C_INIT Actor

The C_INIT actor provides administrative commands for the following:

• file system management, such as partitioning a disk and mounting a file system. This is described in Chapter 3, Introduction to ChorusOS File System Administration.

• network configuration, such as defining IP addresses and initializing network interfaces. This is described in Part III.

• device management, such as binding a high level service (file system, networking, tty management) to an actual device driver. This is described in "Special Device Driver Files".

Here are the most frequently used C_INIT commands:

• mknod: defines special device files.

• mkdev: binds high level services to an instance of a device driver.

• mount, umount: mounts and unmounts file systems.

• arun: launches executables.

• ifconfig: defines IP addresses.

• route, rarp, netstat, ppp, ping: miscellaneous networking commands.

• memstat, chorusStat: prints system statistics.

• setenv, unsetenv, echo, help, sleep, reboot, shutdown: miscellaneous system commands.

• rshd, console, source: specifies the device from which commands can be accepted:

  • rshd: from a host through rsh.

  • console: from system console.

  • source: from a file.

See C_INIT(1M) for a complete description.

These commands are invoked at system start-up, described in the following section, and later during the life of the system. During the life of the system, the C_INIT actor executes commands from the system console, or from a remote host through rsh.