Start, Control, and Monitor Synchronet BBS using systemd

Synchronet v3.20d-Win32 (install) has been released (Mar-2025).
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====== Start Synchronet BBS from Systemd ======

If you run modern GNU/Linux distributions, you can found [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemd|Systemd]] as init system (like Debian, Fedora and others).

Instead of use the old /etc/init.d/sbbs.service init script, you can create a systemd services unit file:

Create and edit the follow files (please correct your ExecStart path and User/Group as you need):

===== Ubuntu 16.04+ =====
/lib/systemd/system/sbbs.service
  [Unit]
  Description=Synchronet BBS service
  Documentation=man:sbbs
  After=syslog.target network.target
  
  [Service]
  Type=forking
  Environment=SBBSROOT=/sbbs SBBSCTRL=/sbbs/ctrl
  User=sbbs
  Group=sbbs
  PermissionsStartOnly=true
  ExecStartPre=/sbin/setcap 'cap_net_bind_service=+ep' /sbbs/src/sbbs3/gcc.linux.x64.exe.release/sbbs
  ExecStart=/sbbs/exec/sbbs d
  ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
  Restart=on-failure
  RestartSec=30
  
  [Install]
  WantedBy=multi-user.target

Some points in this config:
   * **After**. If you are using syslog with sbbs, so it is nice to put that requirement before systemd tries to launch sbbs.
   * **Type**. If you are to run SBBS in daemonized mode, the main executable will exit after the daemon is called. This could confuse systemd into thinking the process is finished. If you use "Type=forking" you tell systemd that the process you launch will execute another process.
   * **Environment**. In order to avoid having multiple files, you can embed the variables inside the service file.
   * **PermissionsStartOnly**. This one tells systemd to execute ExecStartPre as root, but ExecStart as the user and group declared in User,Group.
   * **ExecStartPre**. For some weird reason, capabilities are frequently lost from the sbbs executable. It is possible to mitigate the effect by running setcap just before the daemon is ran. The binding won't fail anymore using this. Please notice you can't point a symlink here, so modify the architecture directory to the right path (gcc.linux.x64.exe.release or gcc.linux.exe.release).
   * **ExecStart**. If you don't want to get syslog entries duplicated you will have to run SBBS in daemonized mode, so the "d" parameter is used. Syslog is implicit when daemonized, so there is no need for additional parameters. 
   * **RestartSec**. It's advisable to wait some secs before attempting restarting in case of failure, just to give some time for binding release.

Installation instructions:
  -Modify the environment variables to match your SBBS setup
  -Modify User and Group. If you run this as root you don't need the ExecStartPre line.
  -Modify the ExecStart and ExecStartPre paths to match your Synchronet setup.
  -Place this file in the correct location. For Ubuntu 16.04 you should place it in /lib/systemd/system
  -Enable the service with "systemctl enable sbbs"
  -To run the service without restarting "systemctl start sbbs"

Running //systemctl status sbbs// will show:

  ● sbbs.service - Synchronet BBS service
    Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/sbbs.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
    Active: active (running) since Thu 2016-12-15 20:20:43 CET; 16s ago
      Docs: man:sbbs
   Process: 12364 ExecStart=/sbbs/exec/sbbs d (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Process: 12356 ExecStartPre=/sbin/setcap cap_net_bind_service=+ep /sbbs/src/sbbs3/gcc.linux.x64.exe.release/sbbs (code=exited, status
  Main PID: 12374 (sbbs)
     Tasks: 11
    Memory: 30.1M
       CPU: 223ms
    CGroup: /system.slice/sbbs.service
            └─12374 /sbbs/exec/sbbs d
  
  Dec 15 20:23:25 HISPAMSX sbbs[1226]: term Node 1 Telnet  ------- [----------]
  Dec 15 20:23:31 HISPAMSX sbbs[1226]: term Node 1 Terminal not detected, reducing inactivity hang-up timeout to 75 seconds
  Dec 15 20:23:36 HISPAMSX sbbs[1226]: term Node 1 Unknown User 'Enable'
  Dec 15 20:24:02 HISPAMSX sbbs[1226]: term Node 1 disconnected
  Dec 11 20:24:03 HISPAMSX sbbs[1226]: term Node 1 thread terminated (0 node threads remain, 71 clients served)


===== Debian =====
/etc/default/sbbs
  SBBSCTRL=/sbbs/ctrl

/etc/systemd/system/sbbs.service 
  [Unit]
  Description=Synchronet BBS
  Documentation=man:sbbs
  After=network.target
  
  [Service]
  Restart=on-failure
  EnvironmentFile=-/etc/default/sbbs
  ExecStart=/sbbs/exec/sbbs nd
  ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
  User=root
  Group=root
  
  [Install]
  WantedBy=multi-user.target


Finally, you must execute //systemd daemon-reload// for tell systemd te reload the unit file

Test your setup:

  # systemctl status sbbs
  ● sbbs.service - Synchronet BBS
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/sbbs.service; enabled)
     Active: active (running) since lun 2016-11-21 14:39:53 ART; 24min ago
       Docs: man:sbbs
    Process: 14393 ExecStart=/sbbs/exec/sbbs nd (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 14393 (sbbs)
     CGroup: /system.slice/sbbs.service
             └─14393 /sbbs/exec/sbbs nd
  
  nov 21 14:39:53 scarlet systemd[1]: Started Synchronet BBS.


===== Debian (alternative using tmux) =====

You can use [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tmux|Tmux]] to still the Synchronet BBS console running on a screen that can be attached when you need

/etc/default/sbbs
  SBBSCTRL=/sbbs/ctrl

/etc/systemd/system/sbbs.service 
  [Unit]
  Description=Synchronet BBS
  Documentation=man:sbbs
  After=network.target
  
  [Service]
  Restart=on-failure
  Type=forking
  KillMode=none
  EnvironmentFile=-/etc/default/sbbs
  
  ExecStart=/usr/bin/tmux new-session -d -s sbbs '/sbbs/exec/sbbs nd'
  ExecStop=/usr/bin/tmux send-keys -t sbbs 'q' C-m 'exit' C-m
  
  User=root
  Group=root
  
  [Install]
  WantedBy=multi-user.target

Using tmux, Synchronet start in a session (called sbbs), you can attach to the running console using //tmux attach -t sbbs//

{{:howto:sbbs_tmux.png?200|}}

===== See Also =====
  * [[:howto:|howto index]]

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