Sysadmin:Launch at startup

If you want to launch a program at startup, here's the process. It's controversial but systemd is the preferred approach to launching services at startup.

Make a service file

Go to /lib/systemd/system and create a myservice.service file (these are good defaults if you're not sure of all the specifications you need):

[Unit]
After=postgresql.service

[Service]
ExecStart=[mycommand]

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

When you're happy with the unit file, copy it to /etc/systemd/system/..

If you're running a script directly at boot, make sure the script is executable or that you prepend sh or the appropriate shell to the ExecStart line.

• chmod 664 /etc/systemd/system/[myservice].service
• systemctl daemon-reload
• systemctl enable [myservice].service

Test with:

1. systemctl start [myservice].service
2. systemctl status [myservice].service

Misc

Initial references: LinuxConfig, Linode

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