Configure a server program to restart after crash

Question

I have a web service that runs on Linux. Is there a conventional way to ensure the server is restarted in the event of a crash?

I suppose I might have a shell script which does something like this:

while true; do ./myserver; done

But I think the need to attach the script to a session makes this a poor solution. What is the correct way to do this?

Should there be a daemon process which spawns the server as another daemon? Or is there a better way?

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 19 '20 at 09:08

2

This can be handled by systemd. A very basic service definition file could look like this:

[Unit]
Description=my server

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/path/to/myserver
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

answered Oct 19 '20 at 09:08

Gerald Schneider

Thanks. Does the server have to be a daemon, or does it not matter? – CaptainCodeman Oct 19 '20 at 10:10
A daemon is an application that runs in the background and provides a service. If your server matches that description it is a daemon. – Gerald Schneider Oct 19 '20 at 10:17
OK but I'm asking, can I configure systemd to run my process, without configuring the process as a daemon? – CaptainCodeman Oct 19 '20 at 10:23
I don't understand what you are asking. – Gerald Schneider Oct 19 '20 at 11:19
1

Read systemd.service documentation, and determine what Type you want. Both forking and not ("simple") are supported, pick what the software does. – John Mahowald Oct 19 '20 at 16:14

1 Answers1