If you are an IoT user, sys admin or other Linux user then you have had a need to make a custom startup script. In the past you may have added a line to rc.local, inittab or a file in init.d. But systemd has taken over and now custom startup scripts are really easy to create. As an example, we’ll create a script that runs a DNS sniffer <github.com/joemcmanus/dnscloud> on boot.
Location
Depending on your particular flavor of Linux the location may differ, but on most including my Fedora 28 install it is in /usr/lib/systemd/system . You would copy or create your systemd service files in this location.
Format
Below is a file which we’ll name pysniff.service. Take a look then we’ll go through it line by line. Most of it is self explanatory, you’ll be an expert once you create a custom service or two.
|
[Unit] |
[Unit] : The section which contain individual unit definition info.
Description: Put the description of your process here.
After : Execute after this command/target
Before : Execute before this command/target
[Service] : This section contains configurations for this service
Type : What type of process; simple, oneshot, forking, etc.
PIDFile : A location for the PID file if the type is forking
ExecStart : The command used to to start the process when systemctl start command is called
RestartSec : The delay to restart a process after it dies
Restart : Conditions on when to restart, always, on-failure, on-success, etc.
ExecReload : Command to restart the process
ExecStop : Command to stop the process
Installation
To enable the service you would run the command systemctl enable example.service .
Conclusion
This is just an introduction, there is much more you can do and more options for the systemd config files. But with just what you have read here you should be able to get going and troubleshoot any issues. Love these Linux hacks? Want other tips and hacks? Just leave me a comment with questions or feedback!
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