Bash init - start service under specific user

linux bash ubuntu init
David Ryder picture David Ryder · Sep 19, 2011 · Viewed 56.1k times · Source

I am trying to create an init script in bash (Ubuntu) that starts a service under a specific user.

Is there a better way to do that other than this?

su - <user>  -c "bash -c  'cd $DIR ;<service name>'"

Answer

Carl picture Carl · Jul 31, 2013

Ubuntu uses start-stop-daemon which already supports this feature.

Use the skeleton file from /etc/init.d:

sudo cp /etc/init.d/skeleton /etc/init.d/mynewservice

Edit mynewservice appropriately.

Add the following parameter to the lines that call start-stop-daemon:

--chuid username:group

Example:

Change

start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \

to

start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --chuid someuser:somegroup --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \

Finally, register your service and start it:

update-rc.d mynewservice defaults 99 && service mynewservice start

More info about other options for start-stop-daemon here

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