etcinitd

Etcinitd is not a formal component and is typically a mistaken spelling of /etc/init.d, the conventional directory containing SysV init scripts on many Unix-like systems. There is no official path or daemon named etcinitd in major Linux distributions. The term may appear in informal documentation or in mis-typed commands.

The scripts in /etc/init.d are executed by a SysV-style init system to start, stop, or manage services during boot, shutdown, or when requested by the administrator.

Each script is a small executable that implements actions such as start, stop, restart, and status. They may declare LSB headers describing dependencies, runlevels, and description. Tools such as update-rc.d (Debian/Ubuntu) or chkconfig (older Red Hat-based systems) create and remove symbolic links in /etc/rc?.d to control the order of startup and shutdown.

With the arrival of new init systems like Upstart and systemd, the role of /etc/init.d has shifted toward compatibility. Upstart provides the upstart-job bridge to allow SysV scripts to be invoked via the Upstart init, while systemd provides a compatibility layer via systemd-sysv to interpret SysV-style scripts. In systems configured to use these modern init systems, /etc/init.d scripts may still be installed and used, but they are often wrappers that delegate to the native init system.

If you encounter the term "etcinitd" in documentation, it is usually a typo or shorthand for /etc/init.d. Verify the actual path on your system, and consult the distribution’s init documentation for how services are managed, as the precise tooling and conventions can vary across distributions and versions.