webinstall.dev/serviceman Star on GitHub

To update or switch versions, run webi serviceman@stable (or @v0.8, beta, etc).

Cheat Sheet

A lightweight, cross-platform wrapper to more easily
use your native init system to control system service daemons
and user launch agents. \

Works for web servers, backup scripts, network and system tools, etc, in all languages.

• Launchd (macOS)
• Systemd (Linux)
• OpenRC (Alpine, Docker)
• Windows: Startup Registry

Works for any program, written in any language.

Table of Contents

• Files
• User Agents & System Daemons
  • Bash, Node, Go, etc
• Service Management
• Dry Run
• Unit File Examples
  • systemd, launchd, openrc

Files

These are the files / directories that are created and/or modified with this install:

~/.config/envman/PATH.env
~/.local/bin/serviceman

This will also generate init system unit files according to your OS:

(use the --dryrun option to learn what serviceman does without making any changes)

• launchctl (macOS)

  ~/Library/LaunchAgents/<AGENT>.plist
  /Library/LaunchDaemons/<DAEMON>.plist
  

• systemctl (Linux)

  /etc/systemd/system/<DAEMON>.service
  ~/.config/systemd/user/<AGENT>.service
  

• openrc (Alpine, Docker)

  /etc/init.d/<DAEMON>
  

• The Registry (Windows)

  HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run <AGENT>
  

Example: Bash

sudo env PATH="$PATH" \
    serviceman add --system --path="$PATH" -- \
    bash ./backup.sh /mnt/data

Example: Node.js

Development Server

pushd ./my-node-app/

sudo env PATH="$PATH" \
    serviceman add --system --path="$PATH" \
    --cap-net-bind -- \
    npx nodemon ./server.js

Production Server

pushd ./my-node-app/

sudo env PATH="$PATH" \
    serviceman add --system --path="$PATH" \
    --cap-net-bind -- \
    npm start

Example: Golang

pushd ./my-go-package/

sudo env PATH="$PATH" \
    serviceman add --system --path="$PATH" \
    -- \
    go run -mod=vendor cmd/my-service/*.go --port 3000

pushd ./my-go-package/
go build -mod=vendor cmd/my-service

sudo env PATH="$PATH" \
    serviceman add --system --path="$PATH" \
    --cap-net-bind -- \
    ./my-service --port 80

How to see all services

serviceman list --system
serviceman list --user

serviceman-managed services:

        example-service

How to restart a service

You can either add the service again (which will update any changed options), or you can stop and then start any service by its name:

sudo env PATH="$PATH" serviceman stop example-service
sudo env PATH="$PATH" serviceman start example-service

See the (sub)command help

The main help, showing all subcommands:

serviceman --help

Sub-command specific help:

serviceman add --help

Use --dryrun to see the generated launcher config:

sudo env PATH="$PATH" \
    serviceman add --system --path="$PATH" \
    --dryrun -- \
    bash ./backup.sh /mnt/data

What a typical systemd .service file looks like

systemd is the init system on cloud-init enabled server distros, and most desktop distros.

[Unit]
Description=example-service
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target systemd-networkd-wait-online.service

[Service]
Restart=always
StartLimitInterval=10
StartLimitBurst=3

User=root
Group=root

WorkingDirectory=/srv/example-service
ExecStart=/srv/example-service/bin/example-command start
ExecReload=/bin/kill -USR1 $MAINPID

# Allow the program to bind on privileged ports, such as 80 and 443
CapabilityBoundingSet=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE
AmbientCapabilities=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE
NoNewPrivileges=true

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

What a typical init.d service script looks like

openrc is the init system on Alpine and other Docker and container-friendly Linuxes.

/etc/init.d/exampled:

#!/sbin/openrc-run
supervisor=supervise-daemon

name="Example System Daemon"
description="A Service for Logging 'Hello, World', a lot!"
description_checkconfig="Check configuration"
description_reload="Reload configuration without downtime"

# example:
# exampled run --port 1337 --envfile /path/to/env
# exampled check-config --port 1337 --envfile /path/to/env
# exampled reload --port 1337 --envfile /path/to/env

# for setting Config
: ${exampled_opts:="--envfile /root/.config/exampled/env"}

command=/root/bin/exampled
command_args="run --port 1337 $exampled_opts"
command_user=root:root
extra_commands="checkconfig"
extra_started_commands="reload"
output_log=/var/log/exampled.log
error_log=/var/log/exampled.err

depend() {
    need net localmount
    after firewall
}

checkconfig() {
    ebegin "Checking configuration for $name"
    su ${command_user%:*} -s /bin/sh -c "$command check-config $exampled_opts"
    eend $?
}

reload() {
    ebegin "Reloading $name"
    su ${command_user%:*} -s /bin/sh -c "$command reload $exampled_opts"
    eend $?
}

stop_pre() {
    if [ "$RC_CMD" = restart ]; then
        checkconfig || return $?
    fi
}

What a typical launchd .plist file looks like

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Generated for serviceman. Edit as you wish, but leave this line. -->
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>example-service</string>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/Users/me/example-service/bin/example-command</string>
    <string>start</string>
  </array>

  <key>RunAtLoad</key>
  <true/>
  <key>KeepAlive</key>
  <true/>

  <key>WorkingDirectory</key>
  <string>/Users/me/example-service</string>

  <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
  <string>/Users/me/.local/share/example-service/var/log/example-service.log</string>
  <key>StandardOutPath</key>
  <string>/Users/me/.local/share/example-service/var/log/example-service.log</string>
</dict>
</plist>