Akhil Vij has called on the Debian developers list to help test his software , "systemd-to-sysvinit-converter", which can take a systemd configuration file and create sysvinit scripts based on it. It does this by analysing the service units within the systemd file and emulating the required functionality in the generated scripts.

The converter could allow developers to use systemd as their template for startup services but still be able to create sysvinit files for scenarios where the newer startup orchestrator isn't available. The pre-release software has been created by Vij as part of the Google Summer of Code 2012. In a later email, Vij says it is still unclear if the Debian project wants to use, or finds it necessary to use, his software.

Some developers in the Debian project have already been thinking about the medium term impact of a switch to systemd as the default init system. One of the problems is that systemd requires a Linux kernel, and it has not been ported to FreeBSD systems like Debian GNU/kFreeBSD. Without software like Vij's, the package maintainer would have to maintain both systemd service units and init scripts for each background serve.

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(djwm)