OpenRC 0.62 (*) introduces user services as a new feature. The functionality
is documented on the wiki [0] and has a similar interface to conventional
system-wide services.
Support for user services is enabled by default via the pam_openrc module in sys-auth/pambase, but it can be disabled via an OpenRC configuration option as described below.
Some ebuilds already provide OpenRC user service init scripts, like app-editors/emacs. More will follow, but use of user services is optional.
Requirements ============
User services currently require the XDG_RUNTIME_DIR environment variable to be set, which may be done via sys-auth/elogind, sys-apps/systemd, or manually via e.g. pam_env. In the future, pam_xdg may be packaged [1] as another option.
If the XDG_RUNTIME_DIR environment variable isn't set and user services have not been disabled, the setup will fail gracefully but will appear in syslog and rc-update.
Opting-out of user services ===========================
If users wish to disable OpenRC user services, they can set rc_autostart_user="NO" in /etc/rc.conf:
... # Set to "NO" if you don't want pam_openrc autostarting user services. This # effectively disables the pam module, without the need of removing it from # the pam configuration files. rc_autostart_user="NO" ...
~/.profile and friends ======================
After stabilization, some users reported hangs when logging in [2]. None were reported during the extensive period of testing in ~arch or by other distributions who deployed newer versions of OpenRC. User services require that ~/.profile, ~/.bash_profile run safely under a non-interactive shell.
Commands in these shell startup files may be executed by a non-interactive shell so commands that require a TTY, reading from stdin, and so on should be guarded with a check for TTY like:
if [ -t 0 ] ; then
Please make sure to check your shell startup files for suspicious constructs like the following:
... if [ -x /usr/bin/keychain ] ; then # BAD
... replacing them with:
... if [ -t 0 ] && [ -x /usr/bin/keychain ] ; then # GOOD
(*) User services were originally in sys-apps/openrc-navi and later as
Support for user services is enabled by default via the pam_openrc module in sys-auth/pambase, but it can be disabled via an OpenRC configuration option as described below.
Some ebuilds already provide OpenRC user service init scripts, like app-editors/emacs. More will follow, but use of user services is optional.
Requirements ============
User services currently require the XDG_RUNTIME_DIR environment variable to be set, which may be done via sys-auth/elogind, sys-apps/systemd, or manually via e.g. pam_env. In the future, pam_xdg may be packaged [1] as another option.
If the XDG_RUNTIME_DIR environment variable isn't set and user services have not been disabled, the setup will fail gracefully but will appear in syslog and rc-update.
Opting-out of user services ===========================
If users wish to disable OpenRC user services, they can set rc_autostart_user="NO" in /etc/rc.conf:
... # Set to "NO" if you don't want pam_openrc autostarting user services. This # effectively disables the pam module, without the need of removing it from # the pam configuration files. rc_autostart_user="NO" ...
~/.profile and friends ======================
After stabilization, some users reported hangs when logging in [2]. None were reported during the extensive period of testing in ~arch or by other distributions who deployed newer versions of OpenRC. User services require that ~/.profile, ~/.bash_profile run safely under a non-interactive shell.
Commands in these shell startup files may be executed by a non-interactive shell so commands that require a TTY, reading from stdin, and so on should be guarded with a check for TTY like:
if [ -t 0 ] ; then
# Interactive commands here
...
Please make sure to check your shell startup files for suspicious constructs like the following:
... if [ -x /usr/bin/keychain ] ; then # BAD
keychain ...
... replacing them with:
... if [ -t 0 ] && [ -x /usr/bin/keychain ] ; then # GOOD
keychain ...
(*) User services were originally in sys-apps/openrc-navi and later as
part of >= OpenRC 0.62. The functionality was declared stable with 0.62.6
which was the first version with User Services stabled in Gentoo.