An example of my Upstart script that can start/stop a Django project.

gunicorn_upstart.conf

# PROJECT_NAME.conf - run PROJECT_NAME gunicorninstances
#
# This runs gunicorn_django for PROJECT_NAME; to install:
#  * sudo ln -s <this file> /etc/init/PROJECT_NAME.conf
#  * sudo initctl reload-configuration 
# to use:
#  * sudo start/stop/restart/reload/status PROJECT_NAME
#
# For a full list of configuration options: http://gunicorn.org/configure.html

description "PROJECT_NAME Gunicorn instance" # Description of the job.
author "Ben Keating <[email protected]>" # Author of the job file.
version "0.0.1" # Version of the job file.

start on runlevel [2345] # say when to start the job
stop on runlevel [!2345] # say when to stop the job

# Time to wait between sending TERM and KILL signals
kill timeout 5

# The respawn flag means that the process will be restarted if ended unexpectedly.
respawn

# Set environment variables of the job processes
env VENV="/home/django/.virtualenvs/PROJECT_NAME" # Path to projects virtualenv.
env HOME="/home/django/projects/PROJECT_NAME" # Path to project itself.

# The socket to bind.
#
# A string of the form: 'HOST', 'HOST:PORT', 'unix:PATH'. An IP is a valid HOST.
# Default: 127.0.0.1:8000. Note: unix:PATH is better!
env SOCKET="127.0.0.1:9000"

# Process Naming - A base to use with setproctitle for process naming.
#
# This affects things like ps and top. If you're going to be running more than 
# one instance of Gunicorn you'll probably want to set a name to tell them 
# apart. This requires that you install the setproctitle module.
# Default: 'gunicorn'
env NAME="gunicorn_PROJECT_NAME"

# The granularity of log outputs.
#
# Valid level names are:
#     debug
#     info (default)
#     warning
#     error
#     critical
env LOGLEVEL="info"

# Specify main command as a shell script instead of a single-line command. Alternative to exec, can't be used together with it.
script
    exec sudo -u django \
        $VENV/bin/gunicorn_django \
            --preload \
            --workers 3 \
            --timeout 60 \
            --log-level $LOGLEVEL \
            --log-file $VENV/run/gunicorn.log \
            --pid $VENV/run/gunicorn.pid \
            --bind $SOCKET \
            --name $NAME \
            $HOME/settings.py
end script