Files
finit/doc
Joachim Wiberg 61b0e0f3e6 Fix #420: run services inside a PAM session
Apply a PAM session to run/task/sysv/services Finit starts, pam_limits
above all, so a service running as a given user picks up that user's
limits the way a login does.

Add a new `pam` setting for the new block format (only), like the
per-service directories, naming a file in /etc/pam.d:

    service weston {
        user    = "weston"
        pam     = "weston-autologin"
        command = "/usr/bin/weston --continue-without-input"
    }

pam_close_session() has to be called by a process still holding the
handle, and the handle does not survive exec().  Hence the keeper: it
holds the handle, drops to the service's credentials, and waits for a
parent-death signal before closing the session.  Same shape as
systemd's (sd-pam), for the same reason, and one per fork, so the
script hooks open and close their own.

The keeper closes the descriptors it inherited from Finit and only
those.  Closing everything would also take out what pam_open_session()
opened for itself, a keyring fd or a lock file, and leave the modules
to close a session with those pulled out from under them.  Closing
nothing, as (sd-pam) does, would leave it holding the write end of the
notify pipe for the service's whole lifetime and starve notify = "s6"
services of their ready signal.  So the fds open before pam_start()
are snapshotted and exactly those are closed, while the ones PAM opens
after are marked close-on-exec so the daemon does not inherit them
either.

A refused value, a denied account stack, an uninstalled pam.d file,
and a build without PAM support all keep the service from starting
rather than running it with the stacks skipped: one that quietly loses
pam_limits and its private /tmp, with nothing said.  Capabilities a
module like pam_cap.so granted are merged into the IAB Finit applies
instead of being replaced by it, which only helps a service that also
sets capabilities, the other arm being a plain setuid() with nothing
left to restore once permitted is empty.

The test sysroot gains pam_permit.so, pam_deny.so and pam_limits.so,
which ldd cannot see, libpam dlopen()s them, and the test skips when
the host has none to stage.  The negative cases pin the exit status
rather than only asserting crashed, which serv reports for any early
exit, so a bad command or an unwritable pidfile cannot pass for a
rejected session.

Signed-off-by: Joachim Wiberg <troglobit@gmail.com>
2026-09-23 16:30:14 +02:00
..
2025-07-10 16:45:48 +02:00
2025-08-29 12:54:06 +02:00

Introduction

Alpine screenshot{ align=right width=40% }

Reverse engineered from the EeePC fastinit
"gaps filled with frog DNA …"
— Claudio Matsuoka

Finit is a process starter and supervisor designed to run as PID 1 on Linux systems. It consists of a set of plugins and can be set up using configuration files. Plugins start at hook points and can run various set up tasks and/or install event handlers that later provide runtime services, e.g., PID file monitoring, or conditions.

Features

For a more thorough overview, see the Features section.

Tip

See SysV Init Compatibility for help to quickly get going with an existing SysV or BusyBox init setup.

Origin

This project is based on the original finit by Claudio Matsuoka which was reverse engineered from syscalls of the EeePC fastinit.

Finit is developed and maintained by Joachim Wiberg at GitHub. Please file bug reports, clone it, or send pull requests for bug fixes and proposed extensions.