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QNX BACKGROUND INFORMATION
THE SYSTEM INITIALIZATION FILE
D - 2
I-E96-107-2N
®
The “sinit” utility will attempt to open “sysinit” only if it cannot
open the first file. If it can open neither file, “sinit” terminates
and no system initialization will be performed. If the open suc-
ceeds, “sinit” replaces itself with the Shell “/bin/sh” and
passes it the name of the file that “sinit” opened.
Each of the system initialization files that may be executed by
“sinit” serves a particular purpose:
•
“sysinit.
node
”.
•
“sysinit”.
•
“altsysinit”.
“sysinit.node”
This file contains the custom commands needed to set up the
environment and services for your machine, allowing every
node in the network to have its own setup. The node suffix,
which is used by “sinit”, is the logical node ID of your machine.
This is a value between one and the number of nodes in your
network.
A sysinit.1 file is always created by the install program. The
file’s initial contents reflect the installation parameters deter-
mined by installsys.
Nodes that boot over the network from a server (i.e., worksta-
tions) initially use the default “sysinit” file for booting. To cus-
tomize a workstation’s setup, you have to create a
“sysinit.
node
” file on the boot server for that workstation. You
can start with the “sysinit.
node”
file for another node with a
similar configuration, or you can simply make a copy of the
default “sysinit” file, which you may then modify:
([cp /etc/config/sysinit /etc/config/sysinit].node)
The “usrinit.
node
” file is executed just before
pcv tasks
are
started. The “postinit.
node
” file is executed just after
pcv tasks
have been started.
Remember that the node suffix must be the logical node ID of
the workstation you are customizing.
“sysinit”
This file is executed if a “sysinit.
node
” file is not present. It
should contain services that will work on any machine. QNX
ships a generic file that should be able to boot any machine.
We recommend that you make few or no modifications to this
file.
The sysinit file is automatically put on your system during the
installation.
CAUTION
Never use the “vedit” editor to modify system files. Use of this
editor can result in system corruption. Instead use the “qed”
editor.