service6

A wrapper around the service management parts of s6 (s6-rc, s6-rc-db, s6-rc-bundle, s6-rc-bundle-update). Details: https://skarnet.org/software/s6-rc/

Why?

The utilities in s6-rc are very easy to script and not especially easy to type out by hand, and the -h help isn't especially informative, so I had trouble using the suite.

Current State

Feature complete, but likely a bit buggy, although I have been using it for months without any issues. It can add/delete services from the database, start/stop/restart services, list services and their current state, show logs of services, rebuild the service database (on Artix), and show help on the s6 and s6-rc tools (pulled from their git repos).

Installation

The python-argcomplete, python-natsort and python-blessed are needed. Drop the python- prefix if you wish to install them from PyPI.

Install w3c (to convert the s6/s6-rc documentation to text) and then install:

$ make # make install

or just put the script somewhere in your path, but TAB-completion and reading of the s6 documentation won't work.

s6-rc needs root permissions to get any information on services, and I didn't want to make service6 just call sudo (or doas) silently; therefore, to have TAB-completion work fully, export SERVICE6_SUDO or SERVICE6_LIST_SUDO. With a password-prompt based sudo, I recommend:

export SERVICE6_LIST_SUDO="sudo -n"
export SERVICE6_SUDO="sudo"  # or just don't set it

Usage

Read the help:

$ service6 --help

List everything:

# service6 list
at───────────────────────────at-log ✔ ─────────────at-srv ✔
boot──────────┬────────────────misc   ──────────────mount   ──────────────setup
              ╰────────────────udev
dbus───────────────────────dbus-log ✔ ───────────dbus-srv ✔
default───────┬──────────────────at   ────────────elogind   ────────────lightdm
              ╰──────NetworkManager   ───────────────sshd   ─────────lm_sensors ✔
...

List a few things:

# service6 list default sshd sshd-log
default┬───────────────sshd   ────────────at-log ✔ ────────────at-srv ✔ ───────elogind-log ✔
       ├────────elogind-srv ✔ ───────lightdm-log ✔ ───────lightdm-srv ✔ ────────lm_sensors ✔
       ╰─NetworkManager-log ✔ NetworkManager-srv ✔
sshd───────────────sshd-log ✔ ──────────sshd-srv ✔

List just a service:

# service6 list sshd-log
──sshd-log ✔

Start, stop, restart a service:

# service6 list sshd
sshd──sshd-log ✘ sshd-srv ✘
# service6 start sshd
>>> s6-rc -u -v 2 change sshd
s6-rc: info: service sshd-log: starting
s6-rc: info: service sshd-log successfully started
s6-rc: info: service sshd-srv: starting
s6-rc: info: service sshd-srv successfully started
# service6 stop sshd
>>> s6-rc -d -v 2 change sshd
s6-rc: info: service sshd-srv: stopping
s6-rc: info: service sshd-srv successfully stopped
s6-rc: info: service sshd-log: stopping
s6-rc: info: service sshd-log successfully stopped
# service6 restart sshd
>>> s6-rc -d -v 2 change sshd
>>> s6-rc -u -v 2 change sshd
s6-rc: info: service sshd-log: starting
s6-rc: info: service sshd-log successfully started
s6-rc: info: service sshd-srv: starting
s6-rc: info: service sshd-srv successfully started
# service6 list sshd
sshd──sshd-log ✔ sshd-srv ✔

Add and delete services from the default bundle (note that passing a bundle deletes all its services, so maybe be careful):

# service6 list default
default┬─────────────at-log ✔ ────────────at-srv ✔ ───────elogind-log ✔ ───────elogind-srv ✔
       ├────────lightdm-log ✔ ───────lightdm-srv ✔ ────────lm_sensors ✔ NetworkManager-log ✔
       ╰─NetworkManager-srv ✔
# service6 add sshd
>>> s6-rc-bundle-update add default "sshd"
# service6 list default
default┬─────────────at-log ✔ ────────────at-srv ✔ ───────elogind-log ✔ ───────elogind-srv ✔
       ├────────lightdm-log ✔ ───────lightdm-srv ✔ ────────lm_sensors ✔ NetworkManager-log ✔
       ╰─NetworkManager-srv ✔ ──────────sshd-log ✔ ──────────sshd-srv ✔
# service6 delete sshd
>>> s6-rc-bundle-update delete default "sshd-log sshd-srv"
# service6 list default
default┬─────────────at-log ✔ ────────────at-srv ✔ ───────elogind-log ✔ ───────elogind-srv ✔
       ├────────lightdm-log ✔ ───────lightdm-srv ✔ ────────lm_sensors ✔ NetworkManager-log ✔
       ╰─NetworkManager-srv ✔

The same but to a new bundle:

# service6 list demo
unknown───demo ⚠
# service6 add --bundle demo sshd bluetoothd
>>> s6-rc-bundle add demo sshd bluetoothd
# service6 list demo
demo───bluetoothd-log ✘ ─bluetoothd-srv ✘ ───────sshd-log ✔ ───────sshd-srv ✔
# service6 delete --bundle demo sshd
>>> s6-rc-bundle-update delete demo sshd-log sshd-srv
# service6 delete --bundle demo bluetoothd
>>> s6-rc-bundle delete demo
# service6 list demo
unknown───demo ⚠

Get help quickly on some bit of s6 or sr-rc:

$ service6 help
Available┬───────────────s6-svscanctl────────────s6-tai64nlocal─────────s6-rc-oneshot-run
         ├───────────────s6-softlimit───────────s6-ftrig-notify──────────────s6-ioconnect
        ...
         ╰─────────────s6-permafailon
You can access service6's help with 'service6 --help/-h'.
You can access each command's help with 'service6 command --help/-h'.
$ PAGER=cat service6 help rc
s6-rc
Software
skarnet.org
The s6-rc program
...

Read a log (terrible choice of PAGER for demo only):

$ PAGER="head -3" service6 log sshd
>>> head -3 /var/log/sshd/current
2020-09-14 11:20:44.512831794  Server listening on 0.0.0.0 port 22.
2020-09-14 11:20:44.512863490  Server listening on :: port 22.
2020-09-26 21:54:23.214691224  Received signal 15; terminating.