Run commands on Startup as Certain Users

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TheMaster

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Posted 11 August 2012 - 02:55 AM (#1)

Run commands on Startup as Certain Users

Right, so I'm setting up a server, and I want to run things really smoothly.

What I'm doing is make a different user for each thing that needs to be run (one user for web-server, one for no-ip client, etc. etc.)

What I want to do, is start each individual server on startup, and run it as that particular user. Many of the programs need to be executed manually (such as no-ip, bukkit, etc.), so I need a seperate script for each one.

How do I run several different scripts on startup, each as a different/specific user? I've searched around, and I've found a couple of things for running on startup that kinda work, but nothing about individual user account running.

Thanks in advance!

TheEmpty

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Posted 11 August 2012 - 03:50 AM (#2)

What OS is your server? Checkout "initab" although you might want something like monit for this in which case you use `su - user -c 'command'`

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TheMaster

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Posted 11 August 2012 - 04:34 AM (#3)

Oops, forgot to mention OS. It's Ubuntu.

Right now, I've managed to get it working by inserting 'su user -c "command" ', onto the end of /etc/rc.local.

It works, but it's not very comfirgurable (when to run it etc.). I'll have a look into initab and monit. Thanks!

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Posted 11 August 2012 - 08:02 AM (#4)

Take a look at run levels, and also at your /etc/rc.local/ folder.

That's probably what you want.

TheMaster

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Posted 11 August 2012 - 08:22 AM (#5)

NeilHanlon, on 11 August 2012 - 08:02 AM, said:

Take a look at run levels, and also at your /etc/rc.local/ folder.

There is no rc.local folder.

callumacrae

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Posted 11 August 2012 - 09:07 AM (#6)

Just don't shut it down :-D

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Posted 11 August 2012 - 09:22 AM (#7)

I wouldn't recommend editing

rc.local

just in case it does get overwritten by updates (I doubt it will, but it's still a good precaution if you're running important stuff in there). This article explains how the init system works in Debian, but I'm not sure how relevant it'll be to Ubuntu any more given that they're switching to Upstart. I think this documentation is what you're looking for if the Debian way no longer works

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Posted 11 August 2012 - 01:08 PM (#8)

I do this sort of thing with Supervisor to manage my uWSGI or PHP-FPM processes, as it allows specifying users to run as and works cross-platform as it is not dependent on the current init type used by the system. It's somewhat similar to launchd on the Mac in terms of configuration, as you can specify a number of different activation types and how you want a daemon to be executed in just a small configuration file. Another upside is that it manages logs for you and can auto-restart and process that crashes.