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.Dd January 5, 1998
.Dt RC.CONF 8 SMM
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm rc.conf
.Nd system daemon configuration database
.Sh DESCRIPTION
This file contains a series of Bourne-shell syntax assignments
that are used to configure the system daemons.
It is not read by the kernel, but is sourced by various other files
in the
.Pa /etc/rc.*
series in order to set shell variables used therein
to control the behaviour of the scripts.
.Pp
As an alternative, it is also possible to leave the
.Pa /etc/rc.conf
file untouched, and instead create and edit a new
.Pa /etc/rc.conf.local
file.
Variables set in this file will override variables previously set in
.Pa /etc/rc.conf .
.Pp
There are three sections in this file. The first is used to turn features
on or off. For example, whether the system runs the
.Nm sendmail
daemon is determined by the line in this section
.Bd -literal -indent xxx
sendmail_flags=NO
.Ed
.Pp
If this line is edited to contain some valid sendmail daemon command-line
flags, such as
.Bd -literal -indent xxx
sendmail_flags="-bd -q30m"
.Ed
.Pp
then the sendmail daemon will be started with those options.
.Pp
The second section contains some other programs that can either be run or not,
but that don't need options. They can be set to YES or NO. For example,
the line
.Bd -literal -indent xxx
nfs_server=NO
.Ed
.Pp
prevents the NFS server daemons from starting.
To run NFS, just change this line's value from NO to YES,
.Sy and
also make whatever changes are needed for the server
to have something to do (set up the
.Xr exports 5
file etc.).
.Pp
The third section contains values that parameterize servers started by
one of the first two sections, and are ignored if the corresponding
server is not running. For example, if
.Nm nfs_server ,
is enabled, then the line
.Bd -literal -indent xxx
nfsd_flags="-tun 4"
.Ed
provides command-line arguments for the nfs server.
.Pp
This particular line instructs
.Xr nfsd 8
to start four copies of the server.
On a busy file server, 8 (or more) copies are recommended.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr init 8 ,
.Xr rc 8 .
.Pp
and the detailed documentation given for each server that is
configurable in this fashion.
.Sh HISTORY
The file
.Nm rc.conf
first appeared in
.Ox 2.2 .