Software:Init

From HandWiki

In Unix-like computer operating systems, init (short for initialization) is the first user-space process started during booting of the operating system. Init is a daemon process that continues running until the system is shut down. It is the direct or indirect ancestor of all other processes and automatically adopts all orphaned processes. Init is started by the kernel during the booting process; in most Unix-like systems, a kernel panic will occur if the kernel is unable to start it or if it dies for any reason. Init is typically assigned process identifier 1.

In Unix systems such as System III and System V, the design of init diverged from the functionality provided by the init in Research Unix and its BSD derivatives. Up until the early 2010s,[1] most Linux distributions employed a traditional init that was somewhat compatible with System V, while some distributions such as Slackware use BSD-style startup scripts, and other distributions such as Gentoo have their own customized versions.

Since then, most Linux distributions have employed a more modern init system, with most employing the init provided by the systemd project. Some distributions have elected to create their own System V-init compatible system, such as Gentoo Linux's OpenRC and Void Linux's runit. These projects typically include features originally not in System V's init, such as multi-threading or interactive init. Most modern init systems are also able to dynamically start, stop and enable services after boot with prompting by the user.

Research Unix-style/BSD-style

Research Unix init runs the initialization shell script located at /etc/rc,[2] then launches getty on terminals under the control of /etc/ttys.[3] There are no runlevels; the /etc/rc file determines what programs are run by init. The advantage of this system is that it is simple and easy to edit manually. However, new software added to the system may require changes to existing files that risk producing an unbootable system.

BSD init was, prior to 4.3BSD, the same as Research UNIX's init;[4][5] in 4.3BSD, it added support for running a windowing system such as X on graphical terminals under the control of /etc/ttys.[6][7] To remove the requirement to edit /etc/rc, BSD variants have long supported a site-specific /etc/rc.local file that is run in a sub-shell near the end of the boot sequence.

A fully modular system was introduced with NetBSD 1.5 and ported to FreeBSD 5.0, OpenBSD 4.9 and successors. This system executes scripts in the /etc/rc.d directory. Unlike System V's script ordering, which is derived from the filename of each script, this system uses explicit dependency tags placed within each script.[8] The order in which scripts are executed is determined by the rcorder utility based on the requirements stated in these tags.

SysV-style

sysv-rc-conf, a TUI utility that selects which SysV-style init scripts will be run in each runlevel

When compared to its predecessors, AT&T's UNIX System III introduced a new style of system startup configuration,[9] which survived (with modifications) into UNIX System V and is therefore called the "SysV-style init".

At any moment, a running System V is in one of the predetermined number of states, called runlevels. At least one runlevel is the normal operating state of the system; typically, other runlevels represent single-user mode (used for repairing a faulty system), system shutdown, and various other states. Switching from one runlevel to another causes a per-runlevel set of scripts to be run, which typically mount filesystems, start or stop daemons, start or stop the X Window System, shutdown the machine, etc.

Runlevels

Further information: Runlevel

The runlevels in System V describe certain states of a machine, characterized by the processes and daemons running in each of them. In general, there are seven runlevels, out of which three runlevels are considered "standard", as they are essential to the operation of a system:

  1. Turn off
  2. Single-user mode (also known as S or s)
  3. Reboot

Aside from these standard ones, Unix and Unix-like systems treat runlevels somewhat differently. The common denominator, the /etc/inittab file, defines what each configured runlevel does in a given system.

Default runlevels

Operating system Default runlevel
AIX 2[10]
antiX 5
Gentoo Linux 3[11]
HP-UX 3 (console/server/multiuser) or 4 (graphical)
Slackware Linux 3
Solaris / illumos 3[12]
UNIX System V Releases 3.x, 4.x 2
UnixWare 7.x 3

On Linux distributions defaulting to runlevel 5 in the table on the right, runlevel 5 invokes a multiuser graphical environment running the X Window System, usually with a display manager like GDM or KDM. However, the Solaris and illumos operating systems typically reserve runlevel 5 to shut down and automatically power off the machine.

On most systems, all users can check the current runlevel with either the runlevel or who -r command.[13] The root user typically changes the current runlevel by running the telinit or init commands. The /etc/inittab file sets the default runlevel with the :initdefault: entry.

On Unix systems, changing the runlevel is achieved by starting only the missing services (as each level defines only those that are started / stopped). For example, changing a system from runlevel 3 to 4 might only start the local X server. Going back to runlevel 3, it would be stopped again.

Other implementations

Traditionally, one of the major drawbacks of init is that it starts tasks serially, waiting for each to finish loading before moving on to the next. When startup processes end up Input/output (I/O) blocked, this can result in long delays during boot. Speeding up I/O, e.g. by using SSDs, may shorten the delays but it does not address the root cause.

Various efforts have been made to replace the traditional init daemons to address this and other design problems, including:

General

Name Developer Latest release License Notes
Version Date
BootScripts GoboLinux Scripts Contributors[14] 016.02 2017-08-16; 9 years ago GPL [lower-alpha 1]
busybox-init Bruce Perens etc.[15][16][17] ; 0 seconds ago GPL-2.0-only Since 1.3.0[18]
GPL-2.0-or-later Until 1.2.2.1[19] 		[lower-alpha 2]
dinit Davin McCall[20] ; 0 seconds ago AL2 [lower-alpha 3]
Epoch Epoch Contributors[21] 1.3.0 2015-06-24; 11 years ago Unlicense [lower-alpha 4]
finit Joachim Wiberg, etc.[23] 4.17[23] 2026-04-28; 4 months ago MIT
ginitd S. M. Wood-Mattheusson[24] [lower-alpha 5]
Initng Initng Contributors[25] 0.6.10.2 2007-03-25; 19 years ago GPL-3.0[25] [lower-alpha 6]
launchd Apple Inc. 10.4 2005-04-29; 21 years ago Proprietary (was APSL then AL2) [lower-alpha 7]
OpenRC Roy Marples[26] etc.[27] ; 0 seconds ago BSD-2-Clause [lower-alpha 8]
procd Daniel Golle, etc.[28] 2026-06-17; 2 months ago GPL-2.0-only
runit Gerrit Pape[29] etc.[30] ; 0 seconds ago BSD-3-Clause [lower-alpha 9]
s6 Laurent Bercot[32] ; 0 seconds ago ISC [lower-alpha 10]
Service Management Facility (SMF) Sun Microsystems 5.10 2005-01-31; 21 years ago CDDL [lower-alpha 11]
Shepherd [35]etc.[36] ; 0 seconds ago GPL-3.0-or-later [lower-alpha 12]
systemd Red Hat[38]345 in 2018[39]2,032 total[40] ; 0 seconds ago LGPL-2.1-or-later[41] [lower-alpha 13]
SystemStarter Wilfredo Sanchez[43] 10.4 2005-04-29; 21 years ago BSD [lower-alpha 14]
Upstart Canonical Ltd. 1.13.2[44] 2014-09-04; 12 years ago GPL-2.0-only [lower-alpha 15]
Name Developer Latest release License Notes
Version Date
  1. ↑ BootScripts in GoboLinux
  2. ↑ busybox-init, suited to embedded operating systems, used by Alpine Linux (before being replaced with OpenRC), SliTaz 5 (Rolling), Tiny Core Linux, and VMware ESXi, and used by OpenWrt before it was replaced with procd
  3. ↑ dinit, a service manager and init system.[20]
  4. ↑ Epoch, a single-threaded Linux init system focused on simplicity and service management[22]
  5. ↑ ginitd, a software package that consists of an init system and a service management system[24]
  6. ↑ Initng, a full replacement of init designed to start processes asynchronously
  7. ↑ launchd, a replacement for init in Darwin and Darwin-based operating systems such as macOS and iOS starting with Mac OS X v10.4 (it launches SystemStarter to run old-style 'rc.local' and SystemStarter processes)
  8. ↑ OpenRC, a process spawner that utilizes system-provided init, while providing process isolation, parallelized startup, and service dependency; used by Alpine Linux, Gentoo and its derivatives, and available as an option in Devuan and Artix Linux.
  9. ↑ runit, a cross-platform full replacement for init with parallel starting of services, used by default in Void Linux[31]
  10. ↑ s6, a software suite that includes an init system[33][34]
  11. ↑ Service Management Facility (SMF), a complete replacement/redesign of init from the ground up in illumos/Solaris starting with Solaris 10, but launched as the only service by the original System V-style init
  12. ↑ Shepherd, the GNU service and daemon manager which provides asynchronous, dependency-based initialisation; written in Guile Scheme and meant to be interactively hackable during normal system operation[37]
  13. ↑ systemd, a software suite, full replacement for init in Linux that includes an init daemon, with concurrent starting of services, service manager, and other features. Used by Debian (replaces SysV init) and Ubuntu, among other popular Linux distributions. As of February 2019, systemd has been adopted by most major Linux distributions.[42]
  14. ↑ SystemStarter, a process spawner started by the BSD-style init in Mac OS X prior to Mac OS X v10.4
  15. ↑ Upstart, a full replacement of init designed to start processes asynchronously. Initiated by Ubuntu and used by them until 2014. It was also used in Fedora 9,[45][46] Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6[47] and Google's ChromeOS.[48]

Operating system support

Name Linux BSD Darwin Hurd Solaris Other
BootScripts Yes No No No No No
busybox-init Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes POSIX
dinit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes POSIX
Epoch Yes No No No No No
finit Yes No No No No No
Initng Yes Yes No No No Haiku
launchd No No Yes No No No
OpenRC Yes Yes No No No No
procd Yes No No No No No
runit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes POSIX
s6 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes POSIX
Service Management Facility (SMF) No No No No Yes No
Shepherd Yes No No Yes No No
systemd Yes No No No No No
SystemStarter No No Yes No No No
Upstart Yes No No No No No
Name Linux BSD Darwin Hurd Solaris Other

Compatibility, interface and programming

Comparison of init systems[49][50]
Name musl
libc
compatible 		dependency
free 		script/
service
format 		Plain
log
format 		Per-
service
config 		Cross-
service
events 		Parallel
service
startup 		Process
supervision 		Programming language Codebase
size
(lines)
BootScripts ? ? Shell
scripts[14] 		? ? ? ? ? Shell 66.6%; C 19.0%; Python 12.7%; Other 1.7%[14] ?
busybox-init ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? C 90.4%; shell script 4.6%; C++ 1.7%; HTML 1.4%; Assembly 0.8%; Make 0.5%; XML 0.2%; Perl 0.3%; Python 0.1%[51] 320,773
[51]
dinit Yes Yes Text
config 		Yes Yes Yes Yes Native C++ 96.1%; Starlark 1.0%; C 1.0%; Shell 0.9%; Makefile 0.7%; Zig 0.2%; Go 0.1%[20] ~25,000
Epoch Yes libc,
/bin/sh 		multiple
or single
.conf 		Yes Yes
(v1.1+) 		(basic
support,
v1.3+) 		No Yes C 98.2%; shell script 1.8%; Make 0.1%[52] 10,546[52]
finit ? ? multiple
or single
.conf 		Yes ? ? Yes Yes C 86.7%; shell script 9.7%; Automake 1.8%; Autoconf 1.5%; Make 0.3%[53] 33,146[53]
Initng ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? C 67.5%; Assembly 12.8%; shell script 13.2%; Python 2.7%; CMake 1.5%; Jam 1.1%; HTML 0.6%; Make 0.5%; Vim Script 0.1%[54] 59,471[54]
launchd ? Yes plist ? Yes No Yes Yes C 96.1%; shell script 2.2%; C++ 1.3%; Make 0.4%; XML 0.1%[55] 28,128[55]
OpenRC Yes init
(sysv or BSD) 		Shell
scripts 		Yes Yes
(conf.d) 		Yes Disabled
by
default 		Via
external
tool 		C 87.6%; shell script 12.2%; Perl 0.2%[56] 23,818[56]
procd ? ? Shell
scripts[57] 		? Yes[57] ? ? Yes[58] C 98.8%; CMake 0.8%; shell script 0.4%[59] 18,872[59]
runit Yes Yes Shell
scripts 		Yes No Yes Via
supervision
trees 		Native C 57.4%; HTML 32.1%; shell script 6.3%; Make 4.0%; XML 0.2%[60] 11,616[60]
s6 Yes execline execline/
shell 		Yes No Yes Yes Native C 48.3%; HTML 46.1%; shell script 2.8%; Autoconf 2.0%; Make 0.7%; Emacs Lisp 0.1%[61] 31,553[61]
Service Management Facility (SMF) ? init
(sysv?) 		XML
(+ shell
scripts) 		Yes Yes
(service
instances) 		Yes Yes Yes C ?
Shepherd ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Scheme 70.5%; shell script 28.3%; Automake 0.7%; Autoconf 0.4%[62] 6,606[62]
systemd Limited dbus udev dns ntp GNOME NetworkManager PipeWire ...[49] Unit files|systemd#Configuration of systemd|Unit files No
(journald) 		Yes Yes Yes Built-in
but
opaque 		C 77.9%; XML 12.5%; shell script 3.9%; Python 3.2%; C++ 2.4%; CSS 0.1%[63] 1,390,713
[63]
Upstart ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? C 93.1%; Python 2.5%; Automake 1.1%; C++ 2.4%; shell script 0.3%; XML 0.3%; Autoconf 0.1%; Vim Script 0.1%[64] 126,865
[64]
Name musl
libc
compatible 		dependency
free 		script/
service
format 		Plain
log
format 		Per-
service
config 		Cross-
service
events 		Parallel
service
startup 		Process
supervision 		Programming language Codebase
size
(lines)

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Lennart Poettering on systemd's Tumultuous Ascendancy". 2018-11-08. https://thenewstack.io/unix-greatest-inspiration-behind-systemd/. 
  2. ↑ init(8) – Version 7 Unix Programmer's Manual
  3. ↑ ttys(5) – Version 7 Unix Programmer's Manual
  4. ↑ init(8) – 4.2BSD System Manager's Manual
  5. ↑ ttys(5) – 4.2BSD File Formats Manual
  6. ↑ [[[:Template:Man/4.3BSD]] init(Template:Man/4.3BSD)] – Template:Man/4.3BSD
  7. ↑ [[[:Template:Man/4.3BSD]] ttys(Template:Man/4.3BSD)] – Template:Man/4.3BSD
  8. ↑ Andrew Smallshaw (7 December 2009). "Unix and Linux startup scripts, Part 2". http://aplawrence.com/Basics/unix-startup-scripts-2.html. 
  9. ↑ "init(8)". minnie.tuhs.org. http://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=SysIII%2Fusr%2Fsrc%2Fman%2Fman8%2Finit.8. 
  10. ↑ "System run level". https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/aix/7.3.0?topic=startup-system-run-level. 
  11. ↑ "Initscripts". Gentoo Linux Documentation. Gentoo.org. 2014-12-13. https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:X86/Working/Initscripts. 
  12. ↑ "Run Levels". Oracle Solaris Administration: Common Tasks. Oracle. https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23824_01/html/821-1451/hbrunlevels-13026.html. 
  13. ↑ "UNIX man pages : runlevel (8)". Unixhelp.ed.ac.uk. 1997-05-27. http://unixhelp.ed.ac.uk/CGI/man-cgi?runlevel+8. 
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 "gobolinux/Scripts: 🧰 The GoboLinux scripts collection". https://github.com/gobolinux/Scripts. 
  15. ↑ "Erik Andersen's Homepage". http://www.codepoet.org/andersen/erik/erik.html. 
  16. ↑ Active Projects , Rob Landley's website
  17. ↑ Denys Vlasenko , BusyBox maintainer
  18. ↑ "License". https://www.busybox.net/license.html. 
  19. ↑ BusyBox 1.2.2.1 changelog. BusyBox. "This is the last release of BusyBox under the old 'GPLv2 or later' dual license. Future versions (containing changes after svn 16112) will just be GPLv2 only, without the 'or later'.". 
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 "GitHub - davmac314/dinit: Service monitoring / "init" system". https://github.com/davmac314/dinit. 
  21. ↑ "GitHub - Subsentient/epoch: The Epoch Init System". https://github.com/Subsentient/epoch. 
  22. ↑ "Epoch Init System Homepage". http://universe2.us/epoch.html. 
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 "GitHub - finit-project/finit: Fast init for Linux. Cookies included". https://github.com/finit-project/finit. 
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Wood-Mattheusson, S. M. (2024-12-16). "ginitd: det effektivaste init-systemet". https://ylur.me/gershwin/ginitd. 
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 "initng/initng: InitNG core components". https://github.com/initng/initng. 
  26. ↑ "rsmarples (Roy Marples)". https://github.com/rsmarples. 
  27. ↑ "GitHub - OpenRC/openrc: The OpenRC init system". https://github.com/OpenRC/openrc. 
  28. ↑ "GitHub - openwrt/procd: [MIRROR OpenWrt service / process manager"]. https://github.com/openwrt/procd. 
  29. ↑ "g-pape". https://github.com/g-pape. 
  30. ↑ "GitHub - g-pape/runit: a UNIX init scheme with service supervision". https://github.com/g-pape/runit. 
  31. ↑ "Void Linux main page". http://voidlinux.org/. 
  32. ↑ "skarnet/s6". https://github.com/skarnet/s6. 
  33. ↑ "s6: why another supervision suite". https://www.skarnet.org/software/s6/why.html. 
  34. ↑ "s6 init system". https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/s6-init-system-4175658553/. 
  35. ↑ "GNU Shepherd Open Source Project on Open Hub: Contributor Ludovic Courtès". https://openhub.net/p/gnu_shepherd/contributors/3061137008526390. 
  36. ↑ "GNU Shepherd Open Source Project on Open Hub: Contributors". https://openhub.net/p/gnu_shepherd/contributors/summary. 
  37. ↑ "The Shepherd - GNU Project". Free Software Foundation, Inc.. https://www.gnu.org/software/shepherd/. 
  38. ↑ systemd README, https://cgit.freedesktop.org/systemd/systemd/tree/README, retrieved 9 September 2012 
  39. ↑ "Systemd Hits A High Point For Number Of New Commits & Contributors During 2018 - Phoronix". https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Systemd-EOY2018-Stats. 
  40. ↑ Used the "contributors" statistic from: systemd/systemd, systemd, 2023-12-03, https://github.com/systemd/systemd, retrieved 2023-12-03 
  41. ↑ Poettering, Lennart (21 April 2012), systemd Status Update, https://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd-update-3.html, retrieved 28 April 2012 
  42. ↑ See Systemd
  43. ↑ Wilfredo Sanchez (May 28, 2001). "WWDC round-up". Clever Name TBD. http://www.wsanchez.net/blog/2001/05/wwdc_roundup.html. 
  44. ↑ "1.13.2 "It looks lush from the side" : Series 1.x : upstart". Launchpad. https://launchpad.net/upstart/1.x/1.13.2. 
  45. ↑ Fedora 14 Accepted Features, 2010-07-13, https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/14/FeatureList, retrieved 2010-07-13 
  46. ↑ "Fedora defers systemd to F15". Linux Weekly News. 2010-09-14. https://lwn.net/Articles/405100/. 
  47. ↑ "Deployment". Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6: Technical Notes. Red Hat. https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/6/html/6.0_technical_notes/deployment. 
  48. ↑ Software Architecture: Chromium OS design documents, https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/dev/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/software-architecture, retrieved 25 January 2014 
  49. ↑ 49.0 49.1 "systemdfree.com — Because your init should do one thing". https://systemdfree.com/. "As of 2024, the systemd project encompasses: an init daemon, a service manager, a login manager (logind), a DNS resolver (systemd-resolved), a time synchronization daemon (systemd-timesyncd), a network manager (systemd-networkd), a bootloader (systemd-boot), a home directory manager (systemd-homed), a credential manager, a container manager (systemd-nspawn), a journal binary log system (journald), a device manager (udev, absorbed in 2012), and a cryptography layer for encrypted storage. These are not plugins. They are deeply coupled components sharing internal APIs, dbus interfaces, and cgroup hierarchies. [...] GNOME's dependency on logind, NetworkManager's integration with systemd-networkd, and PulseAudio's replacement by PipeWire — which also integrates deeply with systemd session management" 
  50. ↑ "Comparison of init systems - Gentoo wiki". 2025-09-16. https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Comparison_of_init_systems. 
  51. ↑ 51.0 51.1 "The BusyBox Open Source Project on Open Hub: Languages Page". https://openhub.net/p/busybox/analyses/latest/languages_summary. 
  52. ↑ 52.0 52.1 "The Epoch Init System Open Source Project on Open Hub: Languages Page". https://openhub.net/p/epoch/analyses/latest/languages_summary. 
  53. ↑ 53.0 53.1 "The finit Open Source Project on Open Hub: Languages Page". https://openhub.net/p/finit/analyses/latest/languages_summary. 
  54. ↑ 54.0 54.1 "The InitNG Open Source Project on Open Hub: Languages Page". https://openhub.net/p/initng/analyses/latest/languages_summary. 
  55. ↑ 55.0 55.1 "The Open launchd Open Source Project on Open Hub: Languages Page". https://openhub.net/p/openlaunchd/analyses/latest/languages_summary. 
  56. ↑ 56.0 56.1 "The OpenRC Open Source Project on Open Hub: Languages Page". https://openhub.net/p/open_rc/analyses/latest/languages_summary. 
  57. ↑ 57.0 57.1 stokito (2025-11-18). "[OpenWrt Wiki The UCI system"]. https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/base-system/uci. 
  58. ↑ bluewavenet (2025-02-18). "[OpenWrt Wiki Procd system init and daemon management"]. https://openwrt.org/docs/techref/procd. 
  59. ↑ 59.0 59.1 "The openwrt-procd Open Source Project on Open Hub: Languages Page". https://openhub.net/p/openwrt-procd/analyses/latest/languages_summary. 
  60. ↑ 60.0 60.1 "The runit Open Source Project on Open Hub: Languages Page". https://openhub.net/p/runit/analyses/latest/languages_summary. 
  61. ↑ 61.0 61.1 "The s6 Open Source Project on Open Hub: Languages Page". https://openhub.net/p/s6/analyses/latest/languages_summary. 
  62. ↑ 62.0 62.1 "The GNU Shepherd Open Source Project on Open Hub: Languages Page". https://openhub.net/p/gnu_shepherd/analyses/latest/languages_summary. 
  63. ↑ 63.0 63.1 "The systemd Open Source Project on Open Hub: Languages Page". https://openhub.net/p/systemd/analyses/latest/languages_summary. 
  64. ↑ 64.0 64.1 "The Upstart Open Source Project on Open Hub: Languages Page". https://openhub.net/p/upstart/analyses/latest/languages_summary. 



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