Distro Recommendations

Finit supports two directory layouts for managing service configurations:

1. Simple layout - all configuration files directly in /etc/finit.d/
2. Distro layout - separate available/ and enabled/ directories

The distro layout is recommended for distributions that need clear separation between installed and enabled services, and want to use the initctl enable/disable commands for service management.

Simple Layout

Finit supports using a flat directory structure:

    /etc/
      |-- finit.d/              -- All enabled services
      |    |-- lighttpd.conf
      |     `- *.conf
      |-- finit.conf            -- Bootstrap tasks and services
      :

In this layout, you enable a service by placing its .conf file in /etc/finit.d/ and disable it by removing the file. This works well for embedded systems or custom setups where services are managed by other tools or generated dynamically.

No tooling support

The initctl enable/disable commands do not work with this layout. You must manually manage files in /etc/finit.d/.

Distro Layout

Distributions typically want clearer separation between available (installed) and enabled services. Finit supports this through the available/ and enabled/ subdirectories:

    /etc/
      |-- finit.d/
      |    |-- available/      -- Installed but disabled services
      |    |    |-- httpd.conf
      |    |    |-- ntpd.conf
      |    |    `-- sshd.conf
      |    |-- enabled/        -- Enabled services (symlinks)
      |    |     `- sshd.conf  -- Symlink to ../available/sshd.conf
      |-- finit.conf           -- Bootstrap tasks and services
      :

In this layout: - available/ contains all installed service configurations - enabled/ contains symlinks to configurations that should start at boot - Services are enabled/disabled by creating/removing symlinks

Recommended

This is the recommended layout. In fact, the initctl enable/disable commands require this layout with both available/ and enabled/ directories and will not work without it.

Managing Services with initctl

When using the distro layout, the initctl tool provides convenient commands for managing service configurations:

   list              List all .conf in /etc/finit.d/
   enable   <CONF>   Enable .conf by creating symlink in enabled/
   disable  <CONF>   Disable .conf by removing symlink from enabled/
   reload            Reload *.conf in /etc/finit.d/ (activate changes)

Example usage:

# Enable sshd (creates enabled/sshd.conf -> ../available/sshd.conf)
initctl enable sshd

# Disable httpd (removes enabled/httpd.conf symlink)
initctl disable httpd

# Apply changes (reload configuration and start/stop services)
initctl reload

The .conf suffix is optional - initctl adds it automatically if missing.

Remember initctl reload

Changes made with enable/disable take effect only after running initctl reload, unless Finit was built with --enable-auto-reload which automatically detects and applies configuration changes.

Service Overrides

The initctl tool only operates on symlinks in the enabled/ directory. If you place a regular (non-symlink) .conf file directly in the parent directory (e.g., /etc/finit.d/), initctl will ignore it. This allows you to create system-level overrides that cannot be accidentally disabled by package management tools.

Customizing Directory Paths

Distributions can customize the directory names and locations at build time using the Finit configure script:

./configure --with-rcsd=/etc/init.d --with-config=/etc/init.d/init.conf

This changes the default /etc/finit.d/ to /etc/init.d/ and moves the bootstrap configuration file accordingly.

Remember to set --prefix

Remember to set --prefix and related options appropriately. The default prefix is /usr/local, which is likely not what you want for a system init. See the build documentation for details.

Example with custom paths:

    /etc/
      |-- init.d/
      |    |-- available/      -- Installed services
      |    |    |-- httpd.conf
      |    |    |-- ntpd.conf
      |    |    `-- sshd.conf
      |    |-- enabled/        -- Enabled services (symlinks)
      |    |     `- sshd.conf  -- Symlink to ../available/sshd.conf
      |     `- init.conf       -- Bootstrap tasks and services
      :

Notice how both the service directory and bootstrap configuration file now use the custom /etc/init.d/ path specified at build time.