Re: Why is /sbin/init dynamically linked?

On Fri, Aug 21, 2026 at 9:46 AM Bakul Shah <bakul@iitbombay.org> wrote:

> I was surprised to see this:
>
> $ ldd /sbin/init
> /sbin/init:
>         libutil.so.10 => /lib/libutil.so.10 (0x3f6d9f550000)
>         libcrypt.so.5 => /lib/libcrypt.so.5 (0x3f6d9f669000)
>         libc.so.7 => /lib/libc.so.7 (0x3f6da0c00000)
>         libmd.so.7 => /lib/libmd.so.7 (0x3f6da01b6000)
>         libsys.so.7 => /lib/libsys.so.7 (0x3f6da3370000)
>
> Why was this change made? [Seems to be after 15.1-release]
>
> When one of these libraries breaks, you can't even boot
> single user. In this case why even bother with /rescue.
>
> [Discovered this when init crashed for someone]
>

 /rescue/init is statically linked still, and you can
set kern.init_path=/rescue/init at the OK prompt. Though it's tried last if
all the other paths fail.

Warner