The init process is the very first process that is started when the Linux system boots up. It is responsible for starting, stopping and managing other processes on the system. It is the parent of all processes and it’s PID is always 1.
An example of how the init process works is when the system is powered on, the init process is started and it reads the configuration files located in the /etc/inittab directory. After it reads the configuration files, it will start all of the services and daemons that are configured in the init configuration files. It will also start all of the user sessions and processes that are configured in the configuration files. The init process will then monitor all of the processes and daemons and will restart any that have crashed or stopped working.