status Report the current status of the service, and the appendant log service if available, to standard
output.
up If the service is not running, start it. If the service stops, restart it.
down If the service is running, send it the TERM signal, and the CONT signal. If ./run exits, start
./finish if it exists. After it stops, do not restart service.
once If the service is not running, start it. Do not restart it if it stops.
pauseconthupalarminterruptquit12termkill
If the service is running, send it the STOP, CONT, HUP, ALRM, INT, QUIT, USR1, USR2, TERM, or KILL
signal respectively.
exit If the service is running, send it the TERM signal, and the CONT signal. Do not restart the
service. If the service is down, and no log service exists, runsv(8) exits. If the service is
down and a log service exists, runsv(8) closes the standard input of the log service and waits for
it to terminate. If the log service is down, runsv(8) exits. This command is ignored if it is
given to an appendant log service.
sv actually looks only at the first character of these commands.
CommandscompatibletoLSBinitscriptactionsstatus Same as status.
start Same as up, but wait up to 7 seconds for the command to take effect. Then report the status or
timeout. If the script ./check exists in the service directory, sv runs this script to check
whether the service is up and available; it's considered to be available if ./check exits with 0.
stop Same as down, but wait up to 7 seconds for the service to become down. Then report the status or
timeout.
reload Same as hup, and additionally report the status afterwards.
restart
Send the commands term, cont, and up to the service, and wait up to 7 seconds for the service to
restart. Then report the status or timeout. If the script ./check exists in the service
directory, sv runs this script to check whether the service is up and available again; it's
considered to be available if ./check exits with 0.
shutdown
Same as exit, but wait up to 7 seconds for the runsv(8) process to terminate. Then report the
status or timeout.
force-stop
Same as down, but wait up to 7 seconds for the service to become down. Then report the status,
and on timeout send the service the kill command.
force-reload
Send the service the term and cont commands, and wait up to 7 seconds for the service to restart.
Then report the status, and on timeout send the service the kill command.
force-restart
Send the service the term, cont and up commands, and wait up to 7 seconds for the service to
restart. Then report the status, and on timeout send the service the kill command. If the script
./check exists in the service directory, sv runs this script to check whether the service is up
and available again; it's considered to be available if ./check exits with 0.
force-shutdown
Same as exit, but wait up to 7 seconds for the runsv(8) process to terminate. Then report the
status, and on timeout send the service the kill command.
try-restart
if the service is running, send it the term and cont commands, and wait up to 7 seconds for the
service to restart. Then report the status or timeout.
AdditionalCommandscheck Check for the service to be in the state that's been requested. Wait up to 7 seconds for the
service to reach the requested state, then report the status or timeout. If the requested state
of the service is up, and the script ./check exists in the service directory, sv runs this script
to check whether the service is up and running; it's considered to be up if ./check exits with 0.