Modified; original found here
One way to run a program on your Raspberry Pi at startup is to use the systemd files. systemd provides a standard process for controlling what programs run when a Linux system boots up. Note that systemd is available only from the Jessie versions of Raspbian OS.
Open a sample unit file using the command as shown below:
sudo vim /lib/systemd/system/sample.service
Add in the following text :
[Unit]
Description=My Sample Service
After=multi-user.target
[Service]
Type=idle
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /home/pi/sample.py
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
You should save and exit the editor.
This defines a new service called “Sample Service” and we are requesting that it is launched once the multi-user environment is available. The “ExecStart” parameter is used to specify the command we want to run. The “Type” is set to “idle” to ensure that the ExecStart command is run only when everything else has loaded. Note that the paths are absolute and define the complete location of Python as well as the location of our Python script.
In order to store the script’s text output in a log file you can change the ExecStart line to:
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python /home/pi/sample.py > /home/pi/sample.log 2>&1
The permission on the unit file needs to be set to 644 :
sudo chmod 644 /lib/systemd/system/sample.service
Now the unit file has been defined we can tell systemd to start it during the boot sequence :
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable sample.service
Reboot the Pi and your custom service should run:
sudo reboot
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