diff --git a/meta/classes/update-rc.d.bbclass b/meta/classes/update-rc.d.bbclass
index 65bf022e49..06b91c10ed 100644
--- a/meta/classes/update-rc.d.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes/update-rc.d.bbclass
@@ -75,9 +75,12 @@ python populate_packages_updatercd () {
         postrm += d.getVar('updatercd_postrm', True)
         d.setVar('pkg_postrm_%s' % pkg, postrm)
 
-    # If the systemd class has also been inherited, then don't do anything as
-    # the systemd units will override anything created by update-rc.d.
-    if not d.getVar("SYSTEMD_BBCLASS_ENABLED", True):
+    # Run if the sysvinit feature is present, or if the systemd feature is present
+    # but the systemd class hasn't been inherited.  We want to run in the latter case
+    # as systemd has sysvinit compatibility, but we don't want to always so that
+    # pure systemd images don't have redundent sysvinit files.
+    if "sysvinit" in d.getVar("DISTRO_FEATURES").split() or \
+       ("systemd" in d.getVar("DISTRO_FEATURES").split() and not d.getVar("SYSTEMD_BBCLASS_ENABLED", True)):
         pkgs = d.getVar('INITSCRIPT_PACKAGES', True)
         if pkgs == None:
             pkgs = d.getVar('UPDATERCPN', True)