---
name: Run Bun as a daemon with systemd
---

[systemd](https://systemd.io) is an init system and service manager for Linux operating systems that manages the startup and control of system processes and services.

<!-- systemd provides aggressive parallelization capabilities, uses socket and D-Bus activation for starting services, offers on-demand starting of daemons, keeps track of processes using Linux control groups, maintains mount and auto mount points, and implements an elaborate transactional dependency-based service control logic. systemd supports SysV and LSB init scripts and works as a replacement for sysvinit. -->

<!-- Other parts include a logging daemon, utilities to control basic system configuration like the hostname, date, locale, maintain a list of logged-in users and running containers and virtual machines, system accounts, runtime directories and settings, and daemons to manage simple network configuration, network time synchronization, log forwarding, and name resolution. -->

---

To run a Bun application as a daemon using **systemd** you'll need to create a _service file_ in `/lib/systemd/system/`.

```sh
$ cd /lib/systemd/system
$ touch my-app.service
```

---

Here is a typical service file that runs an application on system start. You can use this as a template for your own service. Replace `YOUR_USER` with the name of the user you want to run the application as. To run as `root`, replace `YOUR_USER` with `root`, though this is generally not recommended for security reasons.

Refer to the [systemd documentation](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.service.html) for more information on each setting.

```ini#my-app.service
[Unit]
# describe the app
Description=My App
# start the app after the network is available
After=network.target

[Service]
# usually you'll use 'simple'
# one of https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.service.html#Type=
Type=simple
# which user to use when starting the app
User=YOUR_USER
# path to your application's root directory
WorkingDirectory=/home/YOUR_USER/path/to/my-app
# the command to start the app
# requires absolute paths
ExecStart=/home/YOUR_USER/.bun/bin/bun run index.ts
# restart policy
# one of {no|on-success|on-failure|on-abnormal|on-watchdog|on-abort|always}
Restart=always

[Install]
# start the app automatically
WantedBy=multi-user.target
```

---

If your application starts a webserver, note that non-`root` users are not able to listen on ports 80 or 443 by default. To permanently allow Bun to listen on these ports when executed by a non-`root` user, use the following command. This step isn't necessary when running as `root`.

```bash
$ sudo setcap CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE=+eip ~/.bun/bin/bun
```

---

With the service file configured, you can now _enable_ the service. Once enabled, it will start automatically on reboot. This requires `sudo` permissions.

```bash
$ sudo systemctl enable my-app
```

---

To start the service without rebooting, you can manually _start_ it.

```bash
$ sudo systemctl start my-app
```

---

Check the status of your application with `systemctl status`. If you've started your app successfully, you should see something like this:

```bash
$ sudo systemctl status my-app
● my-app.service - My App
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/my-app.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Thu 2023-10-12 11:34:08 UTC; 1h 8min ago
   Main PID: 309641 (bun)
      Tasks: 3 (limit: 503)
     Memory: 40.9M
        CPU: 1.093s
     CGroup: /system.slice/my-app.service
             └─309641 /home/YOUR_USER/.bun/bin/bun run /home/YOUR_USER/application/index.ts
```

---

To update the service, edit the contents of the service file, then reload the daemon.

```bash
$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
```

---

For a complete guide on the service unit configuration, you can check [this page](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.service.html). Or refer to this cheatsheet of common commands:

```bash
$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload # tell systemd that some files got changed
$ sudo systemctl enable my-app # enable the app (to allow auto-start)
$ sudo systemctl disable my-app # disable the app (turns off auto-start)
$ sudo systemctl start my-app # start the app if is stopped
$ sudo systemctl stop my-app # stop the app
$ sudo systemctl restart my-app # restart the app
```