So the approach adopted by
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>rc.subr
</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8
</manvolnum></citerefentry> is as follows:
<function>run_rc_command
</function> passes on all its arguments but the first one to the respective method verbatim. The first, omitted, argument is the name of the method itself:
<option>start
</option>,
<option>stop
</option>, etc. It will be shifted out by
<function>run_rc_command
</function>, so what is
<envar>$2
</envar> in the original command line will be presented as
<envar>$1
</envar> to the method, and so on.