Talk:Comparison of init systems

Epoch supported?
Is epoch really supported officially or is it only available in portage tree? If it's not officially supported I'd suggest to put "Partially" (yellow box) on the support column. --Zucca (talk) 17:14, 25 May 2017 (UTC)


 * Honestly, I'm not sure what "supported" even means in this context. We don't guarantee that any particular package works with any particular service manager, and we don't turn away patches that add support either.  Maintainers can add packages with support for openrc, systemd, neither, or both.  Obviously openrc and systemd have the best overall support, which is probably more the result of their popularity than any kind of policy.  --Rich0 (talk) 17:24, 25 May 2017 (UTC)


 * Ah. Okay. Well. Supported in this context is the same as the package being found from offical portage tree. If it was any bit more offically supported then we'd have a profile created for it, I guess. I mark this talk as done. --Zucca (talk) 20:45, 25 May 2017 (UTC)

Does runit belong on this page?
I am confused by the fact that runit is in the sys-process category (i.e., the package is ), instead of sys-apps (which is the category of OpenRC, systemd and SysVinit) and the fact it is called an init scheme instead of an init system. Despite this I've heard it being called an init system, for example, it is called the default init system of Void Linux. So I am here to ask does it belong in the table on this page? Brenton (contribs · email · talk) 05:19, 5 June 2017 (UTC)


 * Have you taken a look at our runit page? Here's a quote "runit is an init replacement with service monitoring/supervision. It can be used in conjunction with OpenRC as an alternative to sysvinit or even replacing OpenRC as service manager." Sounds like it is accurate to keep it in the table to me... Please close the discussion if there's nothing else. --Maffblaster (talk) 05:29, 5 June 2017 (UTC)


 * Didn't realize there was such a page. It isn't in the table or on the page, except at the See also section, I was more asking if it was OK for me to add it to the table. Sorry, should have been more clear. Brenton  (contribs · email · talk) 05:34, 5 June 2017 (UTC)

Does s6 belong in the table?
I realize the table is getting cramped but wouldn't it be worthwhile removing one or more of the inits not available for Gentoo (SMF, launchd, finit) and replacing it with s6, which is available for Gentoo? Brenton (contribs · email · talk) 00:44, 10 January 2018 (UTC)


 * There also is the Init system article listing only those packages available on Gentoo.  --Charles17 (talk) 11:01, 10 January 2018 (UTC)


 * True but it doesn't compare the systems in as much detail as this article's table. Brenton  (contribs · email · talk) 22:10, 10 January 2018 (UTC)


 * I think keeping SMF is helpful for users coming from Solaris. It certainly was useful to me.


 * I added s6 + s6-rc to the table a few months ago, after the packages on ::gentoo started being maintained again, so marking it as done. I don't think a table entry specifically for s6 (as in just s6-svscan) would be useful as, without s6-rc, it boils down to a runit clone. Capezotte (talk) 17:50, 29 October 2022 (UTC)

BSD init
A few major BSDs (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD) actually uses `rc.d`-based init that was created around 2000. It is different from SysVinit. It has a dependency on "rcorder" and does "Cross-service dependencies" to some degree, not sure if it supports "events". The table should probably be updated to indicate that. --Voidvector (talk) 22:01, 27 January 2018 (UTC)
 * has added BSD init to the table, so marking this as done - GuillermoDH (talk) 22:27, 30 November 2018 (UTC)

Does GNU Shepherd belong here
Shepherd is an init system made by GNU, formerly known as GNU dmd. Right now it seems GuixSD/Guix System is the only Linux distribution uses it (it is intended to be used with Hurd). It relies on Guile and has some sort of support for dependency management. It may lacks the support -- KayMW (talk) 07:11, 6 December 2019 (UTC)


 * I think Shepherd belongs here, yes. To add it, we need the relevant information on it. I’ll start:
 * - Supported platforms: GNU Linux, GNU Hurd
 * - Main coding language: Guile Scheme
 * - Main dependencies: GNU Guile
 * - Running as a daemon: Yes (PID 1)
 * - Parallel service startup: Yes
 * - Preferred service file supplier: GNU Guix
 * - License: GPL v3+


 * Needed:
 * - Init script/service format
 * - Per-service configuration
 * - Cross-service dependencies/events
 * - Keeping daemons alive
 * -- ArneBab (talk) 07:16, 28 December 2020 (UTC)


 * I couldn't comment on if it should be included or not, but I have added a link in the external resources section for now. Closing discussion. -- Ris (talk) 11:00, 22 February 2022 (UTC)

"Running as daemon" -> "Requires daemon"
What does "Running as daemon" mean? If this means "provides a PID 1", that's kind of a given since they're all init systems, and I think a "Requires daemon" would be more informative. Example:


 * OpenRC: no
 * runit: runsvdir + per-process runsv
 * s6 + s6-rc: s6-svscan (optionally PID 1) + per-process s6-supervise
 * systemd: systemd as PID 1

Capezotte (talk) 17:50, 29 October 2022 (UTC)