CTLD(8)

💅 CTLD(8) — the ctld girlies' handbook

okay so bestie, welcome to ctld(8) from the System Manager's Manual — this is the CAM Target Layer / iSCSI target daemon, and honestly she's doing a LOT of work behind the scenes. let's get into it 🎀

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

ctld [-d] [-f config-file] [-u]
ctld -t [-f config-file] [-u]

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so the ctld daemon is literally the main character of CAM Target Layer configuration management — she's out here accepting incoming iSCSI connections, doing authentication, and passing those connections over to the kernel part of the native iSCSI target. multi-tasking queen 👑

on startup, ctld parses the configuration file. and like — if she hits any errors, she just exits. no notes, no second chances, she's gone 💀

then she compares the config against the kernel's list of LUNs managed by previously running ctld instances, removes the LUNs that no longer exist in the config file, and creates new ones as necessary. glow-up via subtraction, we love to see it ✨

after all that, she's listening for incoming iSCSI connections, performing authentication, and — if it all goes well — passing the connections to the kernel part of the CTL iSCSI target, cfiscsi(4), which takes over from there. she hands off the baton and the kernel carries it 🫶

when she receives a SIGHUP signal, ctld reloads her configuration and applies the changes to the kernel. and the way she does it?? changes are applied in a way that avoids unnecessary disruptions — for example, removing one LUN does not affect other LUNs. considerate icon behavior, no cap 💖

when exiting gracefully, the ctld daemon removes the LUNs she managed and forcibly disconnects all the clients. otherwise — for example, when killed with SIGKILL — LUNs stay configured and clients remain connected. so like, be nice to her, okay?? 😭

⚠️ heads up bestie: if you need to do administrative stuff that applies to already connected sessions — things like forcing termination — use ctladm(8) for that. ctld is not the one for that job.

the following options are available, and yes we're going through all of them:

• -f config-file — specifies the name of the configuration file. the default is /etc/ctl.conf. 📁
• -d — Debug mode. the daemon sends verbose debug output to standard error, and does not put herself in the background. she also won't fork, and she'll exit after processing one connection. this option is only intended for debugging the target, so like, don't use it for your whole production vibe 🙈
• -t — test the configuration file for validity and exit. vibe check the config, then dip ✌️
• -u — use UCL configuration file format instead of the traditional non-UCL format. fancy format era 🌈

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🎀 FILES 🎀

• /etc/ctl.conf — the configuration file for ctld. the file format and configuration options are described in ctl.conf(5). this is the sacred text 📜
• /var/run/ctld.pid — the default location of the ctld PID file. that's where her pid lives 🏠

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⭐ EXIT STATUS ⭐

the ctld utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs. simple as that, periodt 💅

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

cfiscsi(4), ctl(4), ctl.conf(5), ctladm(8), ctlstat(8)

go read them, iykyk 👑

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🔥 HISTORY 🔥

the ctld command appeared in FreeBSD 10.0. vintage, but make it iconic ⭐

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💜 AUTHORS 💜

the ctld was developed by Edward Tomasz Napierala <trasz@FreeBSD.org> under sponsorship from the FreeBSD Foundation. king behavior fr fr 👑🫶

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! this one's from the Debian edition, dated March 31, 2020 — go forth and configure your targets responsibly 💖✨🎀