Start Synchronet BBS from systemd

If you run a modern GNU/Linux distribution, you will likely discover systemd is used as the init system (for starting and control system services/daemons).

In this case, instead of use the old SysV-style /etc/init.d/sbbs.service init script, you use a systemd services unit file:

Create and edit (or download from here) the following file (please correct your ExecStart path and User/Group as you need):

If you are already running Synchronet from systemd but can't remember where the config file is, the following commands will help.

systemctl status, then when viewing the file type /sbbs. Note the service name (probably sbbs.service). q to quit back to the command line.

Use that service name to return the path to the config file. Example: systemctl show -p FragmentPath sbbs.service

/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
  # this stops you running out of files
  LimitNOFILE=10000
  # this enables you to take a good core dump
  LimitCORE=infinity
  User=sbbs
  Group=sbbs
  PermissionsStartOnly=true
  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.
• User/Group. Remove these if you would like sbbs to start as root and then drop privileges to the User & Group configured in your sbbs.ini. Possibly remove PermissionsStartOnly and ExecStartPre as well, as they would be unnecessary. If you leave these in, ensure the User/Group settings in sbbs.ini are commented out.
• PermissionsStartOnly. This one tells systemd to execute ExecStartPre as root, but ExecStart as the user and group declared in User,Group. Can be removed if you remove the User/Group lines.
• 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:

1. Modify the environment variables to match your SBBS setup
2. Modify User and Group. If you run this as root you don't need the ExecStartPre line.
3. Modify the ExecStart and ExecStartPre paths to match your Synchronet setup.
4. Place this file in the correct location. For Ubuntu 16.04 you should place it in /lib/systemd/system
5. Enable the service with “systemctl enable sbbs”
6. 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)
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)

NOTE:
If you're running any kind of recent (last 2yrs+) systemd, to avoid the use of setcap to run 'sbbs' as a non-root user, just put this line in the [Service] section of your sbbs.service file: AmbientCapabilities=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE

You can have a text mode dashboard for monitoring and configuring your BBS realtime by using Byobu with Tmux or GNU Screen backends. If you are using the Tmux backend. The following configuration splits your screen in three panes: one for SBBS log, other for UMONITOR and a last one for SCFG. Please note that this configuration assumes SBBSCTRL variable is set and that access permissions to the needed files are set for the current user.

Create the file $BYOBU_CONFIG_DIR/windows.tmux.sbbs with the following contents:

new-session sbbs ;
new-window -n sbbs tail -n 50 -f /var/log/sbbs.log ;
split-window -h /sbbs/exec/umonitor ;
split-window -t 1 -v /sbbs/exec/scfg ;
set-option mouse on

And then run: user@localhost:~$ BYOBU_WINDOWS=sbbs byobu

If you want this to be your default environment when you log at your Synchronet server, then write the configuration to the $BYOBU_CONFIG_DIR/windows.tmux file instead of $BYOBU_CONFIG_DIR/windows.tmux.sbbs

The following screenshot shows the result:

If are using also binkd for FidoNet, this configuration will split the dashboard in 4 panes:

new-session sbbs ;
new-window -n sbbs tail -n 50 -f /var/log/sbbs.log ;
split-window -p 50 -h /sbbs/exec/umonitor ;
split-window -t 0 -p 20 -v tail -f /var/log/binkd.log ;
split-window -t 1 -v /sbbs/exec/scfg ;
set-option mouse on

/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 to 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.

You can use 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

Add these to the [Service] section of your service's config file:

To increase the open file limit:

LimitNOFILE=10000

To allow core file generation (for crash/segfault debugging:

LimitCORE=infinity

• howto index
• https://synchronetbbs.org/index.php/downloads - Alternate startup script that uses “screen” rather than tmux and restarts the server if it should crash.