How to Run Scripts on Boot in Linux Using Systemd

Introduction

In this article, we will configure our Linux computer to autorun a script on boot. For the purpose of this article, we will be making use of systemd services.

BTW, I use Arch Linux, so if there’s any difference using a different distro, do not hesitate to leave a comment, please.

What is systemd?

systemd is a suite of basic building blocks for a Linux system. It provides a system and a service manager that runs as PID and starts the rest of the system. systemd provides aggressive parallelization capabilities, uses sockets and D-Bus activation for starting services, keeps track of processes, etc.

You can read more on systemd here.

The main command used to introspect and control systemd is systemctl.

Steps

• First, we will create a Bash script in /usr/local/sbin, for instance [notifyRemote.sh]

  (http://notifyRemote.sh), that would notify a remote machine once it’s booted.

  
  

• We will make the file executable by running the command:

  
  

  sudo chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/notifyRemote.sh
  

  
  

• Create a Unit file called startup.service in /etc/systemd/system/ to define a systemd service. You will need root access (sudo) to make changes or create these files.

  
  

• We will make the file executable by running the command:

  
  

  sudo chmod +x /etc/systemd/system/startup.service
  

  
  

• In /etc/systemd/system/startup.service, we would paste the below into the file as such:

  
  

  [Unit]
  Description=My Startup
  
  [Service]
  ExecStart=/usr/local/sbin/notifyRemote.sh
  
  [Install]
  WantedBy=multi.user.target
  

  
  

• The ExecStart is the most important key here because it points to the Bash program that will run when the service is started.

  
  

• We can test the service by running sudo systemctl start startup.service to confirm that the script will run.

  
  

• Now to enable services to run on boot, we will run the command:

  
  

  sudo systemctl enable startup.service
  

Conclusion

Now, we should successfully create a script that runs automatically anytime we start our Linux machine.

You can consult the systemd man page for more information.

I hope you find this helpful. Please leave a like, comment, and share if you found this helpful, and also you can consider buying me a coffee too.

Also published here: https://blog.zt4ff.dev/running-scripts-on-boot-in-linux-using-systemd