How to Start/Stop/Restart Services on Alpine Linux

osetc @ November 30, 2018 ALPINE LINUX

This post will guide you how to start/restart/stop services on your Alpine Linux. How do I enable service when the Alpine Linux starts up.

What is Alpine Linux
Start Service on Alpine Linux
Stop Service on Alpine Linux
Restart Service on Alpine Linux
Configure Services to Start Automatically
Show List of run levels on Alpine Linux
Available Runlevels For Alpine Linux
Change to A Different Runlevel
More Information about rc*

What is Alpine Linux

Alpine Linux is a Linux distribution based on musl and BusyBox, primarily designed for “power users who appreciate security, simplicity and resource efficiency”. It uses a hardened kernel and compiles all user space binaries as position-independent executables with stack-smashing protection.
Alpine Linux uses OpenRC for its init system.

Start Service on Alpine Linux

If you are using Alpine Linux, and you want to start a service, such as: httpd, you can type the following command:

# /etc/init.d/httpd start

# rc-service httpd start

Stop Service on Alpine Linux

If you want to stop a specific service on your Alpine Linux server, you can use one of the following command:

# /etc/init.d/httpd stop

# rc-service httpd stop

Restart Service on Alpine Linux

If you modified some configuration files (httpd.conf), and then you need to restart the service, such as: httpd, just type the following command:

#/etc/init.d/httpd restart

# rc-service httpd restart

Configure Services to Start Automatically

If you want to enable services when alpine Linux starts up, you can the following command:

# rc-update add <service_name> <runlevel>

Enable httpd service at boot time, type:

#rc-update add httpd boot

Of course, you can also disable service at boot time, just type the following command:

# rc-update del <service_name> <runlevel>
# rc-update del httpd boot

Show List of run levels on Alpine Linux

If you want to show the list of all run levels on your Alpine Linux, type the following command:

# rc-status --list

Outputs:

#rc-status --list
boot
nonetwork
default
sysinit
shutdown

Available Runlevels For Alpine Linux

The available runlevels are:

● default – Used if no runlevel is specified. (This is generally the runlevel you want to add services to.)

● hotplugged

● manual

The special runlevels are:

● sysinit – Brings up any system specific stuff such as /dev, /proc and optionally /sys for Linux based systems. It also mounts /lib/rc/init.d as a ramdisk using tmpfs where available unless / is mounted rw at boot. rc uses /lib/rc/init.d to hold state information about the services it runs. sysinit always runs when the host first starts and should not be run again.

● boot – Generally the only services you should add to the boot runlevel are those which deal with the mounting of filesystems, set the initial state of attached peripherals and logging. Hotplugged services are added to the boot runlevel by the system. All services in the boot and sysinit runlevels are automatically included in all other runlevels except for those listed here.

● single – Stops all services except for those in the sysinit runlevel.

● reboot – Changes to the shutdown runlevel and then reboots the host.

● shutdown – Changes to the shutdown runlevel and then halts the host.

Change to A Differenet Runlevel

If you want to change the current runlevel to another, just use the rc command with a specific runlevel, type:

# rc boot
# rc single

More Information about rc-update/rc-status/rc-service/rc commands

If you want to get more help for those command (rc-update, rc-status, rc-service,rc), just use the following commands:

#rc-update --help
#rc-status --help
#rc-service --help
#rc --help