Enable `sass --watch` as a daemonized service on Ubuntu & Debian.

sass

#! /bin/sh -e

# Located in /etc/init.d/sass

DAEMON="/path/to/sass-watch"
DAEMONUSER="SOMEUSER"
DAEMON_NAME="sass-watch"

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: sass
# Required-Start: 
# Required-Stop: 
# Should-Start: 
# Should-Stop: 
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Start and stop Sass Watching
# Description: SassWatch
### END INIT INFO

PATH="/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin"

test -x $DAEMON || exit 0

. /lib/lsb/init-functions

d_start () {
        log_daemon_msg "Starting system $DAEMON_NAME Daemon"
        start-stop-daemon --background --name $DAEMON_NAME --start --user $DAEMONUSER --exec $DAEMON
        log_end_msg $?
}

d_stop () {
        log_daemon_msg "Stopping system $DAEMON_NAME Daemon"
        start-stop-daemon --name $DAEMON_NAME --stop --retry 5 --name $DAEMON_NAME
        kill $(ps aux | grep 'sass' | awk '{print $2}')
        log_end_msg $?
}

case "$1" in

        start|stop)
                d_${1}
                ;;

        restart|reload|force-reload)
                        d_stop
                        d_start
                ;;

        force-stop)
               d_stop
                killall -q $DAEMON_NAME || true
                sleep 2
                killall -q -9 $DAEMON_NAME || true
                kill $(ps aux | grep 'sass' | awk '{print $2}')
                ;;

        status)
                status_of_proc "$DAEMON_NAME" "$DAEMON" "system-wide $DAEMON_NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
                ;;
        *)
                echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/$DAEMON_NAME {start|stop|force-stop|restart|reload|force-reload|status}"
                exit 1
                ;;
esac
exit 0

Sass Watch Daemon.md

This guide assumes that you have ruby and the sass gem installed, and that you have a basic knowledge of the unix terminal. I use nano here, but you can use whatever editor you'd like.

###Find out Path Info

$ echo $PATH
$ gem environment

Save output from $PATH variable and paths in "GEM PATHS:" in a blank text file somewhere for use in the sass-watch file.

###Make Files

$ nano /path/to/sass-watch
$ chomod 755 /path/to/sass-watch

Make sure you get >>> Sass is watching for changes. Press Ctrl-C to stop. whenever you you execute /path/to/sass-watch before making the daemon file.

$ sudo nano /etc/init.d/sass
$ sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/sass

Test and make sure /etc/init.d/sass start and /etc/init.d/sass stop work before adding to update-rc.

$ sudo update-rc.d sass defaults

###Try it Out

$ sudo service sass start
$ sudo service sass stop

sass-watch

#! /bin/sh -e

# Located in /path/to/sass-watch

export PATH="/OUTPUT/FROM/PATH"
export GEM_HOME="/OUTPUT/FROM/GEM/ENVIRONMENT/gems"
export GEM_PATH="/OUTPUT/FROM/GEM/ENVIRONMENT:/OUTPUT/FROM/GEM/ENVIRONMENT/gems"

sass --style compact --watch /path/to/www/

thanks! had to change the --user to --chuid to get it to run as my user, but then it worked great for me!