Subj : Re: How do I start a process at boot time?
To   : comp.os.linux
From : Arne S. Löfgren
Date : Mon Sep 27 2004 07:10 am

Wiseguy wrote:
> "Arne S. Löfgren" <arne.s.lofgren@telia.com> tried to express:
>> Hello!
>>
>> How do I start a process at boot time? I just want to run a
>> Perl-script which handles my webcam. I made I command file calles
>> "wcamd" and put it in /etc/rc.d/rc.local, but it does not start.
>> This is so simple in Windows, just put it in AUTOEXEC.BAT, but how
>> do I do it in Linux (Fedora Core 2)? I have set permissions to 755
>> on both files.
>
> rc.local is a BSD startup file.  I believe most, if not all Linux
> distros now use the AT&T SVR4 startup files in /etc/rc.d/rc?.d where
> ? is the runlevel that the task should start/stop in.
>
> Read the  documentation for you distro.

There is not very much to read about that topic in the Fedora Core 2 
documentation, and not in the book "Linux: The Complete Reference" neither 
(it wasn't so complete after all), and I have searched the Internet, but 
found nothing specfic. Anyway I have found out how to do it myself:

1. Create a script which must have functions start, stop, restart etc.
    I named it wcamd, and put it in /etc/rc.d/init.d/wcamd, as a template I 
took a script that was already
    there, I chose "vsftpd", copied it to "wcamd" and made changes to it.
2. Make a link to it from /etc/rc.d/r3c.d:
    # su
    # cd /etc/rc.d/rc3.d
    # ln -s ../init.d/wcamd S99wcamd
3. It now starts at boot time!

I wish that it was that easily explained in the documentation somewhere. 
Hope this will be helpful for others.

A.L.

.