vtrd(1)

NAME

vtrd - MSB parent daemon

SYNOPSIS

/usr/vtr/bin/vtrd [ -c config-file ] [ -d core-dir ]: [ -f ] [ -l log-options ] [ -L log-file ] [ -s log-level ]; [ -v log-level ]

DESCRIPTION

The MSB parent daemon is the top-level process of the MSB platform software. vtrd is responsible for starting, stopping, monitoring, and restarting MSB processes in the event of a crash. Under normal circumstances, vtrd is not run directly. Use vtrstart to start the MSB. Site-dependent options and arguments for vtrd should be placed in the file /usr/vtr/config/vtrd.options which vtrstart passes to vtrd.

If vtrd receives a SIGTERM signal, it will terminate all the processes it is managing, sending each its respective termination signal. Once the processes have all terminated, vtrd exits. Under normal circumstances, however, vtrd is not directly stopped in this manner. Use vtrstop to stop the MSB system.

vtrd has the following options:

-D: Debug mode. Run in the foreground. Ordinarily, vtrd places itself in the background when it is started.

-c config-file: Read the configuration from config-file. The format of the configuration file is described below. The default is /usr/vtr/config/vtrd.conf.

-d core-dir: Place process core files under the directory core-dir. When a process that vtrd has started dumps core, the core file is saved in a directory under core-dir with the same name as the process. The default is /usr/vtr/crash.

-f log-level: Set the maximum log message priority for the log file to Info+log-level. The default is 0, meaning all log messages up to and including Info priority are written to the log file.

-F log-file: Write the log file to log-file. Without this option, no log file is written, even if the -f option is specified.

-s log-level: Set the maximum log message priority for SYSLOG to Info+log-level. The default is 0, meaning all log messages up to and including Info priority are written to SYSLOG.

-v log-level: Set the maximum log message priority for stdout to Info+log-level. The default is 0, meaning all log messages up to and including Info priority are written to stdout.

CONFIGURATION FILE FORMAT

The vtrd configuration file, /usr/vtr/config/vtrd.conf, comprises one or more configuration lines which specify what processes vtrd manages and how they are to be started and stopped.

A line that begins with a pound-sign (#) is treated as a comment and ignored. All blank lines are ignored.

A configuration line consists of the following whitespace- delimited fields:

process name
bound CPU number
scheduling priority
minimum retry interval
maximum retry interval
termination signal
command

These fields have the following meanings:

process name: Used for logging purposes and for saving core files.

bound CPU number: If specified, the process will be assigned to run only on the specified CPU. Use an asterisk (*) to specify that the process can run on any CPU.

scheduling priority: If specified, the process will be assigned to the real-time FIFO scheduler with the specified priority. Use an asterisk (*) to specify that the process will inherit the same scheduling priority as vtrd.

minimum retry interval: Specifies the minimum interval (in milliseconds) between attempts to restart the process if it exits for any reason. If the process exits, vtrd will wait this long before restarting it. If it exits again, vtrd will extend the wait before restarting the process each time. Use an asterisk (*) to specify the vtrd default which is currently 500ms (1/2 sec).

maximum retry interval: Specifies the maximum interval (in milliseconds) between attempts to restart the process if it exits for any reason. If the process repeatedly exits, vtrd will wait for longer periods of time between restart attempts. When the wait period reaches the limit specified here, it will not be extended. Use an asterisk (*) to specify the vtrd default which is currently 120000ms (2 minutes).

termination signal: Specifies the signal to be used to stop the process when vtrd is terminated. A signal number may be specified (e.g., 15) or a signal name (e.g., SIGTERM or TERM).

command: Specifies the executable file and command-line arguments for the process. If the command contains any spaces or other whitespace, enclose the command in double quotation marks.

LOGGING

MSB logs to several destinations. The -f, -s, and -v options are used to adjust the lower bound on the priority of messages logged to each of the log file, system log, and stdout.

The -F option can be used to set the name of the log file (the default is no log file). If the -t option is used, the log file is truncated each time it is opened; otherwise, the new log messages are appended to the existing log file.