What is the Linux equivalent of Windows Startup?

Something like Cron?

Note the @reboot entry

This is the most flexible approach, and the one most like Windows' "Scheduled Tasks" (better actually).


Xorg auto-start

Apart from system-level startup scripts your desktop environment might have its own way of auto-running programs. The folder .config/autostart is supposed to be a desktop-neutral way of defining autorun entries. /etc/xdg/autostart is for system-wide configuration. Details about the spec at http://developer.gnome.org/autostart-spec/.

For LXDE autostart entries can also be set in ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE/autostart.

It is a bit different if you need to run your scripts after the network is up and running. In that case you should check the special post-connect scripts that can be defined for your network manager. Both NetworkManager and wicd have their own ways of specifying post-connect autorun entries. If the network is configured via ifupdown, then post-up scripts can be placed in the /etc/network/if-up.d/ folder. But a better approach to running post-connect scripts might be systemd (for systems that support it, which is the majority of modern distros).

Autostart as a systemd service

If the thing you want to autostart is not a graphical app which requires a desktop then it's best to avoid using any autostart facilities provided by xorg or by your current desktop environment.

systemd has become ubiquitous in many modern distros, and it offers a lot of control and flexibility in terms of how your services are started and how they run.

I'll summarize some benefits (systemd can do a lot more):

  • Run as root or as specific user: e.g. User=myuser
  • Restart services on failure with configurable timeouts: Restart=on-failure|on-watchdog|on-abnormal|always
  • Setting the service type: Type=simple|forking|oneshot|notify|dbus
  • Establish startup preconditions and dependencies, i.e. you can set your service to start after the network is up (Wants=network-online.target in the [Unit] section).

An example service that starts a telegram-cli daemon. Place it in /etc/systemd/system/tg.service.

[Unit]
Description=MyDaemon
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/telegram-cli -k /etc/telegram-cli/tg-server.pub -W -P 1234 -d -vvvRC
ExecStop=/usr/bin/pkill -f telegram-cli

User=jicu

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Now you can enable the service to autostart:

sudo systemctl enable tg

Start the service:

sudo systemctl start tg

Stop the service:

sudo systemctl stop tg

Check the status:

systemctl status tg

Disable the service:

sudo systemctl disable tg

To save you extra typing you can add in your ~/.bashrc the line alias sc='sudo systemctl $*' then you'll be able to shorten the commands above to e.g. sc start tg.

NOTE: If you've used cron then are aware that crontab entries are run in a restricted environment — the same applies to systemd: always use absolute paths, and make no assumptions of any variables being defined. Explicitly set any variables that your scripts depend on. systemd will not use your user's .bashrc and $PATH.

More info:

  • Understanding systemd
  • systemd services
  • systemd units

Yes it is possible to run programs at startup on Linux by defining the paths to executables in rc.local that either resides in the /etc or /etc/rc.d directory, e.g.:

#!/bin/bash
# THIS FILE IS ADDED FOR COMPATIBILITY PURPOSES
#
# It is highly advisable to create own systemd services or udev rules
# to run scripts during boot instead of using this file.
#
# In contrast to previous versions due to parallel execution during boot
# this script will NOT be run after all other services.
#
# Please note that you must run 'chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.local' to ensure
# that this script will be executed during boot.

touch /var/lock/subsys/local
/path/to/executable

Note: do not forget to assign executable rights as described in the documentation of the file, i.e. Please note that you must run 'chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.local' to ensure that this script will be executed during boot.

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Linux

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