rather than being sloppy and continually fudging the distinction between run level "s/S" (single-user mode) and run level 1, i'd like to really appreciate the differences.
first, given that it's common to shut down from multi-user mode to what most people call single-user mode, most people will type "init 1". so far, so good. this will, based on the contents of /etc/inittab, kill the services referred to in /etc/rc1.d and, at the very end, run two start scripts: S00single S17keytable so, from this perspective, moving to run level 1 effectively shuts down services and just moves to single user mode (throwing in the keytable script at the end). however, running "init s" is quite different, since it bypasses the shutting down of services. according to the init man page, you're not really supposed to run "init s" manually, and i can that's a reason why. i tried it from run level 3, and not surprisingly, none of the services were terminated. what about the difference between going to run level 1 as opposed to run level S at boot time, by editing the boot line at the GRUB prompt? if you go to run level "1", that will eventually cause a read of /etc/inittab to see what's involved in going to that run level. again, so far, so good. but what about going to run level "s"? /etc/inittab doesn't define what to do with that run level, and the man page for init seems to suggest that you can go to "s" without the need for /etc/inittab. this is useful to know if you trash your /etc/inittab file, and it suggests that you can get around this by going to run level "s" at boot time, then repairing/ restoring /etc/inittab. but not so fast. i tried that, and it seemed clear that, even booting to run level "s", the file /etc/rc.sysinit listed in /etc/inittab was being invoked, so /etc/inittab appears to still be necessary. anyway, you get the idea. i just want to appreciate the subtle (and not so subtle) differences, and when to use each. rday -- Robert P. J. Day Eno River Technologies Unix, Linux and Open Source training Waterloo, Ontario www.enoriver.com -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
