How to enable and start services on Alpine Linux

How do I add or delete service at boot time on an Alpine Linux? How do I enable service such as Nginx/Apache at boot time on an Alpine Linux? How do I start/stop/restart services on an Alpine Linux?

Alpine Linux comes with OpenRC init system. This tutorial shows how to use the various command on OpenRC to manage services.

View status of all services

Type the following command:

rc-status

Runlevel: default
 crond                                  [  started  ]
 networking                             [  started  ]
Dynamic Runlevel: hotplugged
Dynamic Runlevel: needed/wanted
Dynamic Runlevel: manual

The default run level is called default, and it started crond and networking service for us.

View service list

Type the following command:

rc-status --list

Sample outputs:

boot
nonetwork
default
sysinit
shutdown

You can change run level using the rc command:

rc {runlevel}
rc boot
rc default
rc shutdown

1. boot – Generally the only services you should add to the boot runlevel are those which deal with the mounting of filesystems, set the initial state of attached peripherals and logging. Hotplugged services are added to the boot runlevel by the system. All services in the boot and sysinit runlevels are automatically included in all other runlevels except for those listed here.
2. single – Stops all services except for those in the sysinit runlevel.
3. reboot – Changes to the shutdown runlevel and then reboots the host.
4. shutdown – Changes to the shutdown runlevel and then halts the host.
5. default – Used if no runlevel is specified. (This is generally the runlevel you want to add services to.)

To see manually started services, run:

rc-status --manual

apache2

To see crashed services, run:

rc-status --crashed

How to list all available services

Type the following command: rc-service --list rc-service --list | grep -i nginx

If apache2/nginx not installed, try the apk command to install it:

apk add apache2

How to add/enable service at boot time The syntax is:

rc-update add {service-name} {run-level-name}

To add apache2 service at boot time, run:

rc-update add apache2

OR

rc-update add apache2 default

Sample outputs:

 * service apache2 added to runlevel default

How to start/stop/restart services on Alpine Linux

The syntax is as as follows:

How to start service

The syntax is:

rc-service {service-name} start

OR

/etc/init.d/{service-name} start

How to stop service

The syntax is:

rc-service {service-name} stop

OR

/etc/init.d/{service-name} stop

How to restart service

The syntax is:

rc-service {service-name} restart

OR

/etc/init.d/{service-name} restart