Initng is a full replacement of the

UNIX System V Unix System V (pronounced: "System Five") is one of the first commercial versions of the Unix operating system. It was originally developed by AT&T and first released in 1983. Four major versions of System V were released, numbered 1, 2, 3, an ...

init In Unix-based computer operating systems, init (short for ''initialization'') is the first process started during booting of the computer system. Init is a daemon process that continues running until the system is shut down. It is the direct ...

, the first process spawned by the kernel in

Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...

computer

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

s, which is responsible for the initialization of every other process. Initng's website calls initng "The next generation init system".

Purpose

Many implementations of init (including Sysvinit used in many

Linux distribution A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading one ...

s) start processes in a pre-determined order, and only start a process once the previous process finishes its initialization. Initng starts a process as soon as all of its dependencies are met. It can start several processes in parallel. Initng is designed to significantly increase the speed of booting a Unix-compatible system by starting processes asynchronously. Initng's supporters claim that it also gives the user more statistics and control over the system.

Development

Despite being still considered

beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiod ...

, it was chosen as the default init system for Pingwinek, Enlisy,

Berry Linux Berry Linux is a Live CD Linux distribution that has English and Japanese support. Berry Linux is based on and is compatible with Fedora 37 packages. The distribution is primarily focused on use as a Live CD, but it can also be installed to a liv ...

and Bee. Also there are packages for many distributions such as

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: ''Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All the ...

and

Fedora A fedora () is a hat with a soft brim and indented crown.Kilgour, Ruth Edwards (1958). ''A Pageant of Hats Ancient and Modern''. R. M. McBride Company. It is typically creased lengthwise down the crown and "pinched" near the front on both sides ...

, as well as

ebuild Portage is a package management system originally created for and used by Gentoo Linux and also by ChromeOS, Calculate, Sabayon, and Funtoo Linux among others. Portage is based on the concept of ports collections. Gentoo is sometimes referred to ...

s for Gentoo and spells for Source Mage. Contrary to other similar projects, it features a portable and flexible code base, more suited for embedded usage, and has been already ported to other operating systems like

Haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or se ...

and

FreeBSD FreeBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), which was based on Research Unix. The first version of FreeBSD was released in 1993. In 2005, FreeBSD was the most popular ...

. It was created by Jimmy Wennlund. The current maintainer and project lead is Ismael Luceno.

Awards

In Linux Format's Issue 72, in November 2005, InitNG received the Hottest Pick Award. {{Service management in Unix Process (computing)