| setprop b 2 |
| setprop e 1 |
| setprop f 2 |
| |
| If the property `true` becomes `true` *AFTER* `boot` was triggered, nothing will |
| be executed. The condition `boot && property:true=true` will be evaluated to |
| false because the `boot` trigger is a past event. |
| |
| Note that when `ro.property_service.async_persist_writes` is `true`, there is no |
| defined ordering between persistent setprops and non-persistent setprops. For |
| example: |
| |
| on boot |
| setprop a 1 |
| setprop persist.b 2 |
| |
| When `ro.property_service.async_persist_writes` is `true`, triggers for these |
| two properties may execute in any order. |
| |
| Services |
| -------- |
| Services are programs which init launches and (optionally) restarts |
| when they exit. Services take the form of: |
| |
| service <name> <pathname> [ <argument> ]* |
| <option> |
| <option> |
| ... |
| |
| |
| Options |
| ------- |
| Options are modifiers to services. They affect how and when init |
| runs the service. |
| |
| `capabilities [ <capability>\* ]` |
| > Set capabilities when exec'ing this service. 'capability' should be a Linux |
| capability without the "CAP\_" prefix, like "NET\_ADMIN" or "SETPCAP". See |
| http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/capabilities.7.html for a list of Linux |
| capabilities. |
| If no capabilities are provided, then behaviour depends on the user the service runs under: |
| * if it's root, then the service will run with all the capabitilies (note: whether the |
| service can actually use them is controlled by selinux); |
| * otherwise all capabilities will be dropped. |
| |
| `class <name> [ <name>\* ]` |
| > Specify class names for the service. All services in a |
| named class may be started or stopped together. A service |
| is in the class "default" if one is not specified via the |
| class option. Additional classnames beyond the (required) first |
| one are used to group services. |
| The `animation` class should include all services necessary for both |
| boot animation and shutdown animation. As these services can be |
| launched very early during bootup and can run until the last stage |
| of shutdown, access to /data partition is not guaranteed. These |
| services can check files under /data but it should not keep files opened |
| and should work when /data is not available. |
| |
| `console [<console>]` |
| > This service needs a console. The optional second parameter chooses a |
| specific console instead of the default. The default "/dev/console" can |
| be changed by setting the "androidboot.console" kernel parameter. In |
| all cases the leading "/dev/" should be omitted, so "/dev/tty0" would be |
| specified as just "console tty0". |
| This option connects stdin, stdout, and stderr to the console. It is mutually exclusive with the |
| stdio_to_kmsg option, which only connects stdout and stderr to kmsg. |
| |
| `critical [window=<fatal crash window mins>] [target=<fatal reboot target>]` |
| > This is a device-critical service. If it exits more than four times in |
| _fatal crash window mins_ minutes or before boot completes, the device |
| will reboot into _fatal reboot target_. |
| The default value of _fatal crash window mins_ is 4, and default value |
| of _fatal reboot target_ is 'bootloader'. |
| For tests, the fatal reboot can be skipped by setting property |
| `init.svc_debug.no_fatal.<service-name>` to `true` for specified critical service. |
| |
| `disabled` |
| > This service will not automatically start with its class. |
| It must be explicitly started by name or by interface name. |
| |
| `enter_namespace <type> <path>` |
| > Enters the namespace of type _type_ located at _path_. Only network namespaces are supported with |
| _type_ set to "net". Note that only one namespace of a given _type_ may be entered. |
| |
| `file <path> <type>` |
| > Open a file path and pass its fd to the launched process. _type_ must be |
| "r", "w" or "rw". For native executables see libcutils |
| android\_get\_control\_file(). |
| |
| `gentle_kill` |
| > This service will be sent SIGTERM instead of SIGKILL when stopped. After a 200 ms timeout, it will |
| be sent SIGKILL. |
| |
| `group <groupname> [ <groupname>\* ]` |
| > Change to 'groupname' before exec'ing this service. Additional |
| groupnames beyond the (required) first one are used to set the |
| supplemental groups of the process (via setgroups()). |
| Currently defaults to root. (??? probably should default to nobody) |
| |
| `interface <interface name> <instance name>` |
| > Associates this service with a list of the AIDL or HIDL services that it provides. The interface |
| name must be a fully-qualified name and not a value name. For instance, this is used to allow |
| servicemanager or hwservicemanager to lazily start services. When multiple interfaces are served, |
| this tag should be used multiple times. An example of an entry for a HIDL |
| interface is `interface [email protected]::IBaz default`. For an AIDL interface, use |
| `interface aidl <instance name>`. The instance name for an AIDL interface is |
| whatever is registered with servicemanager, and these can be listed with `adb |
| shell dumpsys -l`. |
| |
| `ioprio <class> <priority>` |
| > Sets the IO priority and IO priority class for this service via the SYS_ioprio_set syscall. |
| _class_ must be one of "rt", "be", or "idle". _priority_ must be an integer in the range 0 - 7. |
| |
| `keycodes <keycode> [ <keycode>\* ]` |
| > Sets the keycodes that will trigger this service. If all of the keys corresponding to the passed |
| keycodes are pressed at once, the service will start. This is typically used to start the |
| bugreport service. |
| |
| > This option may take a property instead of a list of keycodes. In this case, only one option is |
| provided: the property name in the typical property expansion format. The property must contain |
| a comma separated list of keycode values or the text 'none' to indicate that |
| this service does not respond to keycodes. |
| |
| > For example, `keycodes ${some.property.name:-none}` where some.property.name expands |
| to "123,124,125". Since keycodes are handled very early in init, |
| only PRODUCT_DEFAULT_PROPERTY_OVERRIDES properties can be used. |
| |
| `memcg.limit_in_bytes <value>` and `memcg.limit_percent <value>` |
| > Sets the child's memory.limit_in_bytes to the minimum of `limit_in_bytes` |
| bytes and `limit_percent` which is interpreted as a percentage of the size |
| of the device's physical memory (only if memcg is mounted). |
| Values must be equal or greater than 0. |
| |
| `memcg.limit_property <value>` |
| > Sets the child's memory.limit_in_bytes to the value of the specified property |
| (only if memcg is mounted). This property will override the values specified |
| via `memcg.limit_in_bytes` and `memcg.limit_percent`. |
| |
| `memcg.soft_limit_in_bytes <value>` |
| > Sets the child's memory.soft_limit_in_bytes to the specified value (only if memcg is mounted), |
| which must be equal or greater than 0. |
| |
| `memcg.swappiness <value>` |
| > Sets the child's memory.swappiness to the specified value (only if memcg is mounted), |
| which must be equal or greater than 0. |
| |
| `namespace <pid|mnt>` |
| > Enter a new PID or mount namespace when forking the service. |
| |
| `oneshot` |
| > Do not restart the service when it exits. |
| |
| `onrestart` |
| > Execute a Command (see below) when service restarts. |
| |
| `oom_score_adjust <value>` |
| > Sets the child's /proc/self/oom\_score\_adj to the specified value, |
| which must range from -1000 to 1000. |
| |
| `override` |
| > Indicates that this service definition is meant to override a previous definition for a service |
| with the same name. This is typically meant for services on /odm to override those defined on |
| /vendor. The last service definition that init parses with this keyword is the service definition |
| will use for this service. Pay close attention to the order in which init.rc files are parsed, |
| since it has some peculiarities for backwards compatibility reasons. The 'imports' section of |
| this file has more details on the order. |
| |
| `priority <priority>` |
| > Scheduling priority of the service process. This value has to be in range |
| -20 to 19. Default priority is 0. Priority is set via setpriority(). |
| |
| `reboot_on_failure <target>` |
| > If this process cannot be started or if the process terminates with an exit code other than |
| CLD_EXITED or an status other than '0', reboot the system with the target specified in |
| _target_. _target_ takes the same format as the parameter to sys.powerctl. This is particularly |
| intended to be used with the `exec_start` builtin for any must-have checks during boot. |
| |
| `restart_period <seconds>` |
| > If a non-oneshot service exits, it will be restarted at its start time plus |
| this period. It defaults to 5s to rate limit crashing services. |
| This can be increased for services that are meant to run periodically. For |
| example, it may be set to 3600 to indicate that the service should run every hour |
| or 86400 to indicate that the service should run every day. |
| |
| `rlimit <resource> <cur> <max>` |
| > This applies the given rlimit to the service. rlimits are inherited by child |
| processes, so this effectively applies the given rlimit to the process tree |
| started by this service. |
| It is parsed similarly to the setrlimit command specified below. |
| |
| `seclabel <seclabel>` |
| > Change to 'seclabel' before exec'ing this service. |
| Primarily for use by services run from the rootfs, e.g. ueventd, adbd. |
| Services on the system partition can instead use policy-defined transitions |
| based on their file security context. |
| If not specified and no transition is defined in policy, defaults to the init context. |
| |
| `setenv <name> <value>` |
| > Set the environment variable _name_ to _value_ in the launched process. |
| |
| `shutdown <shutdown_behavior>` |
| > Set shutdown behavior of the service process. When this is not specified, |
| the service is killed during shutdown process by using SIGTERM and SIGKILL. |
| The service with shutdown_behavior of "critical" is not killed during shutdown |
| until shutdown times out. When shutdown times out, even services tagged with |
| "shutdown critical" will be killed. When the service tagged with "shutdown critical" |
| is not running when shut down starts, it will be started. |
| |
| `sigstop` |
| > Send SIGSTOP to the service immediately before exec is called. This is intended for debugging. |
| See the below section on debugging for how this can be used. |
| |
| `socket <name> <type> <perm> [ <user> [ <group> [ <seclabel> ] ] ]` |
| > Create a UNIX domain socket named /dev/socket/_name_ and pass its fd to the |
| launched process. The socket is created synchronously when the service starts. |
| _type_ must be "dgram", "stream" or "seqpacket". _type_ may end with "+passcred" |
| to enable SO_PASSCRED on the socket or "+listen" to synchronously make it a listening socket. |
| User and group default to 0. 'seclabel' is the SELinux security context for the |
| socket. It defaults to the service security context, as specified by |
| seclabel or computed based on the service executable file security context. |
| For native executables see libcutils android\_get\_control\_socket(). |
| |
| `stdio_to_kmsg` |
| > Redirect stdout and stderr to /dev/kmsg_debug. This is useful for services that do not use native |
| Android logging during early boot and whose logs messages we want to capture. This is only enabled |
| when /dev/kmsg_debug is enabled, which is only enabled on userdebug and eng builds. |
| This is mutually exclusive with the console option, which additionally connects stdin to the |
| given console. |
| |
| `task_profiles <profile> [ <profile>\* ]` |
| > Set task profiles. Before Android U, the profiles are applied to the main thread of the service. |
| For Android U and later, the profiles are applied to the entire service process. This is designed |
| to replace the use of writepid option for moving a process into a cgroup. |
| |
| `timeout_period <seconds>` |
| > Provide a timeout after which point the service will be killed. The oneshot keyword is respected |
| here, so oneshot services do not automatically restart, however all other services will. |
| This is particularly useful for creating a periodic service combined with the restart_period |
| option described above. |
| |
| `updatable` |
| > Mark that the service can be overridden (via the 'override' option) later in |
| the boot sequence by APEXes. When a service with updatable option is started |
| before APEXes are all activated, the execution is delayed until the activation |
| is finished. A service that is not marked as updatable cannot be overridden by |
| APEXes. |
| |
| `user <username>` |
| > Change to 'username' before exec'ing this service. |
| Currently defaults to root. (??? probably should default to nobody) |
| As of Android M, processes should use this option even if they |
| require Linux capabilities. Previously, to acquire Linux |
| capabilities, a process would need to run as root, request the |
| capabilities, then drop to its desired uid. There is a new |
| mechanism through fs\_config that allows device manufacturers to add |
| Linux capabilities to specific binaries on a file system that should |
| be used instead. This mechanism is described on |
| <http://source.android.com/devices/tech/config/filesystem.html>. When |
| using this new mechanism, processes can use the user option to |
| select their desired uid without ever running as root. |
| As of Android O, processes can also request capabilities directly in their .rc |
| files. See the "capabilities" option above. |
| |
| `writepid <file> [ <file>\* ]` |
| > Write the child's pid to the given files when it forks. Meant for |
| cgroup/cpuset usage. If no files under /dev/cpuset/ are specified, but the |
| system property 'ro.cpuset.default' is set to a non-empty cpuset name (e.g. |
| '/foreground'), then the pid is written to file /dev/cpuset/_cpuset\_name_/tasks. |
| The use of this option for moving a process into a cgroup is obsolete. Please |
| use task_profiles option instead. |
| |
| |
| Triggers |
| -------- |
| Triggers are strings which can be used to match certain kinds of |
| events and used to cause an action to occur. |
| |
| Triggers are subdivided into event triggers and property triggers. |
| |
| Event triggers are strings triggered by the 'trigger' command or by |
| the QueueEventTrigger() function within the init executable. These |
| take the form of a simple string such as 'boot' or 'late-init'. |
| |
| Property triggers are strings triggered when a named property changes |
| value to a given new value or when a named property changes value to |
| any new value. These take the form of 'property:<name>=<value>' and |
| 'property:<name>=\*' respectively. Property triggers are additionally |
| evaluated and triggered accordingly during the initial boot phase of |
| init. |
| |
| An Action can have multiple property triggers but may only have one |
| event trigger. |
| |
| For example: |
| `on boot && property:a=b` defines an action that is only executed when |
| the 'boot' event trigger happens and the property a equals b at the moment. This |
| will NOT be executed when the property a transitions to value b after the `boot` |
| event was triggered. |
| |
| `on property:a=b && property:c=d` defines an action that is executed |
| at three times: |
| |
| 1. During initial boot if property a=b and property c=d. |
| 2. Any time that property a transitions to value b, while property c already equals d. |
| 3. Any time that property c transitions to value d, while property a already equals b. |
| |
| |
| Trigger Sequence |
| ---------------- |
| |
| Init uses the following sequence of triggers during early boot. These are the |
| built-in triggers defined in init.cpp. |
| |
| 1. `early-init` - The first in the sequence, triggered after cgroups has been configured |
| but before ueventd's coldboot is complete. |
| 2. `init` - Triggered after coldboot is complete. |
| 3. `charger` - Triggered if `ro.bootmode == "charger"`. |
| 4. `late-init` - Triggered if `ro.bootmode != "charger"`, or via healthd triggering a boot |
| from charging mode. |
| |
| Remaining triggers are configured in `init.rc` and are not built-in. The default sequence for |
| these is specified under the "on late-init" event in `init.rc`. Actions internal to `init.rc` |
| have been omitted. |
| |
| 1. `early-fs` - Start vold. |
| 2. `fs` - Vold is up. Mount partitions not marked as first-stage or latemounted. |
| 3. `post-fs` - Configure anything dependent on early mounts. |
| 4. `late-fs` - Mount partitions marked as latemounted. |
| 5. `post-fs-data` - Mount and configure `/data`; set up encryption. `/metadata` is |
| reformatted here if it couldn't mount in first-stage init. |
| 6. `zygote-start` - Start the zygote. |
| 7. `early-boot` - After zygote has started. |
| 8. `boot` - After `early-boot` actions have completed. |
| |
| Commands |
| -------- |
| |
| `bootchart [start|stop]` |
| > Start/stop bootcharting. These are present in the default init.rc files, |
| but bootcharting is only active if the file /data/bootchart/enabled exists; |
| otherwise bootchart start/stop are no-ops. |
| |
| `chmod <octal-mode> <path>` |
| > Change file access permissions. |
| |
| `chown <owner> <group> <path>` |
| > Change file owner and group. |
| |
| `class_start <serviceclass>` |
| > Start all services of the specified class if they are |
| not already running. See the start entry for more information on |
| starting services. |
| |
| `class_stop <serviceclass>` |
| > Stop and disable all services of the specified class if they are |
| currently running. |
| |
| `class_reset <serviceclass>` |
| > Stop all services of the specified class if they are |
| currently running, without disabling them. They can be restarted |
| later using `class_start`. |
| |
| `class_restart [--only-enabled] <serviceclass>` |
| > Restarts all services of the specified class. If `--only-enabled` is |
| specified, then disabled services are skipped. |
| |
| `copy <src> <dst>` |
| > Copies a file. Similar to write, but useful for binary/large |
| amounts of data. |
| Regarding to the src file, copying from symbolic link file and world-writable |
| or group-writable files are not allowed. |
| Regarding to the dst file, the default mode created is 0600 if it does not |
| exist. And it will be truncated if dst file is a normal regular file and |
| already exists. |
| |
| `copy_per_line <src> <dst>` |
| > Copies a file line by line. Similar to copy, but useful for dst is a sysfs node |
| that doesn't handle multiple lines of data. |
| |
| `domainname <name>` |
| > Set the domain name. |
| |
| `enable <servicename>` |
| > Turns a disabled service into an enabled one as if the service did not |
| specify disabled. |
| If the service is supposed to be running, it will be started now. |
| Typically used when the bootloader sets a variable that indicates a specific |
| service should be started when needed. E.g. |
| |
| on property:ro.boot.myfancyhardware=1 |
| enable my_fancy_service_for_my_fancy_hardware |
| |
| `exec [ <seclabel> [ <user> [ <group>\* ] ] ] -- <command> [ <argument>\* ]` |
| > Fork and execute command with the given arguments. The command starts |
| after "--" so that an optional security context, user, and supplementary |
| groups can be provided. No other commands will be run until this one |
| finishes. _seclabel_ can be a - to denote default. Properties are expanded |
| within _argument_. |
| Init halts executing commands until the forked process exits. |
| |
| `exec_background [ <seclabel> [ <user> [ <group>\* ] ] ] -- <command> [ <argument>\* ]` |
| > Fork and execute command with the given arguments. This is handled similarly |
| to the `exec` command. The difference is that init does not halt executing |
| commands until the process exits for `exec_background`. |
| |
| `exec_start <service>` |
| > Start a given service and halt the processing of additional init commands |
| until it returns. The command functions similarly to the `exec` command, |
| but uses an existing service definition in place of the exec argument vector. |
| |
| `export <name> <value>` |
| > Set the environment variable _name_ equal to _value_ in the |
| global environment (which will be inherited by all processes |
| started after this command is executed) |
| |
| `hostname <name>` |
| > Set the host name. |
| |
| `ifup <interface>` |
| > Bring the network interface _interface_ online. |
| |
| `insmod [-f] <path> [<options>]` |
| > Install the module at _path_ with the specified options. |
| -f: force installation of the module even if the version of the running kernel |
| and the version of the kernel for which the module was compiled do not match. |
| |
| `interface_start <name>` \ |
| `interface_restart <name>` \ |
| `interface_stop <name>` |
| > Find the service that provides the interface _name_ if it exists and run the `start`, `restart`, |
| or `stop` commands on it respectively. _name_ may be either a fully qualified HIDL name, in which |
| case it is specified as `<interface>/<instance>`, or an AIDL name, in which case it is specified as |
| `aidl/<interface>` for example `[email protected]::ISecureElement/eSE1` or |
| `aidl/aidl_lazy_test_1`. |
| |
| > Note that these commands only act on interfaces specified by the `interface` service option, not |
| on interfaces registered at runtime. |
| |
| > Example usage of these commands: \ |
| `interface_start [email protected]::ISecureElement/eSE1` |
| will start the HIDL Service that provides the `[email protected]` and `eSI1` |
| instance. \ |
| `interface_start aidl/aidl_lazy_test_1` will start the AIDL service that |
| provides the `aidl_lazy_test_1` interface. |
| |
| `load_exports <path>` |
| > Open the file at _path_ and export global environment variables declared |
| there. Each line must be in the format `export <name> <value>`, as described |
| above. |
| |
| `load_system_props` |
| > (This action is deprecated and no-op.) |
| |
| `load_persist_props` |
| > Loads persistent properties when /data has been decrypted. |
| This is included in the default init.rc. |
| |
| `loglevel <level>` |
| > Sets init's log level to the integer level, from 7 (all logging) to 0 |
| (fatal logging only). The numeric values correspond to the kernel log |
| levels, but this command does not affect the kernel log level. Use the |
| `write` command to write to `/proc/sys/kernel/printk` to change that. |
| Properties are expanded within _level_. |
| |
| `mark_post_data` |
| > Used to mark the point right after /data is mounted. |
| |
| `mkdir <path> [<mode>] [<owner>] [<group>] [encryption=<action>] [key=<key>]` |
| > Create a directory at _path_, optionally with the given mode, owner, and |
| group. If not provided, the directory is created with permissions 755 and |
| owned by the root user and root group. If provided, the mode, owner and group |
| will be updated if the directory exists already. |
| If the directory does not exist, it will receive the security context from |
| the current SELinux policy or its parent if not specified in the policy. If |
| the directory exists, its security context will not be changed (even if |
| different from the policy). |
| > |
| > _action_ can be one of: |
| > * `None`: take no encryption action; directory will be encrypted if parent is. |
| > * `Require`: encrypt directory, abort boot process if encryption fails |
| > * `Attempt`: try to set an encryption policy, but continue if it fails |
| > * `DeleteIfNecessary`: recursively delete directory if necessary to set |
| > encryption policy. |
| > |
| > _key_ can be one of: |
| > * `ref`: use the systemwide DE key |
| > * `per_boot_ref`: use the key freshly generated on each boot. |
| |
| `mount_all [ <fstab> ] [--<option>]` |
| > Calls fs\_mgr\_mount\_all on the given fs\_mgr-format fstab with optional |
| options "early" and "late". |
| With "--early" set, the init executable will skip mounting entries with |
| "latemount" flag and triggering fs encryption state event. With "--late" set, |
| init executable will only mount entries with "latemount" flag. By default, |
| no option is set, and mount\_all will process all entries in the given fstab. |
| If the fstab parameter is not specified, fstab.${ro.boot.fstab_suffix}, |
| fstab.${ro.hardware} or fstab.${ro.hardware.platform} will be scanned for |
| under /odm/etc, /vendor/etc, or / at runtime, in that order. |
| |
| `mount <type> <device> <dir> [ <flag>\* ] [<options>]` |
| > Attempt to mount the named device at the directory _dir_ |
| _flag_s include "ro", "rw", "remount", "noatime", ... |
| _options_ include "barrier=1", "noauto\_da\_alloc", "discard", ... as |
| a comma separated string, e.g. barrier=1,noauto\_da\_alloc |
| |
| `perform_apex_config` |
| > Performs tasks after APEXes are mounted. For example, creates data directories |
| for the mounted APEXes, parses config file(s) from them, and updates linker |
| configurations. Intended to be used only once when apexd notifies the mount |
| event by setting `apexd.status` to ready. |
| |
| `restart [--only-if-running] <service>` |
| > Stops and restarts a running service, does nothing if the service is currently |
| restarting, otherwise, it just starts the service. If "--only-if-running" is |
| specified, the service is only restarted if it is already running. |
| |
| `restorecon <path> [ <path>\* ]` |
| > Restore the file named by _path_ to the security context specified |
| in the file\_contexts configuration. |
| Not required for directories created by the init.rc as these are |
| automatically labeled correctly by init. |
| |
| `restorecon_recursive <path> [ <path>\* ]` |
| > Recursively restore the directory tree named by _path_ to the |
| security contexts specified in the file\_contexts configuration. |
| |
| `rm <path>` |
| > Calls unlink(2) on the given path. You might want to |
| use "exec -- rm ..." instead (provided the system partition is |
| already mounted). |
| |
| `rmdir <path>` |
| > Calls rmdir(2) on the given path. |
| |
| `readahead <file|dir> [--fully]` |
| > Calls readahead(2) on the file or files within given directory. |
| Use option --fully to read the full file content. |
| |
| `setprop <name> <value>` |
| > Set system property _name_ to _value_. Properties are expanded |
| within _value_. |
| |
| `setrlimit <resource> <cur> <max>` |
| > Set the rlimit for a resource. This applies to all processes launched after |
| the limit is set. It is intended to be set early in init and applied globally. |
| _resource_ is best specified using its text representation ('cpu', 'rtio', etc |
| or 'RLIM_CPU', 'RLIM_RTIO', etc). It also may be specified as the int value |
| that the resource enum corresponds to. |
| _cur_ and _max_ can be 'unlimited' or '-1' to indicate an infinite rlimit. |
| |
| `start <service>` |
| > Start a service running if it is not already running. |
| Note that this is _not_ synchronous, and even if it were, there is |
| no guarantee that the operating system's scheduler will execute the |
| service sufficiently to guarantee anything about the service's status. |
| See the `exec_start` command for a synchronous version of `start`. |
| |
| > This creates an important consequence that if the service offers |
| functionality to other services, such as providing a |
| communication channel, simply starting this service before those |
| services is _not_ sufficient to guarantee that the channel has |
| been set up before those services ask for it. There must be a |
| separate mechanism to make any such guarantees. |
| |
| `stop <service>` |
| > Stop a service from running if it is currently running. |
| |
| `swapon_all [ <fstab> ]` |
| > Calls fs\_mgr\_swapon\_all on the given fstab file. |
| If the fstab parameter is not specified, fstab.${ro.boot.fstab_suffix}, |
| fstab.${ro.hardware} or fstab.${ro.hardware.platform} will be scanned for |
| under /odm/etc, /vendor/etc, or / at runtime, in that order. |
| |
| `symlink <target> <path>` |
| > Create a symbolic link at _path_ with the value _target_ |
| |
| `sysclktz <minutes_west_of_gmt>` |
| > Set the system clock base (0 if system clock ticks in GMT) |
| |
| `trigger <event>` |
| > Trigger an event. Used to queue an action from another |
| action. |
| |
| `umount <path>` |
| > Unmount the filesystem mounted at that path. |
| |
| `umount_all [ <fstab> ]` |
| > Calls fs\_mgr\_umount\_all on the given fstab file. |
| If the fstab parameter is not specified, fstab.${ro.boot.fstab_suffix}, |
| fstab.${ro.hardware} or fstab.${ro.hardware.platform} will be scanned for |
| under /odm/etc, /vendor/etc, or / at runtime, in that order. |
| |
| `verity_update_state` |
| > Internal implementation detail used to update dm-verity state and |
| set the partition._mount-point_.verified properties used by adb remount |
| because fs\_mgr can't set them directly itself. This is required since |
| Android 12, because CtsNativeVerifiedBootTestCases will read property |
| "partition.${partition}.verified.hash_alg" to check that sha1 is not used. |
| See https://r.android.com/1546980 for more details. |
| |
| `wait <path> [ <timeout> ]` |
| > Poll for the existence of the given file and return when found, |
| or the timeout has been reached. If timeout is not specified it |
| currently defaults to five seconds. The timeout value can be |
| fractional seconds, specified in floating point notation. |
| |
| `wait_for_prop <name> <value>` |
| > Wait for system property _name_ to be _value_. Properties are expanded |
| within _value_. If property _name_ is already set to _value_, continue |
| immediately. |
| |
| `write <path> <content>` |
| > Open the file at _path_ and write a string to it with write(2). |
| If the file does not exist, it will be created. If it does exist, |
| it will be truncated. Properties are expanded within _content_. |
| |
| |
| Imports |
| ------- |
| `import <path>` |
| > Parse an init config file, extending the current configuration. |
| If _path_ is a directory, each file in the directory is parsed as |
| a config file. It is not recursive, nested directories will |
| not be parsed. |
| |
| The import keyword is not a command, but rather its own section, |
| meaning that it does not happen as part of an Action, but rather, |
| imports are handled as a file is being parsed and follow the below logic. |
| |
| There are only three times where the init executable imports .rc files: |
| |
| 1. When it imports `/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc` or the script indicated by the property |
| `ro.boot.init_rc` during initial boot. |
| 2. When it imports `/{system,system_ext,vendor,odm,product}/etc/init/` immediately after |
| importing `/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc`. |
| 3. (Deprecated) When it imports /{system,vendor,odm}/etc/init/ or .rc files |
| at specified paths during mount_all, not allowed for devices launching |
| after Q. |
| |
| The order that files are imported is a bit complex for legacy reasons. The below is guaranteed: |
| |
| 1. `/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc` is parsed then recursively each of its imports are |
| parsed. |
| 2. The contents of `/system/etc/init/` are alphabetized and parsed sequentially, with imports |
| happening recursively after each file is parsed. |
| 3. Step 2 is repeated for `/system_ext/etc/init`, `/vendor/etc/init`, `/odm/etc/init`, |
| `/product/etc/init` |
| |
| The below pseudocode may explain this more clearly: |
| |
| fn Import(file) |
| Parse(file) |
| for (import : file.imports) |
| Import(import) |
| |
| Import(/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc) |
| Directories = [/system/etc/init, /system_ext/etc/init, /vendor/etc/init, /odm/etc/init, /product/etc/init] |
| for (directory : Directories) |
| files = <Alphabetical order of directory's contents> |
| for (file : files) |
| Import(file) |
| |
| Actions are executed in the order that they are parsed. For example the `post-fs-data` action(s) |
| in `/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc` are always the first `post-fs-data` action(s) to be executed in |
| order of how they appear in that file. Then the `post-fs-data` actions of the imports of |
| `/system/etc/init/hw/init.rc` in the order that they're imported, etc. |
| |
| Properties |
| ---------- |
| Init provides state information with the following properties. |
| |
| `init.svc.<name>` |
| > State of a named service ("stopped", "stopping", "running", "restarting") |
| |
| `dev.mnt.dev.<mount_point>`, `dev.mnt.blk.<mount_point>`, `dev.mnt.rootdisk.<mount_point>` |
| > Block device base name associated with a *mount_point*. |
| The *mount_point* has / replaced by . and if referencing the root mount point |
| "/", it will use "/root". |
| `dev.mnt.dev.<mount_point>` indicates a block device attached to filesystems. |
| (e.g., dm-N or sdaN/mmcblk0pN to access `/sys/fs/ext4/${dev.mnt.dev.<mount_point>}/`) |
| |
| `dev.mnt.blk.<mount_point>` indicates the disk partition to the above block device. |
| (e.g., sdaN / mmcblk0pN to access `/sys/class/block/${dev.mnt.blk.<mount_point>}/`) |
| |
| `dev.mnt.rootdisk.<mount_point>` indicates the root disk to contain the above disk partition. |
| (e.g., sda / mmcblk0 to access `/sys/class/block/${dev.mnt.rootdisk.<mount_point>}/queue`) |
| |
| Init responds to properties that begin with `ctl.`. These properties take the format of |
| `ctl.[<target>_]<command>` and the _value_ of the system property is used as a parameter. The |
| _target_ is optional and specifies the service option that _value_ is meant to match with. There is |
| only one option for _target_, `interface` which indicates that _value_ will refer to an interface |
| that a service provides and not the service name itself. |
| |
| For example: |
| |
| `SetProperty("ctl.start", "logd")` will run the `start` command on `logd`. |
| |
| `SetProperty("ctl.interface_start", "aidl/aidl_lazy_test_1")` will run the `start` command on the |
| service that exposes the `aidl aidl_lazy_test_1` interface. |
| |
| Note that these |
| properties are only settable; they will have no value when read. |
| |
| The _commands_ are listed below. |
| |
| `start` \ |
| `restart` \ |
| `stop` \ |
| These are equivalent to using the `start`, `restart`, and `stop` commands on the service specified |
| by the _value_ of the property. |
| |
| `oneshot_on` and `oneshot_off` will turn on or off the _oneshot_ |
| flag for the service specified by the _value_ of the property. This is |
| particularly intended for services that are conditionally lazy HALs. When |
| they are lazy HALs, oneshot must be on, otherwise oneshot should be off. |
| |
| `sigstop_on` and `sigstop_off` will turn on or off the _sigstop_ feature for the service |
| specified by the _value_ of the property. See the _Debugging init_ section below for more details |
| about this feature. |
| |
| Boot timing |
| ----------- |
| Init records some boot timing information in system properties. |
| |
| `ro.boottime.init` |
| > Time after boot in ns (via the CLOCK\_BOOTTIME clock) at which the first |
| stage of init started. |
| |
| `ro.boottime.init.first_stage` |
| > How long in ns it took to run first stage. |
| |
| `ro.boottime.init.selinux` |
| > How long in ns it took to run SELinux stage. |
| |
| `ro.boottime.init.modules` |
| > How long in ms it took to load kernel modules. |
| |
| `ro.boottime.init.cold_boot_wait` |
| > How long init waited for ueventd's coldboot phase to end. |
| |
| `ro.boottime.<service-name>` |
| > Time after boot in ns (via the CLOCK\_BOOTTIME clock) that the service was |
| first started. |
| |
| |
| Bootcharting |
| ------------ |
| This version of init contains code to perform "bootcharting": generating log |
| files that can be later processed by the tools provided by <http://www.bootchart.org/>. |
| |
| On the emulator, use the -bootchart _timeout_ option to boot with bootcharting |
| activated for _timeout_ seconds. |
| |
| On a device: |
| |
| adb shell 'touch /data/bootchart/enabled' |
| |
| Don't forget to delete this file when you're done collecting data! |
| |
| The log files are written to /data/bootchart/. A script is provided to |
| retrieve them and create a bootchart.tgz file that can be used with the |
| bootchart command-line utility: |
| |
| sudo apt-get install pybootchartgui |
| # grab-bootchart.sh uses $ANDROID_SERIAL. |
| $ANDROID_BUILD_TOP/system/core/init/grab-bootchart.sh |
| |
| One thing to watch for is that the bootchart will show init as if it started |
| running at 0s. You'll have to look at dmesg to work out when the kernel |
| actually started init. |
| |
| |
| Comparing two bootcharts |
| ------------------------ |
| A handy script named compare-bootcharts.py can be used to compare the |
| start/end time of selected processes. The aforementioned grab-bootchart.sh |
| will leave a bootchart tarball named bootchart.tgz at /tmp/android-bootchart. |
| If two such tarballs are preserved on the host machine under different |
| directories, the script can list the timestamps differences. For example: |
| |
| Usage: system/core/init/compare-bootcharts.py _base-bootchart-dir_ _exp-bootchart-dir_ |
| |
| process: baseline experiment (delta) - Unit is ms (a jiffy is 10 ms on the system) |
| ------------------------------------ |
| /init: 50 40 (-10) |
| /system/bin/surfaceflinger: 4320 4470 (+150) |
| /system/bin/bootanimation: 6980 6990 (+10) |
| zygote64: 10410 10640 (+230) |
| zygote: 10410 10640 (+230) |
| system_server: 15350 15150 (-200) |
| bootanimation ends at: 33790 31230 (-2560) |
| |
| |
| Systrace |
| -------- |
| Systrace (<http://developer.android.com/tools/help/systrace.html>) can be |
| used for obtaining performance analysis reports during boot |
| time on userdebug or eng builds. |
| |
| Here is an example of trace events of "wm" and "am" categories: |
| |
| $ANDROID_BUILD_TOP/external/chromium-trace/systrace.py \ |
| wm am --boot |
| |
| This command will cause the device to reboot. After the device is rebooted and |
| the boot sequence has finished, the trace report is obtained from the device |
| and written as trace.html on the host by hitting Ctrl+C. |
| |
| Limitation: recording trace events is started after persistent properties are loaded, so |
| the trace events that are emitted before that are not recorded. Several |
| services such as vold, surfaceflinger, and servicemanager are affected by this |
| limitation since they are started before persistent properties are loaded. |
| Zygote initialization and the processes that are forked from the zygote are not |
| affected. |
| |
| |
| Debugging init |
| -------------- |
| When a service starts from init, it may fail to `execv()` the service. This is not typical, and may |
| point to an error happening in the linker as the new service is started. The linker in Android |
| prints its logs to `logd` and `stderr`, so they are visible in `logcat`. If the error is encountered |
| before it is possible to access `logcat`, the `stdio_to_kmsg` service option may be used to direct |
| the logs that the linker prints to `stderr` to `kmsg`, where they can be read via a serial port. |
| |
| Launching init services without init is not recommended as init sets up a significant amount of |
| environment (user, groups, security label, capabilities, etc) that is hard to replicate manually. |
| |
| If it is required to debug a service from its very start, the `sigstop` service option is added. |
| This option will send SIGSTOP to a service immediately before calling exec. This gives a window |
| where developers can attach a debugger, strace, etc before continuing the service with SIGCONT. |
| |
| This flag can also be dynamically controlled via the ctl.sigstop_on and ctl.sigstop_off properties. |
| |
| Below is an example of dynamically debugging logd via the above: |
| |
| stop logd |
| setprop ctl.sigstop_on logd |
| start logd |
| ps -e | grep logd |
| > logd 4343 1 18156 1684 do_signal_stop 538280 T init |
| gdbclient.py -p 4343 |
| b main |
| c |
| c |
| c |
| > Breakpoint 1, main (argc=1, argv=0x7ff8c9a488) at system/core/logd/main.cpp:427 |
| |
| Below is an example of doing the same but with strace |
| |
| stop logd |
| setprop ctl.sigstop_on logd |
| start logd |
| ps -e | grep logd |
| > logd 4343 1 18156 1684 do_signal_stop 538280 T init |
| strace -p 4343 |
| |
| (From a different shell) |
| kill -SIGCONT 4343 |
| |
| > strace runs |
| |
| Host Init Script Verification |
| ----------------------------- |
| |
| Init scripts are checked for correctness during build time. Specifically the below is checked. |
| |
| 1) Well formatted action, service and import sections, e.g. no actions without a preceding 'on' |
| line, and no extraneous lines after an 'import' statement. |
| 2) All commands map to a valid keyword and the argument count is within the correct range. |
| 3) All service options are valid. This is stricter than how commands are checked as the service |
| options' arguments are fully parsed, e.g. UIDs and GIDs must resolve. |
| |
| There are other parts of init scripts that are only parsed at runtime and therefore not checked |
| during build time, among them are the below. |
| |
| 1) The validity of the arguments of commands, e.g. no checking if file paths actually exist, if |
| SELinux would permit the operation, or if the UIDs and GIDs resolve. |
| 2) No checking if a service exists or has a valid SELinux domain defined |
| 3) No checking if a service has not been previously defined in a different init script. |
| |
| Early Init Boot Sequence |
| ------------------------ |
| The early init boot sequence is broken up into three stages: first stage init, SELinux setup, and |
| second stage init. |
| |
| First stage init is responsible for setting up the bare minimum requirements to load the rest of the |
| system. Specifically this includes mounting /dev, /proc, mounting 'early mount' partitions (which |
| needs to include all partitions that contain system code, for example system and vendor), and moving |
| the system.img mount to / for devices with a ramdisk. |
| |
| Note that in Android Q, system.img always contains TARGET_ROOT_OUT and always is mounted at / by the |
| time first stage init finishes. Android Q will also require dynamic partitions and therefore will |
| require using a ramdisk to boot Android. The recovery ramdisk can be used to boot to Android instead |
| of a dedicated ramdisk as well. |
| |
| First stage init has three variations depending on the device configuration: |
| 1) For system-as-root devices, first stage init is part of /system/bin/init and a symlink at /init |
| points to /system/bin/init for backwards compatibility. These devices do not need to do anything to |
| mount system.img, since it is by definition already mounted as the rootfs by the kernel. |
| |
| 2) For devices with a ramdisk, first stage init is a static executable located at /init. These |
| devices mount system.img as /system then perform a switch root operation to move the mount at |
| /system to /. The contents of the ramdisk are freed after mounting has completed. |
| |
| 3) For devices that use recovery as a ramdisk, first stage init it contained within the shared init |
| located at /init within the recovery ramdisk. These devices first switch root to |
| /first_stage_ramdisk to remove the recovery components from the environment, then proceed the same |
| as 2). Note that the decision to boot normally into Android instead of booting |
| into recovery mode is made if androidboot.force_normal_boot=1 is present in the |
| kernel commandline, or in bootconfig with Android S and later. |
| |
| Once first stage init finishes it execs /system/bin/init with the "selinux_setup" argument. This |
| phase is where SELinux is optionally compiled and loaded onto the system. selinux.cpp contains more |
| information on the specifics of this process. |
| |
| Lastly once that phase finishes, it execs /system/bin/init again with the "second_stage" |
| argument. At this point the main phase of init runs and continues the boot process via the init.rc |
| scripts. |