How to Add a Startup Script on Ubuntu Using the rc‑local Service

On CentOS you can add startup commands to /etc/rc.local , but Ubuntu lacks this file, so you need to create a new startup file.

Run ls /lib/systemd/system to see existing service files, including rc-local.service . Example output:

root@gwzj:~# ll /lib/systemd/system/rc-local.service -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 785 Jan 8 17:46 /lib/systemd/system/rc-local.service

The typical rc-local.service file consists of three sections:

[Unit] : defines start order and dependencies.

[Service] : defines how the service runs and its type.

[Install] : defines how the unit is installed to start at boot (e.g., WantedBy=multi-user.target , Alias=rc-local.service ).

Step 2 – Create /etc/rc.local

Create the file with touch /etc/rc.local , add the shell commands you want to run (including the shebang line #!/bin/sh ), then make it executable with chmod +x /etc/rc.local . If you add a script like ./nginx.sh , append an ampersand ( & ) to avoid blocking the boot process.

Step 3 – Enable the rc‑local service

Enable the service so it starts on boot:

root@gwzj:~# systemctl enable rc-local.service

Step 4 – Verify

Reboot the server and confirm that the commands in /etc/rc.local execute as expected.