Ubuntu upstart file to launch pydoc (python documentation server) as a service... but as an unprivileged user via the (start-stop-daemon). There are other examples out there, but this is my first upstart script...

pydoc.conf

description	"pydoc documentation server"
author		"Todd Greenwood-Geer <todd@vizualiiz.com>"
version     "1.0"

# -------------------------------------------------
# stanzas
# -------------------------------------------------
start on (filesystem and net-device-up IFACE=lo) or runlevel [2345]
stop on runlevel [!2345]

console output

respawn
respawn limit 10 5
expect fork
 
pre-start script
echo "" > /var/log/pydoc.log
echo "------------------------------------------------------------------------" >> /var/log/pydoc.log
echo "pre-start" >> /var/log/pydoc.log
echo "------------------------------------------------------------------------" >> /var/log/pydoc.log
echo "`env`" >> /var/log/pydoc.log
end script
 
pre-stop script
echo "" >> /var/log/pydoc.log
echo "------------------------------------------------------------------------" >> /var/log/pydoc.log
echo "pre-stop" >> /var/log/pydoc.log
echo "------------------------------------------------------------------------" >> /var/log/pydoc.log
echo "`env`" >> /var/log/pydoc.log
end script
 
post-stop script
echo "" >> /var/log/pydoc.log
echo "------------------------------------------------------------------------" >> /var/log/pydoc.log
echo "post-stop" >> /var/log/pydoc.log
echo "------------------------------------------------------------------------" >> /var/log/pydoc.log
echo "`env`" >> /var/log/pydoc.log
end script

script
echo "" >> /var/log/pydoc.log
echo "========================================================================" >> /var/log/pydoc.log
echo "run-script" >> /var/log/pydoc.log
echo "========================================================================" >> /var/log/pydoc.log
echo "`env`" >> /var/log/pydoc.log
exec start-stop-daemon --start --make-pidfile --pidfile /var/run/pydoc.pid --chuid todd --exec /usr/bin/pydoc -- -p 1234 >> /var/log/pydoc.log 2>&1
end script