diff --git a/share/man/man8/rc.subr.8 b/share/man/man8/rc.subr.8
index 900c82c1e6cb..800fc2372929 100644
--- a/share/man/man8/rc.subr.8
+++ b/share/man/man8/rc.subr.8
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-.\" 	$NetBSD: rc.subr.8,v 1.5 2002/03/21 12:29:18 lukem Exp $
+.\" 	$NetBSD: rc.subr.8,v 1.6 2002/03/24 15:32:59 lukem Exp $
 .\"
 .\" Copyright (c) 2002 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.
 .\" All rights reserved.
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
 .\" ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
 .\" POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
 .\"
-.Dd March 21, 2002
+.Dd March 25, 2002
 .Dt RC.SUBR 8
 .Os
 .Sh NAME
@@ -49,9 +49,9 @@
 .It
 .Ic checkyesno Ar var
 .It
-.Ic check_pidfile Ar pidfile Ar procname
+.Ic check_pidfile Ar pidfile Ar procname Op Ar interpreter
 .It
-.Ic check_process Ar procname
+.Ic check_process Ar procname Op Ar interpreter
 .It
 .Ic err Ar exitval Ar message
 .It
@@ -63,9 +63,9 @@
 .It
 .Ic reverse_list Ar item Op Ar ...
 .It
-.Ic run_rc_command Ar arg
+.Ic run_rc_command Ar argument
 .It
-.Ic run_rc_script Ar file Ar arg
+.Ic run_rc_script Ar file Ar argument
 .It
 .Ic wait_for_pids Op Ar pid Op Ar ...
 .It
@@ -171,17 +171,36 @@ Otherwise, warn that
 .Ar var
 is not set correctly.
 The values are case insensitive.
-.It Ic check_pidfile Ar pidfile Ar procname
+.It Xo
+.Ic check_pidfile
+.Ar pidfile
+.Ar procname
+.Op Ar interpreter
+.Xc
 Parses the first word of the first line of
 .Ar pidfile
 for a PID, and ensures that the process with that PID
 is running and its first argument matches
 .Ar procname .
-Prints the matching PID if successfully, otherwise nothing.
-.It Ic check_process Ar procname
+Prints the matching PID if successfull, otherwise nothing.
+If
+.Ar interpreter
+is provided, parse the first line of
+.Ar procname ,
+ensure that the line is of the form
+.Dl #! interpreter [...]
+and use
+.Ar interpreter
+with its optional arguments and
+.Ar procname
+appended as the process string to search for.
+.It Ic check_process Ar procname Op Ar interpreter
 Prints the PIDs of any processes that are running with a first
 argument that matches
 .Ar procname .
+.Ar interpreter
+is handled as per
+.Ic check_pidfile .
 .It Ic err Ar exitval Ar message
 Display an error message to
 .Em stderr ,
@@ -245,9 +264,9 @@ prefixed by
 Print the list of
 .Ar items
 in reverse order.
-.It Ic run_rc_command Ar arg
+.It Ic run_rc_command Ar argument
 Run the
-.Ar arg
+.Ar argument
 method for the current
 .Xr rc.d 8
 script, based on the settings of various shell variables.
@@ -256,7 +275,7 @@ is extremely flexible, and allows fully functional
 .Xr rc.d 8
 scripts to be implemented in a small amount of shell code.
 .Pp
-.Ar arg
+.Ar argument
 is searched for in the list of supported commands, which may be one
 of:
 .Dl start stop restart rcvar
@@ -269,20 +288,24 @@ or
 is set, also allow:
 .Dl status poll
 .Pp
-.Ar arg
+.Ar argument
 may have one of the following prefixes which alters its operation:
 .Bl -tag -width "Prefix" -offset indent -compact
 .It Sy Prefix
 .Sy Operation
 .It Li fast
-Skip the check for an existing running process.
+Skip the check for an existing running process,
+and sets
+.Sy rc_fast=YES .
 .It Li force
 Skip the checks for
 .Sy rcvar
-being set,
-ignore
-.Ar arg Ns Sy _precmd
-returning non-zero, and ignore any of the
+being set to yes,
+and sets
+.Sy rc_force=YES .
+This ignores
+.Ar argument Ns Sy _precmd
+returning non-zero, and ignores any of the
 .Sy required_*
 tests failing .
 .El
@@ -303,7 +326,7 @@ to determine if this method should be run.
 .It Sy command
 Full path to the command.
 Not required if
-.Ar arg Ns Sy _cmd
+.Ar argument Ns Sy _cmd
 is defined for each supported keyword.
 .It Sy command_args
 Optional arguments and/or shell directives for
@@ -406,24 +429,24 @@ as.
 Comma separated list of supplementary groups to run the chrooted
 .Sy command
 with.
-.It Ar arg Ns Sy _cmd
+.It Ar argument Ns Sy _cmd
 Shell commands which override the default method for
-.Ar arg .
-.It Ar arg Ns Sy _precmd
+.Ar argument .
+.It Ar argument Ns Sy _precmd
 Shell commands to run just before running
-.Ar arg Ns Sy _cmd
+.Ar argument Ns Sy _cmd
 or the default method for
-.Ar arg .
+.Ar argument .
 If this returns a non-zero exit code, the main method is not performed.
 If the default method is being executed, this check is performed after
 the
 .Sy required_*
 checks and process (non-)existence checks.
-.It Ar arg Ns Sy _postcmd
+.It Ar argument Ns Sy _postcmd
 Shell commands to run if running
-.Ar arg Ns Sy _cmd
+.Ar argument Ns Sy _cmd
 or the default method for
-.Ar arg 
+.Ar argument 
 returned a zero exit code.
 .It Sy sig_stop
 Signal to send the processes to stop in the default
@@ -440,9 +463,9 @@ Defaults to
 .El
 .Pp
 For a given method
-.Ar arg ,
+.Ar argument ,
 if
-.Ar arg Ns Sy _cmd
+.Ar argument Ns Sy _cmd
 is not defined, then a default method is provided by
 .Sy run_rc_command :
 .Bl -tag -width "argument" -offset indent
@@ -497,11 +520,45 @@ This method always works, even if the appropriate
 variable is set to
 .Sq NO .
 .El
-.It Ic run_rc_script Ar file Ar arg
+.Pp
+The following variables are available to the methods
+(such as
+.Ar argument Ns Sy _cmd )
+as well as after
+.Ic run_rc_command
+has completed:
+.Bl -tag -width "rc_flags" -offset indent
+.It Sy rc_arg
+Argument provided to
+.Sy run_rc_command ,
+after fast and force processing has been performed.
+.It Sy rc_flags
+Flasg to start the default command with.
+Defaults to
+.Sy ${name}_flags ,
+unless overridden by the environment variable
+.Sq Ev flags .
+This variable may be changed by the
+.Ar argument Ns Sy _precmd
+method.
+.It Sy rc_pid
+PID of
+.Sy command
+(if appropriate).
+.It Sy rc_fast
+Not empty if
+.Dq fast
+prefix was used.
+.It Sy rc_force
+Not empty if
+.Dq force
+prefix was used.
+.El
+.It Ic run_rc_script Ar file Ar argument
 Start the script
 .Ar file
 with an argument of
-.Ar arg ,
+.Ar argument ,
 and handle the return value from the script.
 .Pp
 Various shell variables are unset before
@@ -518,9 +575,9 @@ is started:
 .Li required_dirs ,
 .Li required_files ,
 .Li required_vars ,
-.Li Ar arg Ns _cmd ,
-.Li Ar arg Ns _precmd .
-.Li Ar arg Ns _postcmd .
+.Li Ar argument Ns _cmd ,
+.Li Ar argument Ns _precmd .
+.Li Ar argument Ns _postcmd .
 .Ed
 .Pp
 The startup behaviour of