RC.CONF(8)

NAME
rc.conf, rc.conf.local - system daemon configuration database

DESCRIPTION
This file contains a series of Bourne-shell syntax assignments that are used to configure the system daemons. It is not read by the kernel, but is sourced by various other files in the /etc/rc.* series in order to set shell variables used therein to control the behaviour of the scripts.

It is advisable to leave the /etc/rc.conf file untouched, and instead create and edit a new /etc/rc.conf.local file. Variables set in this file will override variables previously set in /etc/rc.conf.

There are four sections in this file. The first is used to turn features on or off. For example, whether the system runs the dhcpd daemon is determined by the line in this section

    dhcpd_flags=NO		# for normal use: ""

If this line is edited to contain some valid dhcpd daemon command-line flags, such as

    dhcpd_flags="-A abandoned"	# for normal use: ""

then the dhcpd daemon will be started with those options.

The second section contains some other programs that can either be run or not, but that don't need options. They can be set to YES or NO. For example, the line

    nfs_server=NO

prevents the NFS server daemons from starting. To run NFS, just change this line's value from NO to YES, and also make whatever changes are needed for the server to have something to do (set up the exports(5) file etc.).

The third section contains values that parameterize servers started by one of the first two sections, and are ignored if the corresponding server is not running. For example, if nfs_server, is enabled, then the line

    nfsd_flags="-tun 4"

provides command-line arguments for the NFS server.

This particular line instructs nfsd(8) to start four copies of the server. On a busy file server, 8 (or more) copies are recommended.

The fourth section contains the pkg_scripts variable, responsible for starting and stopping rc.d(8) scripts installed by packages in the specified order. For example, the following line

    pkg_scripts="dbus_daemon cupsd"

will run /etc/rc.d/dbus_daemon then /etc/rc.d/cupsd with the start argument at boot time and in reverse order with the stop argument at shutdown.

SEE ALSO
init(8), intro(8), rc(8)

HISTORY
The rc.conf file first appeared in OpenBSD 2.2.