&gt; if you&#x27;re thinking of it as a linear ordered sequence, you have the wrong mental model. On the other hand, systems like OpenRC do work that way.<p>Are you <i>sure</i> that OpenRC works in this way?<p>There may be some subtlety that I&#x27;m missing, but the documentation for systemd unit files [0] <i>seems</i> to describe a service dependency and ordering  specification system that looks equivalent to what OpenRC provides with &quot;need&quot;, &quot;use&quot;, &quot;before&quot;, and &quot;after&quot;. (Search for &quot;[Unit] Section Options&quot; and read on from there.)<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.freedesktop.org&#x2F;software&#x2F;systemd&#x2F;man&#x2F;systemd.unit.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.freedesktop.org&#x2F;software&#x2F;systemd&#x2F;man&#x2F;systemd.unit...</a>