Linux: Start user processes or systemd units at boot time with systemd
Hi,
systemd based system have the ability to start user processes in background and as daemon even the user isn’t logged on to the system.
Instead of defining a system systemd unit which switches the user at process start time, for example
[Service]
...
User=michael
Group=michael
systemd user units can also be started and stopped by the user itself.
You just have to create a systemd unit.
michael@debdev ~# mkdir -p $HOME/.config/systemd/user michael@debdev ~# vi $HOME/.config/systemd/user/myprocess.service
Content of myprocess.service is like
[Unit]
Description=My Process
After=multi-user.target
[Service]
RemainAfterExit=True
ExecStart=/home/michael/bin/myProcess
[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
Important is the WantedBy=default.target option!
Enable the unit and start it
michael@debdev ~# systemctl --user enable myprocess.service michael@debdev ~# systemctl --user start myprocess.service
If you want to start the unit at boot time you have to enable linger for the user.
root@debdev ~# loginctl enable-linger michael
Michael
