Finit is a fast, simple alternative to SysV init and systemd, designed for small and embedded Linux systems. It can also run on desktop and server systems, like finix.
Reverse engineered from the EeePC fastinit
"gaps filled with frog DNA …"
— Claudio Matsuoka
For detailed information, explore our extensive documentation
📚 http://finit-project.github.io
For working examples, see the 🚀 contrib/ section or these tutorials:
- 🛠️ Buildroot embedded Linux,
- 📦 Debian GNU/Linux,
- ⛰️ Alpine Linux, and
- 🌌 Void Linux
Finit can run on various Linux distributions, but the bundled install scripts are examples only. They have been tested on amd64 (x86_64) systems with standard configurations.
For embedded systems, see these Buildroot-based examples: myLinux, Infix, or br2-finit-demo.
Copyright (c) 2008-2010 Claudio Matsuoka <cmatsuoka@gmail.com> Copyright (c) 2008-2025 Joachim Wiberg <troglobit@gmail.com> Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
Contributing to Finit
We welcome any and all help in the form of bug reports, fixes, patches for new features -- preferably as GitHub pull requests. Other methods are of course also possible: emailing the maintainer a patch or even a raw file, or simply emailing a feature request or an alert of a problem. For email questions/requests/alerts there is always the risk of memory exhaustion on the part of the maintainer(s).
If you are unsure of what to do, or how to implement an idea or bugfix,
open an issue with "[RFC: Unsure if this is a bug ... ?", or use the
GitHub discussions forum, so we can discuss it. Talking about the code
first is the best way to get started before submitting a pull request.
Either way, when sending an email, patch, or pull request, start by stating the version the change is made against, what it does, and why.
Please take care to ensure you follow the project coding style and the commit message format. If you follow these recommendations you help the maintainer(s) and make it easier for them to include your code.
Coding Style
Always submit code that follows the style of surrounding code!
First of all, lines are allowed to be longer than 72 characters these days. In fact, there exist no enforced maximum, but keeping it around 100 chars is OK.
The coding style itself is strictly Linux coding style.
Commit Messages
Commit messages exist to track why a change was made. Try to be as clear and concise as possible in your commit messages, and always, be proud of your work and set up a proper GIT identity for your commits:
$ git config --global user.name "Jane Doe"
$ git config --global user.email jane.doe@example.com
Example commit message from the Pro Git online book, notice
how git commit -s is used to automatically add a Signed-off-by:
Brief, but clear and concise summary of changes
More detailed explanatory text, if necessary. Remember, a future
reader has the diff and can see what it does, the commit message in
itself should usually talk about the *why* of a change and/or any
technical limitations and future work.
Wrap the text to about 72 characters or so. In some contexts, the
first line is treated as the subject of an email and the rest of the
text as the body. The blank line separating the summary from the body
is critical (unless you omit the body entirely); tools like rebase can
get confused if you run the two together.
Further paragraphs come after blank lines.
- Bullet points are okay, too
- Typically a hyphen or asterisk is used for the bullet, preceded
by a single space, with blank lines in between, but conventions
vary here
Signed-off-by: Jane Doe <jane.doe@example.com>
Code of Conduct
It is expected of everyone engaging in the project to, in the words of Bill & Ted; be excellent to each other.
Contributor Code of Conduct
As contributors and maintainers of this project, and in the interest of fostering an open and welcoming community, we pledge to respect all people who contribute through reporting issues, posting feature requests, updating documentation, submitting pull requests or patches, and other activities.
We are committed to making participation in this project a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of level of experience, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, personal appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, age, religion, or nationality.
Examples of unacceptable behavior by participants include:
- The use of sexualized language or imagery
- Personal attacks
- Trolling or insulting/derogatory comments
- Public or private harassment
- Publishing other's private information, such as physical or electronic addresses, without explicit permission
- Other unethical or unprofessional conduct.
Project maintainers have the right and responsibility to remove, edit, or reject comments, commits, code, wiki edits, issues, and other contributions that are not aligned to this Code of Conduct. By adopting this Code of Conduct, project maintainers commit themselves to fairly and consistently applying these principles to every aspect of managing this project. Project maintainers who do not follow or enforce the Code of Conduct may be permanently removed from the project team.
This code of conduct applies both within project spaces and in public spaces when an individual is representing the project or its community.
Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior may be reported by opening an issue or contacting one or more of the project maintainers.
This Code of Conduct is adapted from the Contributor Covenant, version 1.2.0.
Security Policy
Supported Versions
finit is a small project, as such we have no possibility to support older versions. The only supported version is the latest released on GitHub:
https://github.com/finit-project/finit/releases
Reporting a Vulnerability
Contact the project's main author and owner to report and discuss vulnerabilities.