bitcoind systemd service and start script.

bitcoind-start.sh

#!/bin/bash

# Just a simple wrapper to start bitcoind.
#
# If using systemd, simply create a file (e.g. /etc/systemd/system/bitcoind.service) 
# from example file below and add this script in ExecStart.
# https://raw.githubusercontent.com-/bitcoin/bitcoin/76deb30550b2492f9c8d9f0302da32025166e0c5/contrib/init/bitcoind.service
#
# Then run following to always start:
# systemctl enable bitcoind
#
# and the following to start immediately:
# systemctl start bitcoind

# If you are mounting a secondary disk, find the UUID of your
# disk and a line entry in /etc/fstab e.g.
#
# UUID=foo-bar-1234 /path-to-dir/.bitcoin ext4 defaults 0 0

set -e

# Let's wait for 30 seconds in case other processes need to come up first.
sleep 30

echo "Starting bitcoind..."

bitcoind --daemon --server -pid=/path-to-dir/.bitcoin/bitcoind.pid 

echo "Done!"

bitcoind.service

# Install this in /etc/systemd/system/
# See below for more details and options
# https://raw.githubusercontent.com-/bitcoin/bitcoin/76deb30550b2492f9c8d9f0302da32025166e0c5/contrib/init/bitcoind.service
# Then run following to always start:
# systemctl enable bitcoind
#
# and the following to start immediately:
# systemctl start bitcoind

[Unit]
Description=Bitcoin daemon
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/path-to-script/bitcoind-start.sh

# Process management
####################

Type=forking
PIDFile=/path-to-dir/.bitcoin/bitcoind.pid
Restart=on-failure

# Directory creation and permissions
####################################

# Run as bitcoin:bitcoin or <youruser>
User=youruser
Group=youruser

# Hardening measures
####################

# Provide a private /tmp and /var/tmp.
PrivateTmp=true

# Use a new /dev namespace only populated with API pseudo devices
# such as /dev/null, /dev/zero and /dev/random.
PrivateDevices=true

# Deny the creation of writable and executable memory mappings.
MemoryDenyWriteExecute=true

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Good looking out. Is this really not provided by bitcoin core??

@bartenbach What in particular? This gist is mostly (if not all) a subset from files in the init directory: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/tree/master/contrib/init

Oh, weird. The tgz for Linux on bitcoin.org doesn't contain those files.

Oh, weird. The tgz for Linux on bitcoin.org doesn't contain those files.

@bartenbach As they shouldn't since the compiled binary doesn't know anything more than the OS architecture is is supposed to run on. See following link for more details https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/init.md

I won't be much help, so join IRC or other forums if you have any more questions https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/216f4ca9e7ccb1f0fcb9bab0f9940992a87ae55f/doc/README.md#need-help

Yes, it could be any one of those three 2 kilobyte files. Might as well just not package any of them and let the user source them manually. Makes perfect sense 🙄

Thanks for sharing this.

To get it working on raspberry pi 4, with non root user

• I edited the start script so I can run it with my usual bitcoind user.
• I updated the path, and commented out user and group in the .service file or it would complain about user
• I commented out the PrivateDevices in .service or it would complain about capability
• updated WantedBy=default.target
• added required disk mounted in After and Requires section as explained here: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/246935/set-systemd-service-to-execute-after-fstab-mount but it only started to work after I added the blockchain disk partition in /etc/fstab (the automount was happening too late).
• install in ~/.config/systemd/user/bitcoind.service
  then run
  systemctl --user daemon-reload
  systemctl --user enable bitcoind.service
  systemctl --user start bitcoind.service
  as explained in https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/559753/how-to-make-systemd-services-run-automatically-after-reboot
  for service to restart on reboot, user needs to be lingering on the machine: sudo loginctl enable-linger myusername