/etc/init.d/syncthing script for Raspberry Pi (or any Ubuntu/Debian)

syncthing

#!/bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: syncthing
# Required-Start: $local_fs $remote_fs
# Required-Stop: $local_fs $remote_fs
# Should-Start: $network
# Should-Stop: $network
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Multi-user daemonized version of syncthing.
# Description: Starts the syncthing daemon for all registered users.
### END INIT INFO

# Replace with users you want to run syncthing clients for
# syncthing_USERS="<your name here>"
syncthing_USERS="pi"
DAEMON=/usr/local/bin/syncthing

startd() {
  for stuser in $syncthing_USERS; do
    HOMEDIR=$(getent passwd $stuser | awk -F: '{print $6}')
    if [ -f $config ]; then
      echo "Starting syncthing for $stuser"
      start-stop-daemon -b -o -c $stuser -S -u $stuser -x $DAEMON
    else
      echo "Couldn't start syncthing for $stuser (no $config found)"
    fi
  done
}

stopd() {
  for stuser in $syncthing_USERS; do
    dbpid=$(pgrep -fu $stuser $DAEMON)
    if [ ! -z "$dbpid" ]; then
      echo "Stopping syncthing for $stuser"
      start-stop-daemon -o -c $stuser -K -u $stuser -x $DAEMON
    fi
  done
}

status() {
  for stuser in $syncthing_USERS; do
    dbpid=$(pgrep -fu $stuser $DAEMON)
    if [ -z "$dbpid" ]; then
      echo "syncthing for USER $stuser: not running."
    else
      echo "syncthing for USER $stuser: running (pid $dbpid)"
    fi
  done
}

case "$1" in
  start) startd
    ;;
  stop) stopd
    ;;
  restart|reload|force-reload) stopd && startd
    ;;
  status) status
    ;;
  *) echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/syncthing {start|stop|reload|force-reload|restart|status}"
     exit 1
   ;;
esac

exit 0

Usage

1. Move syncthing application to the /usr/local/bin folder

sudo mv syncthing /usr/local/bin/

1. Copy this script to /etc/init.d/ folder and make executable

sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/syncthing

how to add logging to the script ?

start-stop-daemon -b -o -c $stuser -S -u $stuser -x $DAEMON >> 2>&1

Dumb question from newbie - apologies!

Is it sufficient just to add the script to the /etc/init.d directory or does one need to run update-rc.d as well?

Many thanks.

Correct way to add logging in the script is:
start-stop-daemon -b -o -c $stuser -S -u $stuser -x $DAEMON -- -logfile="/path/to/logging"

apparently not working, it does not create the config.xml

This script is bad and should not be used. I suspect it's just slightly modified copy pasta from somewhere else, but the end result is nonsensical and mostly works by blind luck. There are valid alternatives in https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing/tree/master/etc and in the release / Debian packages.

@Morrisman68 of course you need to :))
sudo update-rc.d syncthing defaults

@calmh Sorry, I cannot find a sysvinit script in either of those places. I find runit, upstart, systemd among others, but no sysvinit script.

A better sysvinit script was submitted in this Syncthing issue: Debian SysVinit Script #2990. The Gist of it can be found here.