How to make Python script run as service?

I use this code to daemonize my applications. It allows you start/stop/restart the script using the following commands.

python myscript.py start
python myscript.py stop
python myscript.py restart

In addition to this I also have an init.d script for controlling my service. This allows you to automatically start the service when your operating system boots-up.

Here is a simple example to get your going. Simply move your code inside a class, and call it from the run function inside MyDeamon.

import sys
import time

from daemon import Daemon


class YourCode(object):
    def run(self):
        while True:
            time.sleep(1)


class MyDaemon(Daemon):
    def run(self):
        # Or simply merge your code with MyDaemon.
        your_code = YourCode()
        your_code.run()


if __name__ == "__main__":
    daemon = MyDaemon('/tmp/daemon-example.pid')
    if len(sys.argv) == 2:
        if 'start' == sys.argv[1]:
            daemon.start()
        elif 'stop' == sys.argv[1]:
            daemon.stop()
        elif 'restart' == sys.argv[1]:
            daemon.restart()
        else:
            print "Unknown command"
            sys.exit(2)
        sys.exit(0)
    else:
        print "usage: %s start|stop|restart" % sys.argv[0]
        sys.exit(2)

Upstart

If you are running an operating system that is using Upstart (e.g. CentOS 6) – you can also use Upstart to manage the service. If you use Upstart you can keep your script as is, and simply add something like this under /etc/init/my-service.conf

start on started sshd
stop on runlevel [!2345]

exec /usr/bin/python /opt/my_service.py
respawn

You can then use start/stop/restart to manage your service.

e.g.

start my-service
stop my-service
restart my-service

A more detailed example of working with upstart is available here.

Systemd

If you are running an operating system that uses Systemd (e.g. CentOS 7) you can take a look at the following Stackoverflow answer.