S6-RC-REPO-INIT(8)

💖 s6-rc-repo-init — the "let's set up your repo bestie" era 💖

okay so this is the s6-rc-repo-init(8) manual page, straight from the System Manager's Manual, and she is literally the moment your whole s6-rc life begins. no cap. 🌸

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

s6-rc-repo-init [-v verbosity] [-r repo] [-h fdhuser] [-f] [-U] [-B]
                stores...

like, you give her some flags, you give her some stores..., and she goes to work. that's it. slay.

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

s6-rc-repo-init initializes an s6-rc-repo(7) on a system — it links that repo to a list of stores and makes sure the set of all the services defined across all the stores is consistent. vibe check passed or it's not.

s6-rc-repo-init creates an s6-rc repository at location repo.

It makes stores... — which must be a list of several locations in the filesystem — the current list of stores for this repository.

It synchronizes with the list of stores, exactly as if s6-rc-repo-sync(8) had been called. which means: it imports all the services in the stores and builds the reference database. obsessed. 💅

It exits 0.

🎀 Notes

• s6-rc-repo-init is the first command to invoke when you're creating a repository, or when a change happens within the stores. she's the opening act, the main character, the whole entrance. 👑
• There's generally only one repository per system, but non-root users who want to run their own tree of s6-rc services can totally do that by specifying an alternative repo. your own little kingdom fr fr. 🏰

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🌈 OPTIONS 🌈

• -v verbosity, --verbosity=verbosity — be more or less verbose. default is 1, which means error messages and warnings get written to stderr. 0 means only error messages get written, and 2 or more adds informational messages. the option also gets passed to commands that s6-rc-repo-init may call, like s6-rc-compile(8), so their verbosity gets adjusted the same way. everyone matching energy. ✨
• -r repo, --repository=repo — create the repository in repo. default is /var/lib/s6-rc/repository. unless you pass the -U option, repo must not previously exist in the filesystem. brand new, no leftovers, fresh start. 🎀
• -h fdhuser, --fdholder-user=fdhuser — you can safely ignore this option and forget about it, bestie. what it does is ensure that if a supervision tree is started as root on a compiled database produced by this command (this will never happen to the reference database, so it's only ever useful together with the -U option when there are sets to update), the fd-holder daemon in that supervision tree runs as fdhuser rather than root. told you: you can safely forget about that option. 🙈 i literally told you.
• -f, --force — make a new repository at repo even if one already exists. > ⚠️ this is dangerous, and use of this option is not recommended. i'm not joking, she said dangerous, so like, be careful. 💀
• -U, --update-stores — instead of creating a new repository, change the list of stores in an existing one. useful, for instance, when a distribution's policies change and local stores are added, moved, or removed. but it is not an operation that should be done frequently, however. occasional queen behavior only. 🧚
• -B, --bare — do not synchronize the repository with the stores. useful if you're going to call s6-rc-repo-sync(8) afterwards anyway. why do it twice when you got a plan. 🫶

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⭐ EXIT STATUS ⭐

• 0 — Success. periodt. 💖
• 1 — Failure. the services in the listed stores do not make a consistent reference database. with a nonzero verbosity, the error messages from s6-rc-compile(8) will be displayed and detail exactly what went wrong. receipts included. 🔥
• 100 — Incorrect usage. you did the syntax wrong, it happens. 😭
• 111 — System call failed. this usually signals an issue with the underlying operating system. not you, it's the OS. 💀

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🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

s6-rc-repo(7), s6-rc-compile(8), s6-rc-repo-sync(8)

This man page is ported from the authoritative documentation at: https://skarnet.org/software/s6-rc/s6-rc-repo-init.html

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

Laurent Bercot Carlos Eduardo <carana2099@gmail.com> (man page port)

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okay so that's the whole page!! no details left behind, we ate and left no crumbs 🍓

shoutout to the Debian crew for this one — it's dated October 21, 2025, ported from the s6-rc docs (source version above, and the original lives under Debian's System Manager's Manual umbrella, section 8). go set up a repository, bestie, you got this 💜✨