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Executing Commands and

Scripts at Reboot & Startup in
Linux

Originally published on

LinuxTechLab.com
There might arise a need to execute a command or scripts at
reboot or every time when we start our system. So how can
we do that, in this tutorial we are going to discuss just that.
We will discuss how we can make our CentOS/RHEL and
Ubuntu systems to execute a command or scripts at reboot
or at system startup using two different methods. Both the
methods are tested and works just fine,

Method 1 Using rc.local

In this method, we will use rc.local file located in /etc/ to execute our scripts and
commands at startup. We will make an entry to execute the script in the file & every
time when our system starts, the script will be executed.
But we will first provide the permissions to make the file /etc/rc.local executable,
$ sudo chmod +x /etc/rc.local

Next we will add the script to be executed in the file,

$ sudo vi /etc/rc.local

& at the bottom of file, add the entry

sh /root/script.sh &

Now save the file & exit. Similarly we can execute a command using rc.local file but we
need to make sure that we mention the full path of the command. To locate the full
command path, run
$ which command

For example,
$ which shutter
/usr/bin/shutter

For CentOS, we use file /etc/rc.d/rc.local instead of /etc/rc.local. We also need to make
this file executable before adding any script or command to the file.
Note:- When executing a script at startup, make sure that the script ends with exit 0.
Method 2 Crontab method

This method is the easiest method of the two methods. We will create a cron job that
will wait for 90 seconds after system startup & then will execute the command or script
on the system.
To create a cron job, open terminal & run
$ crontab -e

& enter the following line ,

@reboot ( sleep 90 ; sh \location\script.sh )

where \location\script.sh is the location of script to be executed.

So this was our tutorial on how to execute a script or a command when system starts
up. Please leave your queries, if any , using the comment box below.

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