Systemd Service

Template for creating a systemd service unit that runs a script at boot.

Setup

Create a .service file in /etc/systemd/system/:


[Unit]
Description=Run Azure DevOps backup script at startup
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target
 
[Service]
Type=oneshot
User=sean
Group=sean
WorkingDirectory=/home/sean/devops-backup/
Environment=AZURE_DEVOPS_PAT=<PAT>
Environment=PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
ExecStart=/home/sean/devops-backup/backup-azure-devops.sh
StandardOutput=append:/var/log/myscript.log
StandardError=append:/var/log/myscript.log
 
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and start:


sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable your-service.service
sudo systemctl start your-service.service

Key fields

Type=oneshot — Script runs once and exits (not a daemon)
After=network-online.target — Waits for network before running
Environment — Set environment variables the script needs
StandardOutput/StandardError — Redirect logs to a file
WantedBy=multi-user.target — Runs at normal boot (multi-user mode)