NAME

     service - Start or stop an operating system server or device
     driver.


SYNOPSIS

     service up <service> [-args args]  [-dev  special]  [-period
     ticks]

     service down <pid>

     service refresh <pid>

     service rescue <dir>

     service shutdown


DESCRIPTION

     Tells the reincarnation server to start  or  stop  a  system
     service,  such  as  a  server  or  device driver. The device
     driver will be automatically restarted when it  unexpectedly
     exits,  e.g.,  if  it  is  killed  because of a bad pointer.
     Starting requires an absoluate path to the binary to be exe-
     cuted.

     When an optional  period  is  specified,  the  reincarnation
     server  sends  a  status request to the system service after
     every period. If there the response does not arrive in time,
     the  reincarnation  server will kill the misbehaving process
     and restart a new one.  The  period  must  be  specified  in
     ticks, but can be appended with 'HZ' to make it seconds.

     Stopping a system service requires the process id of a  run-
     ning  system  service. Issuing a kill command from the shell
     will not work, since  the  reincarnation  server  interprets
     this  as an unexpected exit and will automatically restart a
     fresh copy of the process. The clean way to restart  a  pro-
     cess is using the

     The rescue call can be  used  to  set  the  current  working
     directory  of  the  reincarnation server. By using a trusted
     rescue driver to shadow certain binaries in RAM the reincar-
     nation  server  can check that rescue directory for binaries
     if the normal execution of the  absolute  path  fails.  This
     allows  recovery  from  failures  of  the  root  file system
     driver.

     If the system is to be shutdown,  the  reincarnation  server
     should  know  about this event to prevent it from restarting
     services that are killed during the shutdown sequence.


EXAMPLES

     service up /sbin/is -period 5HZ
          Start the IS  server  and  check  its  status  every  5
          seconds.

     service up /usr/sbin/dp8390 -args DPETH0=pci
          Start the DP8390 ethernet driver, passing one argument.

     service down 117
          Stop the system service with process id 117.


SEE ALSO

     boot(8), monitor(8)