A simple init script for the palava-machine. Put it in /etc/init.d/ and make it executable.

palava-machine

#!/bin/bash

invoke()
{
  echo "[$1]"
  su - palava -c "ruby -S palava-machine-daemon $1"
}

start_multiple()
{
  if [ "$1" ]
  then
    n=$1;
  else
    n=1;
  fi
  for (( c=1; c<=n; c++ ))
  do
    invoke start
  done
}

case "$1" in
  start)
  start_multiple "$2"
  ;;
  stop)
  invoke stop
  ;;
  *)
  echo "Usage: service palava-machine {start|stop} [number of instances if start]" >&2
  exit 3
  ;;
esac