GNU Shepherd 0.5 Init System Released

Shepherd, the init/service manager of the GNU system with GNU Hurd and can be used as an alternative to systemd on Linux systems as well, is up to version 0.5.

With GNU Shepherd 0.5, the init system now gracefully halts with Ctrl+Alt+Del when running as PID 1 on Linux systems and restarting a service now also restarts any dependent services... Plus services now have a "replacement" slot as well and there are various other fixes.

** Services now have a ‘replacement’ slot
** Restarting a service now restarts its dependent services as well
** Gracefully halt upon ctrl-alt-del when running as PID 1 on GNU/Linux
** Actions can now be invoked on services not currently running
** Guile >= 2.0.13 is now required; Guile 3.0 is supported
** Unused runlevel code has been removed
** Updated translations: es, fr, pt_BR, sv

There isn't too much out of GNU Shepherd 0.5, but that should please those unhappy with the systemd "feature creep" and just wanting a basic init system.

Those unfamiliar with this service/init manager can learn more at GNU.org. One of the easiest ways to try out a Linux-based system with Shepherd is via GuixSD.

More details on Shepherd 0.5 are available from today's release announcement.