# phpman > info > runsv [runsv(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/runsv/8/markdown) System Manager's Manual [runsv(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/runsv/8/markdown) NAME runsv - starts and monitors a service and optionally an appendant log service SYNOPSIS runsv service DESCRIPTION service must be a directory. runsv switches to the directory service and starts ./run. If ./run ex- its and ./finish exists, runsv starts ./finish. If ./finish doesn't exist or ./finish exits, runsv restarts ./run. If ./run or ./finish exit immediately, runsv waits a second before starting ./finish or restarting ./run. Two arguments are given to ./finish. The first one is ./run's exit code, or -1 if ./run didn't exit normally. The second one is the least significant byte of the exit status as determined by [waitpid(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/waitpid/2/markdown); for instance it is 0 if ./run exited normally, and the signal number if ./run was terminated by a signal. If runsv cannot start ./run for some reason, the exit code is 111 and the status is 0. If the file service/down exists, runsv does not start ./run immedi- ately. The control interface (see below) can be used to start the ser- vice and to give other commands to runsv. If the directory service/log exists, runsv creates a pipe, redirects service/run's and service/finish's standard output to the pipe, switches to the directory service/log and starts ./run script. The standard input of the log service is redirected to read from the pipe. runsv maintains status information in a binary format (compatible to the daemontools' supervise program) in service/supervise/status and service/log/supervise/status, and in a human-readable format in ser- vice/supervise/stat, service/log/supervise/stat, service/supervise/pid, service/log/supervise/pid. CONTROL The named pipes service/supervise/control, and (optionally) ser- vice/log/supervise/control are provided to give commands to runsv. You can use [sv(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sv/8/markdown) to control the service or just write one of the following characters to the named pipe: u Up. If the service is not running, start it. If the service stops, restart it. d Down. If the service is running, send it a TERM signal, and then a CONT signal. If ./run exits, start ./finish if it ex- ists. After it stops, do not restart service. o Once. If the service is not running, start it. Do not restart it if it stops. p Pause. If the service is running, send it a STOP signal. c Continue. If the service is running, send it a CONT signal. h Hangup. If the service is running, send it a HUP signal. a Alarm. If the service is running, send it a ALRM signal. i Interrupt. If the service is running, send it a INT signal. q Quit. If the service is running, send it a QUIT signal. 1 User-defined 1. If the service is running, send it a USR1 sig- nal. 2 User-defined 2. If the service is running, send it a USR2 sig- nal. t Terminate. If the service is running, send it a TERM signal. k Kill. If the service is running, send it a KILL signal. x Exit. If the service is running, send it a TERM signal, and then a CONT signal. Do not restart the service. If the service is down, and no log service exists, runsv exits. If the service is down and a log service exists, runsv closes the standard in- put of the log service, and waits for it to terminate. If the log service is down, runsv exits. This command is ignored if it is given to service/log/supervise/control. Example: to send a TERM signal to the socklog-unix service, either do # sv term /etc/service/socklog-unix or # printf t >/etc/service/socklog-unix/supervise/control [printf(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/printf/1/markdown) usually blocks if no runsv process is running in the service directory. CUSTOMIZE CONTROL For each control character c sent to the control pipe, runsv first checks if service/control/c exists and is executable. If so, it starts service/control/c and waits for it to terminate, before interpreting the command. If the program exits with return code 0, runsv refrains from sending the service the corresponding signal. The command o is always considered as command u. On command d first service/control/t is checked, and then service/control/d. On command x first ser- vice/control/t is checked, and then service/control/x. The control of the optional log service cannot be customized. SIGNALS If runsv receives a TERM signal, it acts as if the character x was written to the control pipe. EXIT CODES runsv exits 111 on an error on startup or if another runsv is running in service. runsv exits 0 if it was told to exit. SEE ALSO [sv(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sv/8/markdown), [chpst(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/chpst/8/markdown), [svlogd(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/svlogd/8/markdown), [runit(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/runit/8/markdown), [runit-init(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/runit-init/8/markdown), [runsvdir(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/runsvdir/8/markdown), [runsvchdir(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/runsvchdir/8/markdown), [utmpset(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/utmpset/8/markdown) AUTHOR Gerrit Pape <> [runsv(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/runsv/8/markdown)