# getting info about rc.conf settings of a port



## fluca1978 (Oct 8, 2013)

I'm not sure what is the right way, if any, to get information about an installed port rc.conf settings. I mean, many ports indicate clearly during installation which options are available, but after that I usually have to read the head of the service file in /usr/local/etc/rc.d to get information about rc.conf supported variables. Is there a better way to get such information (of course, when it is not included into the man pages)?


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## SirDice (Oct 8, 2013)

Run the script with rcvar as argument:

```
root@w7:/root # /usr/local/etc/rc.d/openntpd rcvar
# openntpd
#
openntpd_enable="YES"
#   (default: "")
```

Although, upon further checking it only seems to show if it's enabled or not. It doesn't show any of the other variables.


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## fluca1978 (Oct 10, 2013)

SirDice said:
			
		

> Although, upon further checking it only seems to show if it's enabled or not. It doesn't show any of the other variables.



Yes, the rcvar shows only if the service is enabled.
Therefore I assume there is no standard way of knowing all tunables of a service startup.


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## kpa (Oct 10, 2013)

fluca1978 said:
			
		

> Yes, the rcvar shows only if the service is enabled.
> Therefore I assume there is no standard way of knowing all tunables of a service startup.



Incorrect:


```
firewall ~ % service zfs rcvar
# zfs
#
zfs_enable="NO"
#   (default: "")

firewall ~ %
```


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## ShelLuser (Oct 10, 2013)

fluca1978 said:
			
		

> Therefore I assume there is no standard way of knowing all tunables of a service startup.


Well, looking at the script itself is the standard way of knowing, and also something very common to do.

Take for example installing ports; there are commands to list the ports dependencies, but the moment you want to know more about it (for example; is it fixed on using GCC?) then you'll have to look into the Makefile itself.


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## fluca1978 (Oct 11, 2013)

kpa said:
			
		

> Incorrect:
> 
> 
> ```
> ...



What I was saying is that rcvar is used only to know if the service is enabled, but enabling a service is not the same as configuring it...


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