Changes

• Add initctl switch-root command and plugin hook point. Useful for
  systems requiring early boot tasks like LUKS unlock, LVM activation,
  or network boot before mounting the real root, by Aaron Andersen
• Set USER and LOGNAME environment variables when dropping privileges.
  Fixes issues with software like rootless Podman that determines user
  identity from environment variables, by Aaron Andersen
• Add remain:yes option for run/task oneshot commands, similar to the
  systemd RemainAfterExit=yes, by Aaron Andersen
• Clear service conditions on initctl reload NAME to ensure dependent
  services are properly updated
• Run service stop: and reload: scripts as non-blocking processes,
  preventing Finit from stalling on long-running helper scripts
• Guard shutdown with timer watchdog to detect and debug shutdown hangs
• Add ~ condition prefix to propagate reload from a dependency to the
  dependent service. E.g., <!~pid/netd> means not only a regular
  condition, but when netd reloads, restart this service too. Similar
  to systemd's directive PropagatesReloadTo=, but declared on the
  consumer side. Issue #416
• tmpfiles: add support for -E and --exclude-prefix flags
  contributed by Aaron Andersen

Fixes

• Fix #464: invalid user:group examples in cgroups.md
• Fix #466: elogind path for Debian-based distros, by Jackie Liu
• Fix #467: TTY services stuck in restart state after non-zero exit.
  Throttling logic introduced in v4.15 had duplicate checks causing
  infinite timer loop, and TTYs lacked default restart timeout
• Fix #475: clear pid condition on service collection to fix stale
  deps. When a service crashes (SIGKILL), the RUNNING → HALTED path
  bypasses STOPPING where cond_clear() is normally called, leaving
  dependents stuck
• Fix #476: dependents not restarted after SIGHUP reload of service in
  dependency chain. Add service_step_all() at end of reload cycle to
  guarantee convergence after conditions are reasserted. See also the
  new ~ condition prefix (above) to propagate reload to dependents
• Fix #478: fix <dev/foo> conditions at boot, conditions that exist
  before inotify was set up. Found and fixed by Mattias Walström
• Fix reload of SIGHUP-capable services incorrectly disrupting their
  dependents. E.g., initctl reload syslogd would stop dbus, dnsmasq,
  etc. even though syslogd handles SIGHUP gracefully and its PID persists
• Only remove managed pidfiles in service cleanup. For SysV services
  with pid:!/path, the pidfile belongs to the service itself and Finit
  should not delete it
• Silence spurious cgroup warnings for short-lived processes where the
  kernel reaps the child before cgroup assignment completes
• Fix handling of already-mounted cgroups in cgroup_init(), can occur
  after switch_root or in container environments
• Improve cgroups documentation clarity, grammar, and examples

Changes

• Add initctl switch-root command and plugin hook point. Useful for
  systems requiring early boot tasks like LUKS unlock, LVM activation,
  or network boot before mounting the real root, by Aaron Andersen
• Set USER and LOGNAME environment variables when dropping privileges.
  Fixes issues with software like rootless Podman that determines user
  identity from environment variables, by Aaron Andersen
• Add remain:yes option for run/task oneshot commands, similar to the
  systemd RemainAfterExit=yes, by Aaron Andersen
• Clear service conditions on initctl reload NAME to ensure dependent
  services are properly updated
• Run service stop: and reload: scripts as non-blocking processes,
  preventing Finit from stalling on long-running helper scripts
• Guard shutdown with timer watchdog to detect and debug shutdown hangs
• Add ~ condition prefix to propagate reload from a dependency to the
  dependent service. E.g., <!~pid/netd> means not only a regular
  condition, but when netd reloads, restart this service too. Similar
  to systemd's directive PropagatesReloadTo=, but declared on the
  consumer side. Issue #416
• tmpfiles: add support for -E and --exclude-prefix flags
  contributed by Aaron Andersen

Fixes

• Fix #464: invalid user:group examples in cgroups.md
• Fix #466: elogind path for Debian-based distros, by Jackie Liu
• Fix #467: TTY services stuck in restart state after non-zero exit.
  Throttling logic introduced in v4.15 had duplicate checks causing
  infinite timer loop, and TTYs lacked default restart timeout
• Fix #475: clear pid condition on service collection to fix stale
  deps. When a service crashes (SIGKILL), the RUNNING → HALTED path
  bypasses STOPPING where cond_clear() is normally called, leaving
  dependents stuck
• Fix #476: dependents not restarted after SIGHUP reload of service in
  dependency chain. Add service_step_all() at end of reload cycle to
  guarantee convergence after conditions are reasserted. See also the
  new ~ condition prefix (above) to propagate reload to dependents
• Fix #478: fix <dev/foo> conditions at boot, conditions that exist
  before inotify was set up. Found and fixed by Mattias Walström
• Fix reload of SIGHUP-capable services incorrectly disrupting their
  dependents. E.g., initctl reload syslogd would stop dbus, dnsmasq,
  etc. even though syslogd handles SIGHUP gracefully and its PID persists
• Only remove managed pidfiles in service cleanup. For SysV services
  with pid:!/path, the pidfile belongs to the service itself and Finit
  should not delete it
• Silence spurious cgroup warnings for short-lived processes where the
  kernel reaps the child before cgroup assignment completes
• Fix handling of already-mounted cgroups in cgroup_init(), can occur
  after switch_root or in container environments
• Improve cgroups documentation clarity, grammar, and examples

The Finit project now has a new home page: https://finit-project.github.io

Changes

• Change default reboot to SOC reset from WDT reset, issue #460
• Bump required versions of libite (v2.6.2) and libuev (v2.4.1)
• Allow longer service identifiers (:id), up to 64 characters
• Allow skipping bootstrap wait (180 sec) with Ctrl-C
• Unlock initctl commands start/stop/restart/reload service during bootstrap,
  shutdown, and reboot. Also, allow initctl reload in bootstrap. This makes
  it possible to start manual:yes type services at botostrap, for example, which
  has been a common feature request
• Add support for clone3() syscall with atomic cgroup assignment, from Linux
  kernel 5.3+. Eliminates race conditions where forked processes (e.g., logger
  processes) ended up in wrong cgroups. Falls back to fork() on older kernels
• Add support for cgroup delegation, useful for, e.g., container runtimes
  creating sub-groups for the container instance's processes
• Add cgroup leaf name override: cgroup.system,name:udevd allows using
  descriptive names like /system/udevd/ instead of filename derived names
  like /system/10-hotplug/. Syntax supports combining with other options:
  cgroup.system,name:foo,delegate,cpu.max:10000
• Add support for Linux capabilities, allowing services to run with minimal
  required privileges instead of running as root. Uses the modern IAB API
  (Inheritable, Ambient, Bounding) from libcap. By Aaron Andersen
• Add support for supplementary groups for services. Uses the syntax
  @user:group,sup1,sup2 to explicitly specify supplementary groups, in
  addition to reading group membership from /etc/group. By Aaron Andersen
• Add CPU throttled information to initctl output, showing when a service
  has been throttled due to reaching its CPU quota
• Add memory field to initctl --json status output for cgroup-enabled
  services
• Default to user and group root (UID 0) for services
• Always check that service user and group resolve to valid UID/GID pairs,
  otherwise log error and refuse to start service
• Hide cursor at boot and shutdown for cleaner visual experience
• Rename tty services early from init -> getty even though no getty
  process has been started yet. This to aid in boot timing detection using
  tools like bootchartd (BusyBox version or bootchart2 project) when Finit
  only shows "Please press Enter to activate this console."
• Services with respawn option (including TTYs) now delay retry on non-zero
  exit codes instead of immediate respawn. Prevents busy-loop when service
  fails repeatedly, which on some systems may have a crippling effect

Fixes

• Fix #453: RTC plugin fixes by Ming Liu, Atlas Copco
• Fix #455: ANSI escape sequences logged by tools using glib logging,
  caused by use of PTY instead of pipe for stdout/stderr redirection
• Fix #462: /dev/pts mounted with wrong mode (400 instead of 620), causing
  permission issues with pseudo-terminals
• getty: fix terminal scrollback issues after login on console TTY. Mouse
  scroll wheel and Shift+PgUp/PgDn sometimes would not work properly
• Fix flickering and artifacts in initctl top
• Fix file descriptor leak in initctl top
• Fix incorrect "max" limit reporting in initctl [top|cgroup|--json] output
  for child cgroups. Resolves effective limits by walking the cgroup hierarchy
• Fix issue with running Finit under bootchartd (bootchart2 project), always
  set PATH and SHELL envs early, before attempting to mount /proc et al
• Always reset ownership and permissions on TTY device nodes before launching getty
• Ensure mount/unmount skips noauto entries

The Finit project now has a new home page: https://finit-project.github.io

Changes

• Change default reboot to SOC reset from WDT reset, issue #460
• Bump required versions of libite (v2.6.2) and libuev (v2.4.1)
• Allow longer service identifiers (:id), up to 64 characters
• Allow skipping bootstrap wait (180 sec) with Ctrl-C
• Unlock initctl commands start/stop/restart/reload service during bootstrap,
  shutdown, and reboot. Also, allow initctl reload in bootstrap. This makes
  it possible to start manual:yes type services at botostrap, for example, which
  has been a common feature request
• Add support for clone3() syscall with atomic cgroup assignment, from Linux
  kernel 5.3+. Eliminates race conditions where forked processes (e.g., logger
  processes) ended up in wrong cgroups. Falls back to fork() on older kernels
• Add support for cgroup delegation, useful for, e.g., container runtimes
  creating sub-groups for the container instance's processes
• Add cgroup leaf name override: cgroup.system,name:udevd allows using
  descriptive names like /system/udevd/ instead of filename derived names
  like /system/10-hotplug/. Syntax supports combining with other options:
  cgroup.system,name:foo,delegate,cpu.max:10000
• Add support for Linux capabilities, allowing services to run with minimal
  required privileges instead of running as root. Uses the modern IAB API
  (Inheritable, Ambient, Bounding) from libcap. By Aaron Andersen
• Add support for supplementary groups for services. Uses the syntax
  @user:group,sup1,sup2 to explicitly specify supplementary groups, in
  addition to reading group membership from /etc/group. By Aaron Andersen
• Add CPU throttled information to initctl output, showing when a service
  has been throttled due to reaching its CPU quota
• Add memory field to initctl --json status output for cgroup-enabled
  services
• Default to user and group root (UID 0) for services
• Always check that service user and group resolve to valid UID/GID pairs,
  otherwise log error and refuse to start service
• Hide cursor at boot and shutdown for cleaner visual experience
• Rename tty services early from init -> getty even though no getty
  process has been started yet. This to aid in boot timing detection using
  tools like bootchartd (BusyBox version or bootchart2 project) when Finit
  only shows "Please press Enter to activate this console."
• Services with respawn option (including TTYs) now delay retry on non-zero
  exit codes instead of immediate respawn. Prevents busy-loop when service
  fails repeatedly, which on some systems may have a crippling effect

Fixes

• Fix #453: RTC plugin fixes by Ming Liu, Atlas Copco
• Fix #455: ANSI escape sequences logged by tools using glib logging,
  caused by use of PTY instead of pipe for stdout/stderr redirection
• Fix #462: /dev/pts mounted with wrong mode (400 instead of 620), causing
  permission issues with pseudo-terminals
• getty: fix terminal scrollback issues after login on console TTY. Mouse
  scroll wheel and Shift+PgUp/PgDn sometimes would not work properly
• Fix flickering and artifacts in initctl top
• Fix file descriptor leak in initctl top
• Fix incorrect "max" limit reporting in initctl [top|cgroup|--json] output
  for child cgroups. Resolves effective limits by walking the cgroup hierarchy
• Fix issue with running Finit under bootchartd (bootchart2 project), always
  set PATH and SHELL envs early, before attempting to mount /proc et al
• Always reset ownership and permissions on TTY device nodes before launching getty
• Ensure mount/unmount skips noauto entries

Changes

• Change default reboot to SOC reset from WDT reset, issue #460
• Bump required versions of libite (v2.6.2) and libuev (v2.4.1)
• Allow longer service identifiers (:id), up to 64 characters
• Allow skipping bootstrap wait (180 sec) with Ctrl-C
• Unlock initctl commands start/stop/restart/reload service during bootstrap,
  shutdown, and reboot. Also, allow initctl reload in bootstrap. This makes
  it possible to start manual:yes type services at botostrap, for example, which
  has been a common feature request
• Add support for clone3() syscall with atomic cgroup assignment, from Linux
  kernel 5.3+. Eliminates race conditions where forked processes (e.g., logger
  processes) ended up in wrong cgroups. Falls back to fork() on older kernels
• Add support for cgroup delegation, useful for, e.g., container runtimes
  creating sub-groups for the container instance's processes
• Add cgroup leaf name override: cgroup.system,name:udevd allows using
  descriptive names like /system/udevd/ instead of filename derived names
  like /system/10-hotplug/. Syntax supports combining with other options:
  cgroup.system,name:foo,delegate,cpu.max:10000

Fixes

• Fix #453: RTC plugin fixes by Ming Liu, Atlas Copco
• Fix #455: ANSI escape sequences logged by tools using glib logging,
  caused by use of PTY instead of pipe for stdout/stderr redirection
• getty: fix terminal scrollback issues after login on console TTY. Mouse
  scroll wheel and Shift+PgUp/PgDn sometimes would not work properly
• Fix flickering and artifacts in initctl top
• Fix file descriptor leak in initctl top
• Fix incorrect "max" limit reporting in initctl [top|cgroup|--json] output
  for child cgroups. Resolves effective limits by walking the cgroup hierarchy
• Ensure mount/unmount skips noauto entries

Minor bug fix release.

Changes

• Add exit status/signal info when a process dies, by Mattias Berthel
• Extend service kill:SEC to support up to 300 sec.
• Extend norespawn debug to cover service_retry()
• Build without libsystemd replacement by default

Fixes

• Fix #449: ALSA plugin fail-to-build-from-source
• Fix sysv stop command process environment, should be same as start
• Fix state machine ordering issue: enter new config generation after
  services disabled in previous generation have been stopped

Changes

• initctl signal command has been renamed to initctl kill
• Drop xz tarballs from distribution, gzip is good enough
• New tmpfiles stand-alone program, refactored from the existing
  tmpfiles.d support in Finit, by Aaron Andersen, PR #439
  • --remove command runs only the r and R rules
  • --create is used for all other cases (bootstrap)
• All notify:systemd services now log with logit by default. This
  because it supports systemd style log severity, leading "<NUM>"
• Support for quoted arguments to run/task/service options, issue #441
• Clear command line arguments after bootstrap, issue #442
• Support for stop:'script [args]' to stop a sysv/service instead of
  the common foo-stop-start.sh stop, or SIGTERM, issue #412
• Support for reload:'script [args]' to trigger a configuration
  reload in a service, issue #446

Fixes

• Fix #437: buffer overflow in initctl status
• Fix #438: support very long command lines in initctl ps/top
• Fix #440: broken systemd and s6 readiness notification
• Fix #443: build warnings, by Ming Liu, Atlas Copco
• Fix #444: handle loooooong arguments, by Aaron Andersen
• Fix service's redirected stdout/stderr log priority in fallback mode,
  when neither logger or logit is available. This fix also checks
  for systemd style log severity, leading "<NUM>" in log messages
• Ensure API socket used by initctl is non-blocking (event loop)

Changes

• Drop xz tarballs from distribution, gzip is good enough
• New tmpfiles stand-alone program, refactored from the existing
  tmpfiles.d support in Finit, by Aaron Andersen, PR #439
  • --remove command runs only the r and R rules
  • --create is used for all other cases (bootstrap)
• All notify:systemd services now log with logit by default. This
  because it supports systemd style log severity, leading "<NUM>"
• Support for quoted arguments to run/task/service options, issue #441
• Clear command line arguments after bootstrap, issue #442
• Support for stop:'script [args]' to stop a sysv/service instead of
  the common foo-stop-start.sh stop, or SIGTERM, issue #412
• Support for reload:'script [args]' to trigger a configuration
  reload in a service, issue #446

Fixes

• Fix #437: buffer overflow in initctl status
• Fix #438: support very long command lines in initctl ps/top
• Fix #440: broken systemd and s6 readiness notification
• Fix #443: build warnings, by Ming Liu, Atlas Copco
• Fix #444: handle loooooong arguments, by Aaron Andersen
• Fix service's redirected stdout/stderr log priority in fallback mode,
  when neither logger or logit is available. This fix also checks
  for systemd style log severity, leading "<NUM>" in log messages
• Ensure API socket used by initctl is non-blocking (event loop)

Changes

• Improve notify:s6 readiness compatibility, by Aaron Andersen
• Update runparts usage text

Fixes

• Fix variable overloading in urandom plugin
• Fix buffer overwrite in urandom plugin, reported by Aaron Andersen

Changes

• Update documentation regarding transition from runlevel S to 2, how
  run/tasks must "complete" before Finit can move to the next runlevel
• Improve argument handling in bundled getty when launching login

Fixes

• Fix #432: allow services in setup state to be stopped. This fixes
  a serious blocker introduced in 4.10 that prevented systems from
  being rebooted when any service was in this state
• Fix fallback SIGKILL when stopping a service with SIGTERM does
  not work. This fixes a serious issue with services not responding to
  the default SIGTERM
• Fix pre/post/ready/cleanup script execution if service has an
  optional env:file (leading -)
• Fix blocked signals for pre/post/ready/cleanup scripts preventing
  normal shutdown when a service/sysv is stopped in its setup state
• Fix issue where a pre:script creates a PID file in /run cause the
  service to move from setup state to running. Any svc_t in setup,
  teardown, or cleanup state should be ignored in the pidfile plugin