How to auto start service

[rornor]

Hi,

it seems that Ubuntu used upstart and now uses systemd for service management.

I installed mpd and want this service to auto-start. Installation seem to created valid auto start service script as /lib/systemd/system/mpd.service but service does not start unless I manually start with sudo service mpd start.

So I wanted to ask how to auto start service generally in WSL?

[sunilmut]

Background tasks are currently not supported on WSL. One way to accomplish this right now would be to use the "bash.exe -c " to start whatever you want. If you want that to auto start post Windows boot, you can hook that command to the Windows startup.

[benhillis]

Thanks @sunilmut. I'd also like to add that any daemons that you run will be terminated when the last bash.exe goes away so you'll have to leave one bash.exe running.

[ymeiner]

Correct me if i'm wrong just running -c with a command will not be enough, you need to exec bash at the end to get the window to stay open.

You can either do this:
bash.exe -c 'bash /path/to/file.sh; bash'
or add $SHELL at the end of the script.

[ZuSe]

Is there any more elegant way in the meantime that is more similar to systemd/upstart?

[skywind3000]

It is 2017 now, we still have this problem.

the background service is the last thing stopping me to swith from cygwin to wsl.

Has it been planned in the feature release ?

Any roadmaps ??

[dioptre]

This question is not answered here. Any progress on this?

[sunilmut]

@dioptre - Background tasks, daemons are now supported starting Insider build 17046. See the blog for more details. But, auto start of services is still not available. More detailed discussion on that at #834, #612

[troytse]

Hi guys, I made a script to support starting the WSL services on Windows start.
WSL-Autostart

[mathieucaroff]

@benhillis's remark is no longer true.
I can successfully exit wsl while I run shellinabox in a tmux server in wsl, without my shellinabox session being interrupted.

[benhillis]

Yeah that was 2+ years ago. We have added support for background tasks in the meantime.

[Justsoos]

@benhillis really? now I run WSL Ubuntu 18.04.1

# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS
Release:        18.04
Codename:       bionic

and the services, some with +, but how to set up the - service as autorun ?

#service --status-all
 [ - ]  acpid
 [ - ]  apparmor
 [ ? ]  apport
 [ - ]  atd
 [ - ]  bootmisc.sh
 [ - ]  checkfs.sh
 [ - ]  checkroot-bootclean.sh
 [ - ]  checkroot.sh
 [ - ]  console-setup.sh
 [ - ]  cron
 [ ? ]  cryptdisks
 [ ? ]  cryptdisks-early
 [ - ]  dbus
 [ - ]  ebtables
 [ - ]  hostname.sh
 [ ? ]  hwclock.sh
 [ + ]  irqbalance
 [ + ]  iscsid
 [ - ]  keyboard-setup.dpkg-bak
 [ - ]  keyboard-setup.sh
 [ - ]  killprocs
 [ - ]  kmod
 [ - ]  lvm2
 [ + ]  lvm2-lvmetad
 [ + ]  lvm2-lvmpolld
 [ - ]  lxcfs
 [ - ]  lxd
 [ - ]  mdadm
 [ - ]  mdadm-waitidle
 [ - ]  mountall-bootclean.sh
 [ - ]  mountall.sh
 [ - ]  mountdevsubfs.sh
 [ - ]  mountkernfs.sh
 [ - ]  mountnfs-bootclean.sh
 [ - ]  mountnfs.sh
 [ ? ]  networking
 [ ? ]  ondemand
 [ + ]  open-iscsi
 [ - ]  open-vm-tools
 [ ? ]  plymouth
 [ ? ]  plymouth-log
 [ - ]  procps
 [ - ]  rc.local
 [ + ]  resolvconf
 [ - ]  rsync
 [ - ]  rsyslog
 [ - ]  screen-cleanup
 [ - ]  sendsigs
 [ - ]  ssh
 [ + ]  tor
 [ - ]  udev
 [ - ]  ufw
 [ - ]  umountfs
 [ - ]  umountnfs.sh
 [ - ]  umountroot
 [ - ]  unattended-upgrades
 [ - ]  urandom
 [ - ]  uuidd
 [ - ]  x11-common

[mnpenner]

@benhillis We can start the cron service manually, and it will run as long as the terminal is open, but when we reboot Windows it doesn't start automatically, nor after opening a Bash window.

[Justsoos]

Now my solution is adding such like command to ~/.bashrc,
service start tor
Works well.

[mathieucaroff]

@ymeiner

Correct me if i'm wrong just running -c with a command will not be enough, you need to exec bash at the end to get the window to stay open.

You can either do this:
bash.exe -c 'bash /path/to/file.sh; bash'
or add $SHELL at the end of the script.

Here's a minor improvement: in bash.exe -c 'bash /path/to/file.sh; bash', the last bash will start bash as a child of the current bash process. Using exec will replace the current process:

bash.exe -c 'bash /path/to/file.sh; exec bash -i'

The final -i may be omitted in most situations.
Use pstree to show the current process with its ancestors.

[lenowng]

Now my solution is adding such like command to ~/.bashrc,
service start tor
Works well.

In this case, for every instance you'll have extra line of command that potentially cause a delay (might not quite noticeable but definitely not elegant) for example when opening a new tab.

[javierguzman]

Any better way to do this in 2021? Thank you in advance and regards