[SOLVED] Starting a simple HTTPServer as a service on Raspian

Issue

Let me begin by saying that this is not a production system and I have no intention of making it one!

I have two scripts:

/home/pi/start.sh (owned by root):

#!/bin/bash
cd "$(dirname "$0")"
/usr/bin/python3 poolMonitor.py

and /home/pi/stop.sh (owned by root):

#!/bin/bash
sudo killproc -k -n poolMonitor.py

I have the file /etc/init.d/poolMonitor (owned by root):

#!/bin/bash
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: Pool Monitor
# Required-Start:    $all
# Required-Stop: 
# Default-Start:     5 
# Default-Stop:      6 
# Starts the Pool Monitor service
### END INIT INFO



start() {
        echo -n "Starting : "
        /home/pi/poolMonitor/start.sh
        return
}

stop() {
        echo -n "Shutting down : "
        /home/pi/poolMonitor/stop.sh
        return
}

case "$1" in
    start)
        start
        ;;
    stop)
        stop
        ;;
    status)
    status poolMonitor
        ;;
    restart)
        stop
        start
        ;;
    *)
        echo "Usage:  {start|stop|status|reload|restart[|probe]"
        exit 1
        ;;
esac
exit $?

I installed the service in init.d like this:

sudo update-rc.d poolMonitor defaults

I can successfully run (starts and stops the web server and I am able to browse to it):

sudo /home/pi/poolMonitor/start.sh
sudo /home/pi/poolMonitor/stop.sh
sudo service poolMonitor stop
sudo service poolMonitor start

Note, due to the nature of HTTPServer, start.sh never returns. I have tried adding an ampersand at the end of the line in the start.sh file:

/usr/bin/python3 poolMonitor.py &

The problem that I am having is that it does not start after a reboot (whether the ampersand is there or not).

Solution

Create a systemd service

To convert the script into a service, create .service file :

vi /home/pi/poolMonitor.service

Add this structure to poolMonitor.service

[Unit]
Description=Pool Monitor 
After=network-online.target
 
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /home/pi/poolMonitor.py
WorkingDirectory=/home/pi
StandardOutput=inherit
StandardError=inherit
Restart=always
 
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

copy the file into /lib/systemd/system

sudo cp /home/pi/poolMonitor.service /lib/systemd/system/

Test the service

sudo systemctl start poolMonitor.service

Stop it using:

sudo systemctl stop poolMonitor.service

Enable your service to start automatically on reboot by using:

sudo systemctl enable poolMonitor.service

From now you can use:

sudo service poolMonitor status/start/stop

Answered By - ufopilot

Answer Checked By - Candace Johnson (WPSolving Volunteer)