Looking to start a script in Ubuntu everytime a user logs in

[Derrick Irwin]

Hello,

I've tried searching for this issue, but I cannot seem to get it right. I am using Ubuntu 14.04 right now, I wrote a script to restart a program/process. It's a .sh script. I was wondering if it was possible to get it to run automatically when a user logs into the system. I've tried to copy it into the /etc/init.d folder using sudo, but it still doesn't seem to run at start up. Also, FYI, when I double click on it and run it as an executable it runs with no problem.

These are the commands I'm trying, but I'm not sure if this is the "old" way of getting a script to run at login:

make your script executable


copy your script to the /etc/init.d/ folder with


sudo cp /path_to_script/script.sh /etc/init.d/


invoke update-rc.d with


sudo update-rc.d script.sh defaults

If anyone has any ideas I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you!

 

[wizardfromoz]

Hi @Derrick Irwin and welcome to linux.org

I am very rusty at scripting but hoping to shake that off soon (well, sometime this millennium... I am a wizard)

In your 'Trusty Tahr' you may have a file /etc/rc.local, do you have that?, or if not, you can create one.

As I understand it, scripts in rc.local only kick in normally when the X server starts, which is at or following login, but it can be run from startup, and that would serve?

There is an article here

https://askubuntu.com/questions/9853/how-can-i-make-rc-local-run-on-startup

which makes for interesting reading, and the part I refer to has 46 votes and has 9 steps.

If that is not satisfactory, then our resident scripting guru @JasKinasis may have better ideas, he is from Britain so allow for timezones. I am from Australia.

Good luck

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

 

[MacgyverPT]

try this:

$nano ~/.bash_profile

add the script: sh /path-to-your-script/script.sh

close the editor and run this command:

$source ~/.bash_profile

-----
if you dont have .bash_profile, search the .bashrc

 

[MacgyverPT]

Or follow this steps: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12973777/how-to-run-a-shell-script-at-startup

 

[Rob]

Putting the script path at the bottom of the ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc for the local user or in /etc/bashrc / /etc/bash_profile (globally) should run each login, unless they're using a shell other than bash.