How to add an application to run as a service in Linux?

Question

How to add an application to start automatically on system startup in Linux? My distro: Mandriva 2009.1

Answer 1

Mandriva seems quite similar to Red Hat in it's handling of startup scripts. If you installed the software from an RPM and it is designed to be run as a server then there is probably an init script already available.

If you run:

chkconfig --list

You can see all of the daemons that might potentially be run at startup. If the program you wish to start is in that list then you probably just need to configure it to start when your computer loads. Do this with:

chkconfig --level 345 <service_name> on

If it isn't in the list then you have a little more work to do. http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Working_with_initscripts has all the gory details.

Answer 2

If you are referring to job scheduling you should take a look at Cron and Crontab

Answer 3

In addition to setting up the init scripts (either using chkconfig or by hand hacking the /etc/init.d hierarchy) and using cron (8), some simple services can be handled from /etc/inittab.

See for instance Using inittab to ensure sshd (and other important items) are still running — any drawbacks? on Server Fault.