GNU Shepherd 1.0 released after two decades in development
Service management daemon GNU Shepherd unofficial logo (Image source: Generated using DALL·E 3)
After more than two decades in development, the service management daemon GNU Shepherd has finally reached the 1.0-labeled milestone. Its highlights include transient and timed services, log rotation, integrated logging, as well as improved service insights. Additionally, the deprecated GOOPS interface is now gone.
Formerly known as GNU dmd ("Daemon managing Daemons"), GNU Shepherd is a powerful yet flexible init system and service manager for Linux. Initially intended for use with the GNU Hurd collection of microkernel servers, GNU Shepherd was adopted by the GNU Guix ecosystem since then. After no less than 21 years spent in development, it has finally reached the 1.0 milestone yesterday.
When looking back at the 0.10.x builds, GNU Shepherd 1.0 brings quite a few features to the table, including the following:
Support for timed services via the timer service, with similar functionality to the old at command.
The reboot --kexec command allows users to reboot straight into a new kernel previously loaded with kexec --load.
A new log rotation service alongside a new system log service.
A transient service maker, similar to the systemd-run command.
The GOOPS interface, which was deprecated, is no longer present.
In the future, Shepherd is expected to receive integration with control groups, support for dynamically reconfigurable services, and much more.
Codrut Nistor - Senior Tech Writer - 6653 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2013
In my early school days, I hated writing and having to make up stories. A decade later, I started to enjoy it. Since then, I published a few offline articles and then I moved to the online space, where I contributed to major websites that are still present online as of 2021 such as Softpedia, Brothersoft, Download3000, but I also wrote for multiple blogs that have disappeared over the years. I've been riding with the Notebookcheck crew since 2013 and I am not planning to leave it anytime soon. In love with good mechanical keyboards, vinyl and tape sound, but also smartphones, streaming services, and digital art.