Daemons on Cucumber Linux are by System V style init scripts. These scripts are called init scripts and are located in /etc/init.d. Each script in this directory controls one service and takes a single argument: an action to perform for that service. There are several different actions that can be performed (such as start, stop, restart or status), and different scripts support different actions. To see which actions are supported by a particular script, run that script without any arguments; it will display a list of supported actions.

For example, to start the Apache HTTP server, run /etc/init.d/httpd start. To ensure that it is running now, run /etc/init.d/httpd status. Then to stop the server, run /etc/init.d/httpd stop. If you want to see what other actions are supported by the httpd init script, run /etc/init.d/httpd.

Cucumber Linux uses System V style symbolic links to control the starting of services at boot. These symbolic links are located in /etc/rc.d/rcx.d, where x is a single digit 0 through 6 indicating which runlevel corresponds to that directory. This is explained in more detail on the system initialization page.

While it is possible (and sometimes desirable) control which services start at boot by modifying the symbolic links directly, Cucumber Linux also provides a more user friendly interactive menu for controlling which services will start when the system boots. To access this menu, run the command pkgtool as root. Select setup from the main menu, and then select services from the System Setup Scripts menu (select it by scrolling to it and pressing the space bar, and then pressing enter to select Ok).

Now you will be presented with a menu where you can select/deselect which services will start at boot time by pressing the space bar. When you selected your desired services, press Ok to apply the changes. If you make a mistake, you can select Cancel to return to the main pkgtool menu without changing your system.

It’s worth noting that in general, running more daemons makes your system less secure. For this reason, most services are disabled by default. It is recommended that you enable only the services you need and leave the rest disabled. When you do enable a service, it is also advised that you take time to research how to secure that service properly.