Question

I need a shell scripting way to determine when a remote linux/OSX has completed all /etc/init.d/* for what ever run levels I have chosen to run in.

since I know I can ssh into a virutal box on my net while it is still booting and run commands like /bin/true or /bin/ps that not everthing is in the state it needs to be.

essentially I need to

while [ ${INIT_STILL_RUNNING_ON_REMOTE_SYSTEN}  ]
do
   sleep 30
done
ssh remoteUser@remoteSystem:command

Answer 1

You could put a script in the run-level you are interested in that is the last thing to run and first thing to shut down that touches a file somewhere to indicate it has run.

For instance, if you made a script called S99finished and put it in the run-level folder it would run last at that run-level. A corresponding K00finished would run first when shutting down.

S99finished could look something like:

#!/bin/bash
touch ~/.init_finished

and K00finished could look something like:

#!/bin/bash
if [ -e ~/.init_finished ]; then
   rm ~/.init_finished
fi

Then your startup script would poll until ~/.init_finished existed at which point it would go on it’s merry way.

Note, the startup scripts run as root, so using the home directory tilde will put it in root’s home. That’s probably not ideal for what you’re doing, but illustrates the point. It’s just as easy to put it in /var/log or somewhere else common to poll from. Just remember it has to have read permissions for everybody wherever you stick it.