[ Thanks to Jim
Lynch for this link. ]
“One of the files that the average Unix sysadmin rarely
looks at, almost never changes and yet depends on every time he or
she reboots a system is the /etc/inittab file. This modest little
file controls what happens whenever a system is rebooted or forced
to change run levels. Let’s take a look at the configuration lines
that tell your system what it’s supposed to do when you hit that
power button.“NOTE: The /etc/inittab files on Solaris and other Unix systems
that share this way of booting follow the same general rules and
most of what is described below applies equally well to those Unix
variants.“To begin with, the /etc/inittab file usually starts out with a
block of comments describing the content of the file or giving
credit like the lines shown below.”