HP-UX System Administrator's Guide: Overview HP-UX 11i v3 (B3921-90011, September 2010)

/sbin/rc.utils also logs output from startup and shutdown scripts to the file /etc/
rc.log.
2. The rc daemon then runs/etc/rc.config which processes all scripts in the directory
/etc/rc.config.d. The scripts in /etc/rc.config.d set variables that control the
execution of the startup and shutdown scripts that are subsequently run by the rc daemon.
IMPORTANT: You control what the startup and shutdown (kill) scripts do by setting
variables in their corresponding scripts in the /etc/rc.config.d directory.
Do not edit the scripts in the /sbin/init.d directory directly (These scripts might be replaced
during a patch installation or product update, causing you to lose your changes).
3. Searches the appropriate/sbin/rc#.d directory for scripts to run (and runs them).
If the run level being transitioned to is higher than the current run level, then the # in
rc#.d represents the run level one higher than the current run level and the scripts in
the rc#.d directory with names beginning with “S” are run.
If the run level being transitioned to is lower than the current run level, then the # in
rc#.d represents the run level one lower than the current run level and the scripts in
the rc#.d directory with names beginning with “K” are run.
This step is repeated for each run level between the current run level and the target run
level.
4. Each startup (or kill) script is first run with the start_msg (or stop_msg) parameter causing it
to output its one line message on the system console, and then run again with the start (or
stop) parameter to perform its function (based on what variables were previously set from
the file in the /etc/rc.config.d directory).
Start-up and Shutdown 75