Run a Python programme in the background

There are many ways to run a python program as a background service on your raspberry pi at startup. We will use the systemd method.

• Create a .service file for your service as below:

sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/helloworld.service

• Add the below text:

[Unit]
Description=Hello World Service
After=multi-user.target
[Service]
Type=idle
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python /home/pi/helloworld.py
User=pi
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

• Save and exit the nano editor (by pressing Ctrl+X).
• The permission on the unit file needs to be set to 644 :

sudo chmod 644 /lib/systemd/system/helloworld.service

• Reload the system manager configuration by using the following command:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

• Start the service using the following command:

sudo systemctl start helloworld.service

• Stop the service using the following command:

sudo systemctl stop helloworld.service

• You can enable the service to start at boot as below:

sudo systemctl enable helloworld.service