---
name: "rc-update"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "openrc"
version: "0.56-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/rc-update"
---

# rc-update(8)

add and remove services to and from a runlevel

## NAME

**rc-update** – add and remove services to and from a runlevel

## SYNOPSIS

**rc-update** \[**-s**, **--stack**\] *add* *service* \[*runlevel* *...*\]

**rc-update** \[**-s**, **--stack**\] \[**-a**, **--all**\] *delete* *service* \[*runlevel* *...*\]

**rc-update** \[**-u**, **--update**\] \[**-v**, **--verbose**\] *show* \[*runlevel* *...*\]

## DESCRIPTION

OpenRC uses named runlevels.  Rather than editing some obscure file or managing a directory of symlinks, **rc-update** exists to quickly add or delete services to and from different runlevels. All services must reside in the */etc/init.d* or */usr/local/etc/init.d* directories. They must also be standard OpenRC scripts, meaning they must use openrc-run.

- *add* *service*

  Add the *service* to the *runlevel* or the current one if none given. Services added to the boot runlevel must exist in */etc/init.d*.

- *delete* *service*

  Delete the *service* from the *runlevel* or the current one if none given.

- *show*

  Show all enabled services and the runlevels they belong to.  If you specify runlevels to show, then only those will be included in the output.

- **-v**, **--verbose**

  Show all services.

- **-u**, **--update**

  Forces an update of the dependency tree cache. This may be needed in the event of clock skew (a file in /etc is newer than the system clock).

If the **-s**, **--stack** option is given then we either add or remove the runlevel from the runlevel. This allows inheritance of runlevels.

If the **-a,** **--all** option is given, we remove the service from all runlevels. This is useful, for example, to clean up the dangling symlinks after a service is removed.

## SEE ALSO

[openrc(8)](/openrc/8.md), [openrc-run(8)](/openrc-run/8.md), [rc-status(8)](/rc-status/8.md)

## AUTHORS

Roy Marples \<roy@marples.name\> The OpenRC Team \<openrc@gentoo.org\>