Init.d script not working on startup: Failed to start SYSV

Question

The Keystone CMS system fails to run on startup. The problem is likely in this init.d startup script. I set the permissions, but something is still not right.

$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
$ sudo service keystone start
Job for keystone.service failed. See 'systemctl status keystone.service' and 'journalctl -xn' for details.
$ sudo service keystone status
● keystone.service - SYSV: Keystone server daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/keystone)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Thu 2016-10-13 07:39:12 UTC; 16s ago
  Process: 2785 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/keystone start (code=exited, status=203/EXEC)
 Main PID: 2698 (code=exited, status=216/GROUP)

Oct 13 07:39:12 test-vm systemd[2785]: Failed at step EXEC spawning /etc/init.d/keystone: Exec format error
Oct 13 07:39:12 test-vm systemd[1]: keystone.service: control process exited, code=exited status=203
Oct 13 07:39:12 test-vm systemd[1]: Failed to start SYSV: Keystone server daemon.
Oct 13 07:39:12 test-vm systemd[1]: Unit keystone.service entered failed state.

It could be the script itself, which was created from a template. I was also thinking about linking it to one of /etc/rc?.d directories.

I'm using Debian 8.6

/etc/init.d/keystone:

Subsystem file for "Keystone" server
#
# chkconfig: 2345 95 05
# description: Keystone server daemon

RETVAL=0
prog="keystone"

start() {       
        echo -n $"Starting $prog:"

        cd /home/user/keystone
        /opt/bitnami/nodejs/bin/node  /home/user/keystone/keystone.js

        RETVAL=$?
        [ "$RETVAL" = 0 ] && touch /var/lock/subsys/$prog
        echo
}

stop() {        
        echo -n $"Stopping $prog:"

        killproc $prog -TERM
        RETVAL=$?
        [ "$RETVAL" = 0 ] && rm -f /var/lock/subsys/$prog
        echo
}

reload() {
        echo -n $"Reloading $prog:"
        killproc $prog -HUP
        RETVAL=$?
        echo
}

case "$1" in
        start)
                start
                ;;
        stop)
                stop
                ;;
        restart)
                stop
                start
                ;;
        reload)
                reload
                ;;
        condrestart)
                if [ -f /var/lock/subsys/$prog ] ; then
                        stop
                        # avoid race
                        sleep 3
                        start
                fi
                ;;
        status)
                status $prog
                RETVAL=$?
                ;;
        *)
                echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|reload|condrestart|status}"
                RETVAL=1
esac
exit $RETVAL

Solution

Process: 2785 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/keystone start (code=exited, status=203/EXEC)
…
Oct 13 07:39:12 test-vm systemd[2785]: Failed at step EXEC spawning /etc/init.d/keystone: Exec format error

… which is entirely correct. Your file is not an executable script. It lacks an interpreter. It's also not in the correct form that is prescribed for old van Smoorenburg rc scripts by Debian Policy, hence the "SYSV:" (rather than "LSB:") that systemd has prefixed to its description.

But it's also a waste of time to fix it. Throw it away. Write a systemd service unit.

[Unit]
Description=Keystone CMS
Documentation=http://unix.stackexchange.com/a/316168/5132

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/home/user/keystone
ExecStart=/opt/bitnami/nodejs/bin/node /home/user/keystone/keystone.js

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Further reading

• https://askubuntu.com/a/835318/43344