Running as a service

Set up rChat server to start automatically on boot and restart on failure.

---

systemd (Linux)

Create the service file:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/rchat-server.service

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

[Service]
Type=simple
User=root
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/rchat-server --config /etc/rchat/server.toml
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5
LimitNOFILE=65536

# Redirect logs to journal
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal
SyslogIdentifier=rchat-server

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and start:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable rchat-server
sudo systemctl start rchat-server

Check status:

sudo systemctl status rchat-server

View logs:

sudo journalctl -u rchat-server -f

---

Managing the service

Action	Command
Start	sudo systemctl start rchat-server
Stop	sudo systemctl stop rchat-server
Restart	sudo systemctl restart rchat-server
Reload config	sudo systemctl reload rchat-server
View logs	sudo journalctl -u rchat-server -f
Disable autostart	sudo systemctl disable rchat-server

---

TLS certificate auto-renewal

If using Let’s Encrypt, add a deploy hook to reload rChat when the certificate renews:

sudo nano /etc/letsencrypt/renewal-hooks/deploy/rchat-reload.sh

#!/bin/bash
systemctl reload rchat-server 2>/dev/null || systemctl restart rchat-server

sudo chmod +x /etc/letsencrypt/renewal-hooks/deploy/rchat-reload.sh

Test the renewal process:

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

---

FreeBSD rc(8)

Create /usr/local/etc/rc.d/rchat_server:

#!/bin/sh
# PROVIDE: rchat_server
# REQUIRE: NETWORKING
# KEYWORD: shutdown

. /etc/rc.subr

name="rchat_server"
rcvar="rchat_server_enable"
command="/usr/local/bin/rchat-server"
command_args="--config /usr/local/etc/rchat/server.toml"
pidfile="/var/run/rchat-server.pid"

load_rc_config $name
run_rc_command "$1"

chmod +x /usr/local/etc/rc.d/rchat_server
echo 'rchat_server_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf
service rchat_server start

---

macOS launchd

Create /Library/LaunchDaemons/io.rchat.server.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>io.rchat.server</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/local/bin/rchat-server</string>
        <string>--config</string>
        <string>/usr/local/etc/rchat/server.toml</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/var/log/rchat-server.log</string>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/var/log/rchat-server.log</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Load and start:

sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/io.rchat.server.plist
sudo launchctl start io.rchat.server

View logs:

tail -f /var/log/rchat-server.log