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

serviceman add --name 'backup' -- \
    bash ./backup.sh /mnt/data

Example: Node.js

Development Server

pushd ./my-node-app/

serviceman add --name 'my-node-app' -- \
    npx nodemon ./server.js

Production Server

pushd ./my-node-app/

serviceman add --name 'my-node-app' -- \
    npm start

Example: Golang

pushd ./my-go-package/

serviceman add --name 'my-service' -- \
    go run -mod=vendor cmd/my-service/*.go --port 3000

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

serviceman add --name 'my-service' -- \
    ./my-service --port 80

How to see all services

serviceman list --system --all
serviceman list --agent --all

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:

serviceman stop 'example-service'
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:

serviceman add --name 'my-backups' --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.

# Generated for serviceman. Edit as needed. Keep this line for 'serviceman list'.
# https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/systemd.service.html

[Unit]
Description=postgres postgres daemon
Documentation=(none)
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target systemd-networkd-wait-online.service

[Service]
Restart=always
RestartSec=3
RestartSteps=5
RestartMaxDelaySec=300

User=app
Group=app

Environment="PATH=/Users/app/.local/opt/pg-essentials/bin:/home/app/.local/opt/postgres/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"
WorkingDirectory=/home/app/.local/share/postgres/var
ExecStart="/home/app/.local/opt/postgres/bin/postgres" "-D" "/home/app/.local/share/postgres/var" "-p" "5432"
ExecReload=/bin/kill -USR1 $MAINPID

# Limit the number of file descriptors and processes; see `man systemd.exec` for more limit settings.
# These are reasonable defaults for a production system.
# Note: systemd "user units" do not support this
LimitNOFILE=1048576
LimitNPROC=65536

# Enable if desired for extra file system security
# (ex: non-containers, multi-user systems)
#
# Use private /tmp and /var/tmp, which are discarded after the service stops.
; PrivateTmp=true
# Use a minimal /dev
; PrivateDevices=true
# Hide /home, /root, and /run/user. Nobody will steal your SSH-keys.
; ProtectHome=true
# Make /usr, /boot, /etc and possibly some more folders read-only.
; ProtectSystem=full
# ... except /opt/{{ .Name }} because we want a place for the database
# and /var/log/{{ .Name }} because we want a place where logs can go.
# This merely retains r/w access rights, it does not add any new.
# Must still be writable on the host!
; ReadWriteDirectories=/opt/postgres /var/log/postgres

# Grant restricted, root-like privileges to the service.
# CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE allows binding on privileged ports as a non-root user
# CAP_LEASE allows locking files and is sometimes used for handling file uploads
# Some services may require additional capabilities:
# https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/capabilities.7.html
CapabilityBoundingSet=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE CAP_LEASE
AmbientCapabilities=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE CAP_LEASE
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

# Generated for serviceman. Edit as needed. Keep this line for 'serviceman list'.
name="postgres"
# docs: (none)
description="postgres daemon"

supervisor="supervise-daemon"
output_log="/var/log/postgres"
error_log="/var/log/postgres"

depend() {
    need net
}

start_pre() {
    checkpath --directory --owner root /var/log/
    checkpath --file --owner 'app:app' ${output_log} ${error_log}
}

start() {
    ebegin "Starting ${name}"
    supervise-daemon ${name} --start \
        --chdir '/home/app/.local/share/postgres/var' \
        --env 'PATH=/Users/app/.local/opt/pg-essentials/bin:/home/app/.local/opt/postgres/bin:/usr/bin:/bin' \
        --user 'app' \
        --group 'app' \
        --stdout ${output_log} \
        --stderr ${error_log} \
        --pidfile /run/${RC_SVCNAME}.pid \
        --respawn-delay 5 \
        --respawn-max 51840 \
        --capabilities=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE \
        -- \
        '/home/app/.local/opt/postgres/bin/postgres' '-D' '/home/app/.local/share/postgres/var' '-p' '5432'
    eend $?
}

stop() {
    ebegin "Stopping ${name}"
    supervise-daemon ${name} --stop \
        --pidfile /run/${RC_SVCNAME}.pid
    eend $?
}

What a typical launchd .plist file looks like

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Generated for serviceman. Edit as needed. Keep this line for 'serviceman list'. -->
<!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>postgres</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Users/app/.local/opt/postgres/bin/postgres</string>
        <string>-D</string>
        <string>/Users/app/.local/share/postgres/var</string>
        <string>-p</string>
        <string>5432</string>
    </array>

    <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
    <dict>
        <key>PATH</key>
        <string>/Users/app/.local/opt/pg-essentials/bin:/Users/app/.local/opt/postgres/bin:/usr/bin:/bin</string>
    </dict>

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

    <key>WorkingDirectory</key>
    <string>/Users/app/.local/share/postgres/var</string>

    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/Users/app/.local/share/postgres/var/log/postgres.log</string>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/Users/app/.local/share/postgres/var/log/postgres.log</string>
</dict>
</plist>