---
name: "afpd"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "netatalk"
version: "4.2.3~ds-1+deb13u2"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/afpd"
---

# afpd(8)

Apple Filing Protocol daemon

## Name

afpd — Apple Filing Protocol daemon

## Synopsis

**afpd** \[-d\] \[-F *configfile*\]

**afpd** \[-v \| -V \| -h\]

## Description

**afpd** provides an Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) interface to the Unix file system. It is normally started at boot time by [**netatalk**(8)](/netatalk/8.md).

*afp.conf* is the configuration file used by **afpd** to determine the behavior and configuration of a file server.

## Options

- **-d**

  Do not disassociate daemon from terminal.

- **-v**

  Print version information and exit.

- **-V**

  Print verbose information and exit.

- **-h**

  Print help and exit.

- **-F** *configfile*

  Specifies the configuration file to use.

## Signals

To shut down a user’s **afpd** process it is recommended that *SIGKILL (-9)* *NOT* be used, except as a last resort, as this may leave the CNID database in an inconsistent state. The safe way to terminate an **afpd** is to send it a *SIGTERM (-15)* signal and wait for it to die on its own.

SIGTERM and SIGUSR1 signals that are sent to the main **afpd** process are propagated to the children, so all will be affected.

SIGTERM

Clean exit. Propagates from master to childs.

SIGQUIT

Send this to the master **afpd**, it will exit leaving all children running! Can be used to implement AFP service without downtime.

SIGHUP

Sending a *SIGHUP* to afpd will cause it to reload its configuration files.

SIGINT

Sending a *SIGINT* to a child **afpd** enables *max\_debug* logging for this process. The log is sent to the file */tmp/afpd.PID.XXXXXX*. Sending another *SIGINT* will revert to the original log settings.

SIGUSR1

The **afpd** process will send the message “The server is going down for maintenance.” to the client and shut itself down in 5 minutes. New connections are not allowed. If this is sent to a child afpd, the other children are not affected. However, the main process will still exit, disabling all new connections.

SIGUSR2

The **afpd** process will look in the message directory configured at build time for a file named message.pid. For each one found, a the contents will be sent as a message to the associated AFP client. The file is removed after the message is sent. This should only be sent to a child **afpd**.

## Files

*afp.conf*

configuration file used by afpd

*afp\_signature.conf*

list of server signature

*afp\_voluuid.conf*

list of UUID for Time Machine volume

*extmap.conf*

file name extension mapping

*message.pid*

contains messages to be sent to users.

## See Also

[netatalk(8)](/netatalk/8.md), [hosts\_access(5)](/hosts_access/5.md), [afp.conf(5)](/afp.conf/5.md), [afp\_signature.conf(5)](/afp_signature.conf/5.md), [afp\_voluuid.conf(5)](/afp_voluuid.conf/5.md), [extmap.conf(5)](/extmap.conf/5.md), [dbd(1)](/dbd/1.md)

## Author

Contributors to the Netatalk Project (https://netatalk.io/contributors)