Virtualenv Upstart Instead of Init.d Scripts#

This approach is even simpler than VirtualEnv Init.d Scripts the Easy Way.

Let’s assume you have a user trac with group trac living in /home/trac which contains a Virtualenv. To run Trac you would issue the following commands:

su - trac
pwd
# /home/trac
source bin/activate
tracd --port=8000 --hostname=0.0.0.0 --env-parent-dir=/home/trac/envs

To make this an Upstart service, create a file called /etc/init/trac.conf with the following contents:

description "Trac daemon"

start on runlevel [2345]
stop on runlevel [!2345]

setuid trac
setgid git

exec /home/trac/bin/tracd --port=8000 --hostname=0.0.0.0 --env-parent-dir=/home/trac/envs

Now start trac:

service trac start

By using the full path /home/trac/bin/tracd virtualenv gets activated automatically. Check head -n 1 /home/trac/bin/tracd if you do not believe me.

The setgid line tells Upstart: “In addition to your main group (trac) use the group git too.”

Another interesting option is respawn. On death: revive.

Now let’s take this a little further.

Trac Gunicorn Upstart#

Install Gunicorn:

su - trac
source bin/activate
pip install gunicorn
exit

New /etc/init/trac.conf:

description "Trac daemon"

start on runlevel [2345]
stop on runlevel [!2345]

setuid trac
setgid git

env TRAC_ENV_PARENT_DIR='/home/trac/envs'

expect daemon

respawn

exec /home/trac/bin/gunicorn --config=/home/trac/conf/gunicorn_trac.py trac.web.main:dispatch_request

The expect daemon line took a while to find. To trace forks, Upstart has two options:

  1. expect fork which traces one fork

  2. expect daemon which traces two forks

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