Run hcpupd

In the foreground

Easiest way to run hcpupd is having a private ~/.hcpupd.conf file and simply starting it:

$ ./hcpupd

As a Daemon

Adding -d to the command will run hcpupd in daemon mode, releasing the terminal session for further use:

$ ./hcpupd -d

Warning

Due to the foundation technology, this will fail silently (!) if started by user root!

Using systemd

In a unattended production environment, you’ll want to run hcpupd as a daemon in the background, automatically started on system boot.

Warning

For security reasons, you shouldn’t run hcpupd with root privileges. You might consider to create a technical user for it…

We assume that you have <user> and its <group> created, already…

• Move the hcpupd binary to /usr/local/bin and set proper permissions:

  $ sudo cp hcpupd /usr/local/bin
  $ sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/hcpupd
  

• Create a systemd service file (/etc/systemd/system/hcpupd.service) with this content:

  [Unit]
  Description=HCP upload daemon
  # tested with Fedora 24:
  Requires=network.service
  # tested with Ubuntu 17.04:
  # Requires=networking.service
  
  [Service]
  Type=simple
  # make sure you set the correct path for bash!
  ExecStart=/usr/bin/bash -c /usr/local/bin/hcpupd
  Restart=always
  
  User=<user>
  Group=<group>
  
  [Install]
  WantedBy=multi-user.target
  

  hcpupd requires networking up and running, so you might need to find the proper entry for [Unit] Requires=, depending on your Linux distribution.

• Run hcpupd once to create a template config file:

  $ hcpupd
  No configuration file found.
  Do you want me to create a template file in the current directory (y/n)? y
  
  A template file (.hcpup.conf) has been created in the current directory.
  Please edit it to fit your needs...
  

• Edit the .hcpupd.conf template file to your specific needs.

  Warning

  Make sure that you have created the folder to watch, as well as the folder to store the logfile with appropriate permissions (see Config section).

• Move the config file to it’s place and set the permissions properly (remember, there’s a password in it - you don’t want to expose it):

  $ sudo mv .hcpupd.conf /var/lib/misc/hcpupd.conf
  $ sudo chown <user>:<group> /var/lib/misc/hcpupd.conf
  $ sudo chmod 600 /var/lib/misc/hcpupd.conf
  

• If you stay with the default logging path set in the config file, create the folder:

  $ sudo mkdir /var/log/hcpupd
  $ sudo chown <user>:<group> /var/log/hcpupd
  $ sudo chmod 700 /var/log/hcpupd
  

• Manually start hcpupd in foreground mode to give it a try:

  $ sudo -u <user> /usr/local/bin/hcpupd
  

  If everything works fine (which means the config file is correct), stop hcpupd by pressing CTRL-C.

• Now start it as a daemon using systemd:

  $ sudo systemctl start hcpupd.service
  

  Check if it’s running by:

  $ sudo systemctl status hcpupd.service
  

• If everything is fine, you can enable the daemon to be started on Linux boot:

  $ sudo systemctl enable hcpupd.service