Linux boots

Linux boots

There is no command to execute in the preceding initdefault example because
a command doesn't make sense in the context of setting the default runlevel.
Look a little further down in inittab, until you see a line like this:

l5:5:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 5

This line triggers most of the system configuration and services through the rc*.d
and init.d directories. You can see that init is set to execute a command called /etc/rc.d/rc 5
when in runlevel 5. The wait action tells when and how init runs the command: run rc 5
once when entering runlevel 5, and then wait for this command to finish before doing anything else





There are several different actions in addition to initdefault and wait, especially
pertaining to power management, and the inittab(5) manual page tells you all about them.
The ones that you're most likely to encounter are explained in the following sections.

respawn

The respawn action causes init to run the command that follows,
and if the command finishes executing, to run it again. You're likely
to see something similar to this line in your inittab file:

1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty1

The getty programs provide login prompts. The preceding line is for the first
virtual console (/dev/tty1), the one you see when you press ALT-F1 or CONTROL-ALT-F1.
The respawn action brings the login prompt back after you log out.