Hello,

I've got very small linux (I think it's based on Slackware) and I'd like
to run program at boot up (something like Autostart in Windoze). This
Linux is only console version and there are very few programs in it.
What would I have to add (install) to it (maybe nothing???) and how to use
it?.


Cheers.

Not a full explanation but should allow you to search for more. Details vary with distribution but along the lines of ...

Create a script in /etc/init.d, ideally based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and create a symbolic link to it in /etc/rc<n>.d where <n> is the runlevel you want to start your program in with a name like SNNmyscript where NN is chosen to order it within the other S (for start) scripts to get the necessary sequence.

There are tools to help with this process, maybe referenced in /etc/init.d/skeleton. Perhaps the update-rc.d utility.

For a simpler approach (which will not integrate so well or give pretty console messages at boot time) you could add a line to start your program in /etc/init.d/rc.local

Using catkin's way will launch the application with root privileges which may not be what you want. If you don't want the application to run with root privileges, then you can edit your ~/.bash_profile file to include the launch command for your application. The application will then launch with user privileges every time the user logs in.

Thanks for all your hints. Very informative.

If you want the program to start at boot as you wrote and do not want it to run with root privileges then use the su command in the boot script to "switch user".The -l (letter l) simulates the environment the user would get when they logged in which may be essential.

The technique is often used for starting databases but best not look for such examples because few DBAs can write decent shellscript (for reasons I've never fathomed -- I guess they don't do much of it).