Tag Archives: chkconfig

Autostart services in Linux

chkconfig is a simple command-line tool that helps a Linux administrator configure,  maintain,  autostart and manage the configuration of the symlinks located in /etc/rc[0-6].d path.

First of all let me show you which are the most used services in a Linux distributuion.

You can find out what services can be started in your server by typing:

chkconfig --list

The output should look something like this:

~ # chkconfig --list
acpid           0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
cgconfig        0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
cgred           0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
cmdavd          0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
cmdmgd          0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
crond           0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
htcacheclean    0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
httpd           0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
ip6tables       0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
iptables        0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
mailman         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
mdmonitor       0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
mysqld          0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
named           0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
netconsole      0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
netfs           0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
network         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
ntpd            0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
ntpdate         0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
portreserve     0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
psa             0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
qmail           0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
rdisc           0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
restorecond     0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
rsyslog         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
saslauthd       0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
spamassassin    0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
squid           0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
sshd            0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
xinetd          0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off

xinetd based services:
        chargen-dgram:  off
        chargen-stream: off
        daytime-dgram:  off
        daytime-stream: off
        discard-dgram:  off
        discard-stream: off
        echo-dgram:     off
        echo-stream:    off
        ftp_psa:        on
        poppassd_psa:   on
        rsync:          off
        smtp_psa:       on
        smtps_psa:      on
        submission_psa: on
        tcpmux-server:  off
        time-dgram:     off
        time-stream:    off

The left column contains the name of the process, to the right you have 7 columns, each one represents a Linux runlevel. Usually you will use runlevels 3,4,5. Runlevel 0 and 6 are related to shutdown (0) and reboot (6), so you should never use these.

The “on” and “off” reffer to the fact that a specific service will autostart (on) or will not autostart (off) after a reboot of the server.

The manual of chkconfig can be accesed via the command:

~ # chkconfig --help
chkconfig version 1.3.49.3 - Copyright (C) 1997-2000 Red Hat, Inc.
This may be freely redistributed under the terms of the GNU Public License.usage:   chkconfig [--list] [--type ] [name]
         chkconfig --add 
         chkconfig --del 
         chkconfig --override 
         chkconfig [--level ] [--type ]  <on|off|reset|resetpriorities>
root@nyxware~ #

To autostart a service after each reboot you would use a command like this:

chkconfig --level 345 httpd on

or just

chkconfig httpd on

To stop a process from starting after each reboot enter the command:

chkconfig httpd off

or stop it from running at a specific runlevel:

# chkconfig --level 3 httpd off
root@nyxware#

Use grep to see the status of a specific service:

~ # chkconfig --list | grep ssh
sshd            0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
root@nyxware
~ #

  * replace httpd with your desired service name.

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