Upstart

Upstart is a background program (daemon ) for Linux systems, the init process as the first process (Process ID 1) is used to start, monitor and stop other processes. It is an event- oriented replacement for the one used in many Unix systems init System V, the SysVinit.

Special

Upstart is based on SysVinit to which it is also fully backwards compatible, and can therefore also execute SysVinit scripts unchanged.

Upstart is to fix the problems of SysVinit in speed, changing hardware and restarting processes.

To achieve this, upstart is event-driven. When an event occurs, such as plugging in a USB stick, the necessary jobs are started to provide the desired function. Upstart allows the simultaneous executing jobs of independent events. This speeds up the boot process and also allows for easier handling of interchangeable hardware.

History

Upstart was introduced by the Ubuntu developers. It was developed by Scott James Remnant on the basis of the code of SysVinit before he Canonical Ltd.. left. The maintenance of the project then took over Canonical developer James Hunt.

Since version 6.10 Edgy Eft Ubuntu it can be used as a replacement for the default-installed old init works there but only in compatibility mode for system V. Since Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon can Upstart play by changes to the relevant shell scripts its strengths.

Also Fedora (version 9) swapped SysVinit against Upstart, but uses a different system from version 15: systemd. openSUSE offered Upstart from version 11.3 as optional init system, however, changed with version 12.1 also on systemd. In later versions of Upstart to replace cron, at or anacron daemon.

On February 12, 2014 and the Technical Committee of Debian decided in future to switch to systemd. So Ubuntu was the last major distribution, which used Upstart. On February 14, made ​​out Marc Shuttleworth in a blog entry known that even Ubuntu should follow this step.