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+# The Init Daemon
+
+## Initial Ram Disk to Rootfs transition
+
+After mounting the root filesystem, either the kernel or the initial ram disk
+startup process is expected to exec the init program from the root filesystem.
+
+At the current time, there is no support for re-scanning the service files
+*yet*, so when init is started, the final configuration in `/etc/init.d` has to
+be present. As a result, we currently cannot perform mounting of `/etc/` or
+packing init into the initial ram disk and doing the rootfs transition.
+
+Also, as a result of this, changing the service configuration requires a system
+reboot to be effective.
+
+This _will_ change in the future.
+
+
+## Service Types and Targets
+
+A service file has a *type*, specifying whether the service should be run once
+or restarted when it terminates and a *target*, specifying when the service
+should be run.
+
+The *target* is similar to a runlevel in System V init. The init daemon
+currently knows about the following targets:
+
+* boot
+* reboot
+* shutdown
+
+When `init` is run, it starts all the services for the `boot` target. From the
+`boot` target it can transition to any other target and execute the services
+for the specified target.
+
+The `reboot` and `shutdown` targets cannot transition to any other target and
+when invoked, cause initd to drop everything else it intended to do.
+
+For the `reboot` and `shutdown` targets, respawn type processes are no longer
+restarted when they terminate and once all services have been executed, the
+`init` program performs a hard system reboot or power off.
+
+The init program tries to capture the `CTRL+ALT+DELETE` key sequence (or its
+local equivalent) and transitions to the reboot target if pressed.
+
+
+## Service Configuration Rescan
+
+TBD
+
+
+## Control Socket and Signals
+
+The `init` program catches the following signals:
+
+* `SIGCHLD`
+* `SIGINT`
+* `SIGTERM`
+
+The `SIGCHLD` handler implements standard process reaping. If a terminated
+process belongs to one of the supervised services, the configured action is
+taken (e.g. restarting it).
+
+When `SIGINT` is caugth, `init` transitions to the `reboot` target. Similarly,
+`SIGTERM` causes `init` to transition to the `shutdown` target.
+
+
+For more complex tasks, `init` creates a control socket that the command line
+tools included in this package can use. For the time being, the control socket
+can only tell the init daemon to transition to the `reboot` or `shutdown`
+target.