How to Initiate a Program Automatically Upon System Startup?

Scenario

I recently wanted my Python program to execute right after the system boots up. I discovered several options to achieve this, eliminating the need for manual intervention to run the program.

Option 1: Editing through Crontab

1. Open a terminal with elevated privileges:

sudo su -        

1. Edit the crontab configuration:

crontab -e        

1. Add the following command to start the Python program (assuming you want to run it on a Raspberry Pi terminal):

@reboot /usr/bin/python3 /path/to/your/script.py        

Option 2: Editing through services using systemd

• Create a script, name it as “myscript.sh”
• Make the script executable:

chmod +x myscript.sh        

• Navigate to the systemd directory:

cd /etc/systemd/system/        

• Create a service file named “myscript.service” inside the systemd directory.
• And below lines using

nano myscript.sh        

Description=My Script

[Service]
ExecStart=/path/to/myscript.sh
WorkingDirectory=/path/to/
StandardOutput=inherit
StandardError=inherit
Restart=always
User=<replace_username>

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
        

• Reload systemd:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload        

• Enable the service:

sudo systemctl enable myscript.service        

• Start the service:

sudo systemctl start myscript.service        

• To check the service status:

sudo systemctl status myscript.service        

Option 3: Autostart using lxsession

• Edit the autostart configuration file:

mkdir -p ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/
nano ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart        

• Add the following line to automatically start the Python script:

@lxpanel --profile LXDE-pi
@pcmanfm --desktop --profile LXDE-pi
@xscreensaver -no-splash
@lxterminal -e python3 /path/to/your/script.py        

• Save the file and initiate a system reboot:

sudo reboot