neoinit

Microkernel-style init system for Linux.

Requirements

• C11 compiler (gcc or clang)
• meson >= 0.56
• ninja

Building

meson setup builddir
cd builddir
ninja

Run tests:

meson test

Install:

ninja install

Installs neoinit to /sbin/neoinit and servctl to /usr/bin/servctl.

Build options

Option	Default	Description
systemd_compat	true	Build systemd .service file parser
services_dir	/etc/neoinit/services	Directory to scan for service definitions
default_path	(system default)	Default PATH for services
container_detection	true	Skip reboot and unmount in container environments

Example — disable systemd compatibility:

meson setup builddir -Dsystemd_compat=false

Service definitions

Services are loaded from /etc/neoinit/services/ at boot in alphabetical order.

YAML format:

name: myservice
description: My service
exec: /usr/bin/myservice --flag
working_dir: /var/lib/myservice
restart: true
type: simple
env:
  - FOO=bar

See docs/services.md for full field reference.

Runtime control

servctl communicates with the running init via /run/neoinit.sock:

servctl status          # show init status
servctl list            # list all services
servctl start <name>    # start a stopped service
servctl stop <name>     # stop a running service

Signal handling

Signal	Effect
SIGCHLD	Reap zombie processes
SIGTERM	Sync, unmount, power off
SIGINT	Sync, unmount, reboot
SIGHUP	Ignored
SIGPIPE	Ignored

The kernel delivers SIGINT to PID 1 on Ctrl+Alt+Del.

Documentation

• Building
• Service format
• Signals
• Roadmap
• Changelog

Authors

See CONTRIBUTORS.md.