rc.local and python script

Question

I'm trying to start a script on bootup on a Ubuntu Server 10.10 machine.

The relevant parts of my rc.local look like this:

/usr/local/bin/python3.2 "/root/Advantage/main.py" >> /startuplogfile
exit 0

If I run ./rc.local from /etc everything works just fine and it writes the following into /startuplogfile:

usage: main.py [--loop][--dry]

for testing purposes this is exactly what needs to happen. It won't write anything to startuplogfile when I reboot the computer. I'd venture to guess that the script is not started when rc.local is run at bootup.

I verified that rc.local is started with a 'touch /rclocaltest' in the file. As expected the directory is created.

I've tested rc.local with another python script that simple creates a file in / and prints to the /startuplogfile. From terminal and after reboot, it works just fine.

my execution bits are set like this:

-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root    4598 2011-04-22 19:09 main.py

I have absolutely no idea why this happens and I tried everything that I could think of to remedy the problem. Any ideas on what could be causing this, I'm totally out of ideas.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I only login to this machine over ssh. I'm not sure that makes difference since rc.local is executed before login as far as I know.

EDIT: I noticed that this post is a little chaotic so let me sum it up:

I verified that rc.local is called on bootup
If rc.local is manually called everything works as expected
Permissions are set correctly
A testing python script works as expected on bootup with rc.local
My actual python script will only run if rc.local is manually called, not on bootup

Cédric Julien · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-23 11:19:15Z

3

try to redirect stderr and stdout into the /startuplogfile like this :

/usr/local/bin/python3.2 "/root/Advantage/main.py" >> /startuplogfile 2>&1

you will see if an error occurs

answered Apr 23, 2011 at 11:19

Cédric Julien

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3 Comments

Daniel Richter Over a year ago

I will try that right now. Could you do me a big favor and explain the syntax? I'm intrigued.

Daniel Richter Over a year ago

This helped tremendously I now have a much clearer picture of what's going on. Sure enough, the error was coming from the python script. Thank you very much

Cédric Julien Over a year ago

stderr (where errors are logged) is the 2. stdout (where the standard output is logged and by) is the 1, the one you can put in a file. When writing 2>&1 you redirect stderr into stdout.

Mark Longair · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-23 11:30:17Z

3

You definitely don't want to have that script world-writable. You're trying to automatically run it as root on bootup, but since it's world-writable anyone could change the script to do anything at all - that's a massive security hole.

edited Apr 23, 2011 at 11:30

answered Apr 23, 2011 at 11:23

Mark Longair

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1 Comment

Daniel Richter Over a year ago

You're right and thank you. I just went all out to try to make this work, once that happens I will start locking things down!

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