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I wrote a server program for my company and now I'd like to keep it running on the ubuntu server.

I was thinking of setting a cronjob to restart the entire system once a week (for security purposes, to clear RAM in case of memory leaks which I still haven't found.. etc..) but I'm not sure how should I keep the process up.

Right now I'm doing a

screen
./launch_server

and detaching it. Is this a good way to run a web-exposed program on a server? Do I need something like daemontools or runit for whatever reason?

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    Setup a cron job to check ever so often if it's running or setup an init script and tell the system to run it on entering the applicable run level.
    – Seth
    Commented Jan 27, 2017 at 13:33

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Your question is actually a combination of two questions:

  1. How do I run a program on boot?

Use Upstart or systemd (a script in /etc/init.d), depending on your version.

  1. How do I keep it running?

The most simple approach would be to add a cron job that checks if the process name is in the running state, and restarts it if it isn't. I would supplement this with having it send you an e-mail when it finds this to be the case so that if there is something happening to the system that is repeatedly killing it, you will know. I would also add timestamped logging to the program if it doesn't already have it, so you can have a record of when these events occur.

If possible, the signal or condition that caused it to die should also be logged so you can prevent it. You may even consider adding the program logs to your automated e-mails.

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    systemd has a option for restarting on failure IIRC as does upstart IIRC. Generically you're talking init scripts, though I doubt anyone runs classic init scripts any more
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    Commented Jan 28, 2017 at 2:22

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