s6-frontend
Software
skarnet.org

The s6-frontend-alias program

s6-frontend-alias is a multicall binary that implements functionality from the daemontools package, and/or from the runit package, whenever possible, via s6 commands.

Interface

     s6-frontend-alias [ -v ] daemontools_command args...
     s6-frontend-alias [ -v ] runit_command args...
     daemontools_command args...
     runit_command args...

s6-frontend-alias can be called as is: then it takes the command name as its argument. Or, it can be called directly as the wanted command. It finds the closest approximation of the command in the s6 world, and executes into it. When it cannot find a suitable idiomatic s6 version of the wanted command, it prints an explanatory message to stderr, then exits 100.

s6-frontend-alias is only built when at least one of the --enable-alias-daemontools and --enable-alias-runit options have been given to configure at build time.

When the --enable-alias-daemontools option has been given, the following commands are created at installation time as symbolic links to s6-frontend-alias, which recognizes them:

• envdir
• envuidgid
• fghack
• multilog
• pgrphack
• readproctitle
• setlock
• setuidgid
• softlimit
• supervise
• svc
• svok
• svscan
• svscanboot
• svstat
• tai64n
• tai64nlocal

When the --enable-alias-runit option has been given, the following commands are created at installation time as symbolic links to s6-frontend-alias, which recognizes them:

• runit
• runit-init
• runsvdir
• runsvchdir
• runsv
• svlogd
• utmpset

(The chpst and sv runit commands are recognized by s6-frontend-alias, but handled by specific programs, s6-frontend-alias-chpst and s6-frontend-alias-sv, and the chpst and sv symbolic links point directly to those programs.)

Options

• -v : verbose. When s6-frontend-alias is called under its own name and this option is given, it prints an explanatory message to stderr before executing into the corresponding idiomatic s6 command.

Notes

• s6-frontend-alias is a convenience program, written so that daemontools and runit users can keep using their habits while transitioning to s6. However, it is not an "official" interface, because s6 is strictly more powerful than daemontools, and has a few significant fundamental differences with runit. Daemontools and runit users are still encouraged to learn and get used to the native s6 commands.