# Yelp/dumb-init

A minimal init system for Linux containers

Repository: https://github.com/Yelp/dumb-init
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/dumb-init
Homepage: https://engineeringblog.yelp.com/2016/01/dumb-init-an-init-for-docker.html
Language: Python
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: docker, pid1, init, dumb, docker-container, unix, c
Last push: 2026-07-13T20:31:47+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 64/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 92, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4040, "days_push": 51, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 7303, forks 355 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:58.126893+00:00)

## What it is
dumb-init is a minimal init system and process supervisor designed to run as PID 1 inside Linux containers such as Docker. It is a small statically-linked C binary that spawns your command as a child process, properly forwards signals, and reaps orphaned zombie processes.

## Use cases
- make docker containers stop gracefully on SIGTERM
- prevent zombie processes in containers
- run a single-process container without systemd
- fix docker run containers that ignore stop signals
- use as ENTRYPOINT wrapper in Dockerfiles
- treat docker containers like regular unix processes in CI

## When to choose
- your container's main process doesn't handle signals properly
- you see defunct/zombie processes accumulating in a container
- you want a tiny, dependency-free PID 1 for minimal Docker images
- CI jobs leave containers running after docker run is killed

## When to avoid
- you need a full init system with service management like systemd or s6
- your container already uses tini or another init via docker run --init
- you need process supervision with restart policies

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: cli, developer-tools, concurrency, security
- domain: developer-tools, cloud-computing
- platform: cli
- tags: docker, pid1, init-system, signal-forwarding, zombie-reaping, containers, devops, linux

## Member repositories
- Yelp/dumb-init (main) score 64

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:58.126893+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:38:41.612368+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/Yelp/dumb-init (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:58.126893+00:00, sha d01fc99eaa5b)
  - homepage: https://engineeringblog.yelp.com/2016/01/dumb-init-an-init-for-docker.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:34:10.829151+00:00, sha 6346cc15fc51)
  - registry_pypi: https://pypi.org/pypi/dumb-init/json (fetched 2026-08-29T08:34:10.842851+00:00, sha 4f8c89818c4b)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.