OpenRC
A dependency-based init system used by Gentoo and Alpine.
OpenRC manages services on top of a traditional sysvinit-style PID 1, providing parallel startup, dependency tracking, runlevel support, and a small footprint. Services are described by shell scripts in /etc/init.d that use the OpenRC helper functions, so existing sysvinit knowledge transfers directly.
The project is the default init on Gentoo (where it originated as a Gentoo-specific tool before being spun out as a separate project usable on other distributions) and on Alpine. Both have benefited from OpenRC's lightweight, less-ambitious approach compared with systemd, while still gaining the dependency resolution that pure sysvinit lacks.
OpenRC is a sensible alternative for users who object to systemd's scope but want more than sysvinit. It is also the init system on most non-systemd "anti-systemd" distributions (Devuan, Artix Linux). Maintenance is steady, with William Hubbs, Mike Frysinger, and others as the core developers.
Install
Default on Gentoo and Alpine. On other distros it is available but not default.
Authors
- OpenRC team