But you aren't using bash! #!/sbin/openrc-run > openrc-run is basically an interpreter for shell scripts which provides an easy interface to the often com

But you aren't using bash! #!/sbin/openrc-run > openrc-run is basically an interpreter for shell scripts which provides an easy interface to the often complex system commands and daemons. When a service runs a command it first loads its multiplexed configuration file, then its master configuration file, then /etc/rc.conf and finally the script itself. At this point openrc-run then runs the command given. It essentially recreated "init script specific DSL" that systemd unit files are! So you don't have "conceptually simple" SysV script, you have massive wrapper that takes care of the ugly edge cases around starting and managing services and is also is entirely dependent on openrc stuff to work. And that's not even end of it! start-stop-daemon --signal QUIT --pidfile $pidfile.oldbin that's the wrapper Debian and other distros used a lot So you're using openrc wrapper to call shell that calls another wrapper. To run a service Systemd equivalent: [Service] Type=forking PIDFile=/run/nginx.pid ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/nginx -t -q -g 'daemon on; master_process on;' ExecStart=/usr/sbin/nginx -g 'daemon on; master_process on;' ExecReload=/usr/sbin/nginx -g 'daemon on; master_process on;' -s reload ExecStop=-/sbin/start-stop-daemon --quiet --stop --retry QUIT/5 --pidfile /run/nginx.pid TimeoutStopSec=5 KillMode=mixed I rest my case