describe the app

Description=My App

start the app after the network is available

After=network.target

[Service]

usually you'll use 'simple'

one of https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.service.html#Type=

Type=simple

which user to use when starting the app

User=YOUR_USER

path to your application's root directory

WorkingDirectory=/home/YOUR_USER/path/to/my-app

the command to start the app

requires absolute paths

ExecStart=/home/YOUR_USER/.bun/bin/bun run index.ts

restart policy

one of {no|on-success|on-failure|on-abnormal|on-watchdog|on-abort|always}

Restart=always

[Install]

start the app automatically

WantedBy=multi-user.target

* * *

If your application starts a webserver, note that non-`root` users are not able to listen on ports 80 or 443 by default. To permanently allow Bun to listen on these ports when executed by a non-`root` user, use the following command. This step isn’t necessary when running as `root`.

terminal

setcap CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE=+eip ~/.bun/bin/bun

* * *

With the service file configured, you can now _enable_ the service. Once enabled, it will start automatically on reboot. This requires `sudo` permissions.

terminal

systemctl enable my-app

* * *

To start the service without rebooting, you can manually _start_ it.

terminal

systemctl start my-app

* * *

Check the status of your application with `systemctl status`. If you’ve started your app successfully, you should see something like this:

terminal

systemctl status my-app

● my-app.service - My App Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/my-app.service; enabled; preset: enabled) Active: active (running) since Thu 2023-10-12 11:34:08 UTC; 1h 8min ago Main PID: 309641 (bun) Tasks: 3 (limit: 503) Memory: 40.9M CPU: 1.093s CGroup: /system.slice/my-app.service └─309641 /home/YOUR_USER/.bun/bin/bun run /home/YOUR_USER/application/index.ts

* * *

To update the service, edit the contents of the service file, then reload the daemon.

terminal

systemctl daemon-reload

* * *

For a complete guide on the service unit configuration, you can check [this page](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.service.html). Or refer to this cheatsheet of common commands:

terminal

systemctl daemon-reload # tell systemd that some files got changed systemctl enable my-app # enable the app (to allow auto-start) systemctl disable my-app # disable the app (turns off auto-start) systemctl start my-app # start the app if is stopped systemctl stop my-app # stop the app systemctl restart my-app # restart the app