eudev/man/daemon.xml
2010-07-03 19:54:00 +02:00

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<refentry id="daemon">
<refentryinfo>
<title>daemon</title>
<productname>systemd</productname>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<contrib>Developer</contrib>
<firstname>Lennart</firstname>
<surname>Poettering</surname>
<email>lennart@poettering.net</email>
</author>
</authorgroup>
</refentryinfo>
<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>daemon</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>7</manvolnum>
</refmeta>
<refnamediv>
<refname>daemon</refname>
<refpurpose>Writing and Packaging System Daemons</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>
<refsect1>
<title>Description</title>
<para>A daemon is a service process that runs in the
background and supervises the system or provides
functionality to other processes. Traditionally,
daemons are implemented following a scheme originating
in SysV Unix. Modern daemons should follow a simpler
yet more powerful scheme (here called "new-style"
daemons), as implemented by
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>. </para>
<refsect2>
<title>SysV Daemons</title>
<para>When a traditional SysV daemon
starts, it should execute the following steps
as part of the initialization. Note that these
steps are unnecessary for new-style daemons (see below),
and should only be implemented if compatibility
with SysV is essential.</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem><para>Close all open file
descriptors except STDIN, STDOUT,
STDERR (i.e. the first three file
descriptors 0, 1, 2). This ensures
that no accidentally passed file
descriptor stays around in the daemon
process. On Linux this is best
implemented by iterating through
<filename>/proc/self/fd</filename>,
with a fallback of iterating from file
descriptor 3 to the value returned by
<function>getrlimit()</function> for
RLIMIT_NOFILE.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Reset all signal
handlers to their default. This is
best done by iterating through the
available signals up to the limit of
_NSIG and resetting them to
SIG_DFL.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Reset the signal mask
using
<function>sigprocmask()</function>.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Sanitize the
environment block, removing or
resetting environment variables that
might negatively impact daemon
runtime.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Call <function>fork()</function>,
to create a background
process.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>In the child, call
<function>setsid()</function> to
detach from any terminal and create an
independent session.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>In the child, call
<function>fork()</function> again, to
ensure the daemon can never re-aquire
a terminal again.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Call <function>exit()</function> in the
first child, so that only the second
child (the actual daemon process)
stays around. This ensures that the
daemon process is reparented to
init/PID 1, as all daemons should
be.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>In the daemon process,
connect <filename>/dev/null</filename>
to STDIN, STDOUT,
STDERR.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>In the daemon process,
reset the umask to 0, so that the file
modes passed to <function>open()</function>, <function>mkdir()</function> and
suchlike directly control the access
mode of the created files and
directories.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>In the daemon process,
change the current directory to the
root directory (/), in order to avoid
that the daemon involuntarily
blocks mount points from being
unmounted.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>In the daemon process,
write the daemon PID (as returned by
<function>getpid()</function>) to a
PID file, for example
<filename>/var/run/foobar.pid</filename>
(for a hypothetical daemon "foobar"),
to ensure that the daemon cannot be
started more than once. This must be
implemented in race-free fashion so
that the PID file is only updated when
at the same time it is verified that
the PID previously stored in the PID
file no longer exists or belongs to a
foreign process. Commonly some kind of
file locking is employed to implement
this logic.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>In the daemon process,
drop privileges, if possible and
applicable.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>From the daemon
process notify the original process
started that initialization is
complete. This can be implemented via
an unnamed pipe or similar
communication channel that is created
before the first
<function>fork()</function> and hence
available in both the original and the
daemon process.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Call
<function>exit()</function> in the
original process. The process that
invoked the daemon must be able to
rely that this
<function>exit()</function> happens
after initialization is complete and
all external communication channels
established and
accessible.</para></listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>The BSD <function>daemon()</function> function should not be
used, as it implements only a subset of these steps.</para>
<para>A daemon that needs to provide
compatibility with SysV systems should
implement the scheme pointed out
above. However, it is recommended to make this
behaviour optional and configurable via a
command line argument, to ease debugging as
well as to simplify integration into systems
using systemd.</para>
</refsect2>
<refsect2>
<title>New-Style Daemons</title>
<para>Modern services for Linux should be
implemented as new-style daemons. This makes it
easier to supervise and control them at
runtime and simplifies their
implementation.</para>
<para>For developing a new-style daemon none
of the initialization steps recommended for
SysV daemons need to be implemented. New-style
init systems such as systemd make all of them
redundant. Moreover, since some of these steps
interfere with process monitoring, file
descriptor passing and other functionality of
the init system it is recommended not to
execute them when run as new-style
service.</para>
<para>Note that new-style init systems
guarantee execution of daemon processes in
clean process contexts: it is guaranteed that
the environment block is sanitized, that the
signal handlers and mask is reset and that no
left-over file descriptors are passed. Daemons
will be executed in their own session, and
STDIN/STDOUT/STDERR connected to
<filename>/dev/null</filename> unless
otherwise configured. The umask is reset.</para>
<para>It is recommended for new-style daemons
to implement the following:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem><para>If SIGTERM is
received, shut down the daemon and
exit cleanly.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>If SIGHUP is received,
reload the configuration files, if
this applies.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Provide a correct exit
code from the main daemon process, as
this is used by the init system to
detect service errors and problems. It
is recommended to follow the exit code
scheme as defined in the <ulink
url="http://refspecs.freestandards.org/LSB_3.1.1/LSB-Core-generic/LSB-Core-generic/iniscrptact.html">LSB
recommendations for SysV init
scripts</ulink>.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>As much as possible,
rely on systemd's functionality to
limit the access of the daemon to
files, services and other
resources. i.e. rely on systemd's
resource limit control instead of
implementing your own, rely on
systemd's privilege dropping code
instead of implementing it in the
daemon, and similar. See
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
for the available
controls.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>If possible and
applicable expose the daemon's control
interface via the D-Bus IPC system and
grab a bus name as last step of
initialization.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>If D-Bus is used, make
your daemon bus-activatable, via
supplying a D-Bus service activation
configuration file. This has multiple
advantages: your daemon may be started
lazily on-demand; it may be started in
parallel to other daemons requiring it
-- which maximizes parallelization and
boot-up speed; your daemon can be
restarted on failure, without losing
any bus requests, as the bus queues
requests for activatable services. See
below for details.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>If your daemon
provides services to other local
processes or remote clients via a
socket, it should be made
socket-activatable following the
scheme pointed out below. Like D-Bus
activation this enables on-demand
starting of services as well as it
allows improved parallelization of
service start-up. Also, for state-less
protocols (such as syslog, DNS) a
daemon implementing socket-based
activation can be restarted without
losing a single request. See below for
details.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>If applicable a daemon
should notify the init system about
startup completion or status updates
via the
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
interface.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Instead of using the
<function>syslog()</function> call to log directly to the
system logger, a new-style daemon may
choose to simply log to STDERR via
<function>fprintf()</function>, which is then forwarded to
syslog by the init system. If log
priorities are necessary these can be
encoded by prefixing individual log
lines with strings like "&lt;4&gt;"
(for log priority 4 "WARNING" in the
syslog priority scheme), following a
similar style as the Linux kernel's
<function>printk()</function> priority system. In fact,
using this style of logging also
enables the init system to optionally
direct all application logging to the
kernel log buffer (kmsg), as
accessible via
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>dmesg</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>. This
kind of logging may be enabled by
setting
<varname>StandardError=syslog</varname>
in the service unit file. For details
see
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd-daemon</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
and
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para></listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>These recommendations are similar but
not identical to the <ulink
url="http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPSystemStartup/Articles/LaunchOnDemandDaemons.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40001762-104738">Apple
MacOS X Daemon Requirements</ulink>.</para>
</refsect2>
<refsect2>
<title>Socket-Based Activation</title>
</refsect2>
<refsect2>
<title>Bus-Based Activation</title>
</refsect2>
<refsect2>
<title>Path-Based Activation</title>
</refsect2>
<refsect2>
<title>Writing Systemd Unit Files</title>
<para>When writing systemd unit files, it is
recommended to consider the following
suggestions:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem><para>If possible do not use
the <varname>Type=forking</varname>
setting in service files. But if you
do, make sure to set the PID file path
using <varname>PIDFile=</varname>. See
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
for details.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>If your daemon
registers a D-Bus name on the bus,
make sure to use
<varname>Type=dbus</varname> if
possible.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Make sure to set a
good human-readable description string
with
<varname>Description=</varname>.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Do not disable
<varname>DefaultDependencies=</varname>,
unless you really know what you do and
your unit is involved in early boot or
late system shutdown.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Normally, little if
any dependencies should need to
be defined explicitly. However, if you
do configure explicit dependencies, only refer to
unit names listed on
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.special</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
or names introduced by your own
package to keep the unit file
operating
system-independent.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Make sure to include
an <literal>[Install]</literal> section including
installation information for the unit
file. See
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
for details. To activate your service
on boot make sure to add a
<varname>WantedBy=multi-user.target</varname>
or
<varname>WantedBy=graphical.target</varname> directive.</para></listitem>
</orderedlist>
</refsect2>
<refsect2>
<title>Installing Service Files</title>
<para>At the build installation time
(e.g. <command>make install</command> during
package build) packages are recommended to
install their systemd unit files in the
directory returned by <command>pkg-config
systemd
--variable=systemdsystemnunitdir</command>
(for system services),
resp. <command>pkg-config systemd
--variable=systemdsessionunitdir</command>
(for session services). This will make the
services available in the system on explicit
request but not activate them automatically
during boot. Optionally, during package
installation (e.g. <command>rpm -i</command>
by the administrator) symlinks should be
created in the systemd configuration
directories via the
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-install</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
tool, to activate them automatically on
boot.</para>
<para>Packages using
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>autoconf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
are recommended to use a configure script
excerpt like the following to determine the
unit installation path during source
configuration:</para>
<programlisting>PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG
AC_ARG_WITH([systemdsystemunitdir],
AS_HELP_STRING([--with-systemdsystemunitdir=DIR], [Directory for systemd service files]),
[], [with_systemdsystemunitdir=$($PKG_CONFIG --variable=systemdsystemunitdir systemd)])
AC_SUBST([systemdsystemunitdir], [$with_systemdsystemunitdir])
AM_CONDITIONAL(HAVE_SYSTEMD, [test -n "$with_systemdsystemunitdir"])</programlisting>
<para>This snippet allows automatic
installation of the unit files on systemd
machines, and optionally allows their
installation even on machines lacking
systemd. (Modification of this snippet for the
session unit directory is left as excercise to the
reader.)</para>
<para>Additionally, to ensure that
<command>make distcheck</command> continues to
work, it is recommended to add the following
to the top-level <filename>Makefile.am</filename>
file in
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>automake</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>-based
projects:</para>
<programlisting>DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS = \
--with-systemdsystemunitdir=$$dc_install_base/$(systemdsystemunitdir)</programlisting>
<para>Finally, unit files should be installed in the system with an automake excerpt like the following:</para>
<programlisting>if HAVE_SYSTEMD
systemdsystemunit_DATA = \
foobar.socket \
foobar.service
endif</programlisting>
<para>In the
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>rpm</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
<filename>.spec</filename> file use a snippet like
the following to enable/disable the service
during installation/deinstallation. Consult
the packaging guidelines of your distribution
for details and the equivalent for other
packaging managers:</para>
<programlisting>%post
/usr/bin/systemd-install enable foobar.service foobar.socket >/dev/null 2>&amp;1 || :
%preun
if [ "$1" -eq 0 ]; then
/usr/bin/systemd-install disable foobar.service foobar.socket >/dev/null 2>&amp;1 || :
fi</programlisting>
</refsect2>
<refsect2>
<title>Porting Existing Daemons</title>
<para>Since new-style init systems such as
systemd are compatible with traditional SysV
init systems it is not strictly necessary to
port existing daemons to the new
style. However doing this offers additional
functionality to the daemons as well as it
simplifies integration into new-style init
systems.</para>
<para>To port an existing SysV compatible
daemon the following steps are
recommended:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem><para>If not already
implemented, add an optional command
line switch to the daemon to disable
daemonization. This is useful not only
for using the daemon in new-style init
systems, but also to ease debugging.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>If the daemon offers
interfaces to other software running
on the local system via local AF_UNIX
sockets, consider implementing
socket-based activation (see
above). Usually a minimal patch is
sufficient to implement this: Extend
the socket creation in the daemon code
so that
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_listen_fds</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
is checked for already passed sockets
first. If sockets are passed
(i.e. when
<function>sd_listen_fds()</function>
returns a positive value), skip the
socket createn step and use the passed
sockets. Secondly, ensure that the
file-system socket nodes for local
AF_UNIX sockets used in the
socket-based activation are not
removed when the daemon shuts down, if
sockets have been passed. Third, if
the daemon normally closes all
remaining open file descriptors as
part of its initialization, the
sockets passed from the init system
must be spared. Since new-style init
systems guarantee that no left-over
file descriptors are passed to
executed processes, it might be a good
choice to simply skip the closing of
all remaining open file descriptors if
file descriptors are
passed.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Write and install a
systemd unit file for the service (and
the sockets if socket-based activation
is used, as well as a path unit file,
if the daemon processes a spool
directory), see above for
details.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>If the daemon exposes
interfaces via D-Bus, write and
install a D-Bus activation file for
the service, see above for
details.</para></listitem>
</orderedlist>
</refsect2>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>See Also</title>
<para>
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-install</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd-daemon</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_listen_fds</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>daemon</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
</para>
</refsect1>
</refentry>