RC.CONF(5) File Formats Manual RC.CONF(5)

rc.confMOUSE service enablement policy

The /etc/rc.conf file is the persistent service policy read by cheesed(8) during boot. It is a data file, not a shell script.

Each non-empty line has exactly this form:

service_enable=YES
other_service_enable=NO

Whitespace around the name, equals sign, and value is ignored. A number sign begins a comment. Values are case-sensitive and must be exactly YES or NO. Service names begin with a lowercase ASCII letter and may contain lowercase ASCII letters, digits, and underscores. Duplicate assignments, unknown keys, malformed lines, and services without an installed executable OpenRC definition stop policy generation.

Services fixed in the MOUSE runlevel manifests cannot be assigned here. Other enabled services are added to the generated default runlevel. Definitions are resolved by OpenRC, including its normal local-prefix precedence, and the generated tree is published atomically below /var/run/mouse-openrc.

MOUSE keeps persistent service enablement in one BSD-style rc.conf so the complete local policy can be read and changed in one place. Persistent OpenRC runlevel links would create a second representation of that policy and require users to inspect a directory tree to discover what the machine will start.

The generated runlevel tree is therefore disposable runtime state, not configuration. The deliberately small data syntax keeps service policy declarative and makes duplicates, unknown services, and malformed assignments visible instead of silently producing a different boot configuration.

This file is not OpenRC's global shell configuration. OpenRC reads /etc/openrc/rc.conf for framework settings such as dependency strictness and logging. MOUSE does not ship rc-update: fixed runlevels come from World and all other persistent membership comes from this file.

/etc/rc.conf
Persistent policy.
/etc/openrc/rc.conf
OpenRC framework configuration; this is a shell file and does not enable services.
/etc/init.d
Machine-local service-definition overrides.
/usr/lib/mouse/init.d
World default service definitions.
/usr/local/etc/init.d
Ports service definitions, searched after World defaults.
/usr/lib/mouse/runlevels
Fixed runlevel membership.
/var/run/mouse-openrc/runlevels
Generated runlevel tree used by OpenRC.

lidm_enable=YES
network_enable=YES
wpa_supplicant_enable=NO
sshd_enable=NO

cheesed(8), openrc(8), openrc-run(8), rc-service(8)

MOUSE August 29, 2026 RC.CONF(5)