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I got a bash script essentially runnning this:

#!/bin/bash [...] while true; do str="broadcast "`randArrayElement "messages[@]"` server_send_message $str sleep $interval done

Now I want to run this as a systemd service, my service script looks like this:

[Unit] Description=Announcer After=network.target [Service] ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/somescript &; disown ExecStop=/usr/bin/kill -9 `cat /tmp/somescript.pid` Type=forking PIDFile=/tmp/somescript.pid [Install] WantedBy=default.target

Unfortunately when I run this service via service somescript start it is working but because of the while true loop my terminal is stuck in starting the script:

● somescript.service - somescript service Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/somescript.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: activating (start) since Wed 2016-08-17 12:22:34 CEST; 43s ago Control: 17395 (somescript) CGroup: /system.slice/somescript.service ├─17395 /bin/bash /usr/local/bin/somescript &; disown └─17409 sleep 600

How can I run this script as a service without being stuck in "starting" / the while true loop?

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    2 Answers 2

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    11

    You need to let systemd work for you. Let it handle the forking at the start and the killing of the process. Eg replace your service part by

    [Service] Type=simple ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/somescript PIDFile=/tmp/somescript.pid

    then you can use systemctl start, status and stop. You must remember that the lines in systemd are NOT interpreted by the shell, so for example your &; is merely passed as another parameter of 2 characters to your script.

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    5
    • Okay thanks, I did the changes. Unfortunately the script still hangs when trying to start it as before.
      – Bent
      CommentedAug 17, 2016 at 11:43
    • 1
      Did you remember to do sudo systemctl daemon-reload?
      – meuh
      CommentedAug 17, 2016 at 11:52
    • You know these moments you think you already did something though you did not? Thanks it works! :)
      – Bent
      CommentedAug 17, 2016 at 11:55
    • in my case i have to add /bin/bash too
      – ImranRazaKhan
      CommentedSep 25, 2021 at 19:58
    • 1
      @ImranRazaKhan Make sure you have done chmod a+rx on your script file so that it is executable, and that the first line is #!/bin/bash if it is a bash script.
      – meuh
      CommentedSep 26, 2021 at 14:40
    1

    Depending on your requirements you might consider to replace your loop by a systemd timer configuration. It will not start service twice even if server_send_message takes longer than "OnUnitActiveSec":

    somescript.timer

    [Unit] Description=Announce every minute [Timer] OnUnitActiveSec=1m AccuracySec=10s Unit=somescript.service [Install] WantedBy=default.target

    somescript.service Service part:

    [Service] Type=oneshot ExecStart=/usr/bin/sh -c 'str="broadcast "`randArrayElement "messages[@]"`; server_send_message $str'
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