Script sample to start/stop for linux with nohup

start_stop_memcached_script.sh

#!/bin/bash
#
BASE=/tmp
PID=$BASE/app.pid
LOG=$BASE/app.log
ERROR=$BASE/app-error.log

PORT=11211
LISTEN_IP='0.0.0.0'
MEM_SIZE=4
CMD='memcached'
COMMAND="$CMD -p $PORT -l $LISTEN_IP -m $MEM_SIZE -v"

USR=user

status() {
    echo
    echo "==== Status"

    if [ -f $PID ]
    then
        echo
        echo "Pid file: $( cat $PID ) [$PID]"
        echo
        ps -ef | grep -v grep | grep $( cat $PID )
    else
        echo
        echo "No Pid file"
    fi
}

start() {
    if [ -f $PID ]
    then
        echo
        echo "Already started. PID: [$( cat $PID )]"
    else
        echo "==== Start"
        touch $PID
        if nohup $COMMAND >>$LOG 2>&1 &
        then echo $! >$PID
             echo "Done."
             echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %X'): START" >>$LOG
        else echo "Error... "
             /bin/rm $PID
        fi
    fi
}

kill_cmd() {
    SIGNAL=""; MSG="Killing "
    while true
    do
        LIST=`ps -ef | grep -v grep | grep $CMD | grep -w $USR | awk '{print $2}'`
        if [ "$LIST" ]
        then
            echo; echo "$MSG $LIST" ; echo
            echo $LIST | xargs kill $SIGNAL
            sleep 2
            SIGNAL="-9" ; MSG="Killing $SIGNAL"
            if [ -f $PID ]
            then
                /bin/rm $PID
            fi
        else
           echo; echo "All killed..." ; echo
           break
        fi
    done
}

stop() {
    echo "==== Stop"

    if [ -f $PID ]
    then
        if kill $( cat $PID )
        then echo "Done."
             echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %X'): STOP" >>$LOG
        fi
        /bin/rm $PID
        kill_cmd
    else
        echo "No pid file. Already stopped?"
    fi
}

case "$1" in
    'start')
            start
            ;;
    'stop')
            stop
            ;;
    'restart')
            stop ; echo "Sleeping..."; sleep 1 ;
            start
            ;;
    'status')
            status
            ;;
    *)
            echo
            echo "Usage: $0 { start | stop | restart | status }"
            echo
            exit 1
            ;;
esac

exit 0

I know you wrote this 10 years ago, but if you background a process, nohup will always return immediately with a return code of 0, so even if memcached isn't on your system, or if it fails to start for some reason, this script will say Done. after it tries to start it. I made a fork and updated the start function to sleep for one second, then do a ps to see if the pid is still running.

@colezlaw Great tip. tks