Launchd Alternatives

Launchd is described as 'A free system array created by Apple inc. For BSD - including macOS as macOS is based on the Darwin kernel of BSD' and is an app. There are more than 10 alternatives to Launchd for a variety of platforms, including Linux, BSD, FreeBSD, OpenWrt and Docker apps. The best Launchd alternative is systemd, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Launchd are OpenRC, runit, s6 and sysvinit.

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Alternatives list

  1. systemd icon

    systemd

     16 likes
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    systemd is a suite of basic building blocks for a Linux system. It provides a system and service manager that runs as PID 1 and starts the rest of the system.

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Linux
    systemd screenshot 1
     

    • systemd is the most popular Linux alternative to Launchd.

    • systemd is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to Launchd.

    • systemd is Free and Open SourceLaunchd is also Free and Open Source

  2. OpenRC

     5 likes
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    OpenRC is a dependency-based init system that works with the system provided init program, normally /sbin/init. It is not a replacement for /sbin/init. OpenRC is 100% compatible with Gentoo init scripts, which means you can probably find one for the daemons you want to start in...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
     

  4. runit

     7 likes
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    runit is a cross-platform Unix init scheme with service supervision, a replacement for sysvinit, and other init schemes. It runs on GNU/Linux, *BSD, MacOSX, Solaris, and can easily be adapted to other Unix operating systems.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD
     

    • runit is the most popular Mac alternative to Launchd.

    • runit is Free and Open SourceLaunchd is also Free and Open Source

  5. s6

     4 likes
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    s6 is a small suite of programs for UNIX, designed for process supervision. It can be used as an init system. You can also use all its programs separately.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
     
  6. sysvinit icon

    sysvinit

     5 likes
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    The Sysvinit package contains programs for controlling the startup, running, and shutdown of the system.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Linux
     

  7. finit

     2 likes
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    Finit is a small SysV init replacement with process supervision similar to that of daemontools and runit. Its focus is on small and embedded GNU/Linux systems, although fully functional on standard server and desktop installations.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Linux
    finit screenshot 1
     
  9. systemE icon

    systemE

     1 like
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    Using the tooling in this repo, I am able to boot from linux to sinit as PID1, and from there to Emacs acting as PID2 using --script mode, performing all typical rc.boot system initialization using Emacs lisp until we hit the getty.

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Linux
     

  10. procd

     1 like
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    procd is a process and system init service for OpenWRT. It's less resource intensive as it's intended for embedded devices, works with busybox and uClib, hotplug2, libubox and ubus. It watches configuration files to start or restart services and init...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • OpenWrt
     

  11. nitro

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    tiny but flexible init system and process supervisor.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Docker
    • BSD
    • FreeBSD
     
  12. Hummingbird Init icon

    Hummingbird Init

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    hummingbird is an init system designed for speed. It does nothing more than start the system and stop the system by default. There are three main "runlevels", fs which is called directly after the pseudo filesystems necessary for the system to run have been mounted...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
10 of 10 Launchd alternatives