init.d: starting mplayer via "start-stop-daemon"

Question

with an Ubuntu machine I'd like to run MPlayer like a daemon.

In foreground the following configuration is exactly what I need:

mplayer -slave -idle -input file=/tmp/mplayercontrol.

Now, I wrote the following script:

# /etc/init.d/mplayerd
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          mplayer
# Required-Start:    $network $syslog
# Required-Stop:     $network $syslog
# Should-Start:      $time
# Should-Stop:       $time
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: Start and stop the mplayer daemon
# Description:       mplayer daemon
### END INIT INFO

CONTROLFILE="/tmp/mplayercontrol"
DAEMONUSER=jb

DAEMON=/usr/bin/mplayer
DAEMON_ARGS="-slave -idle -input file=$CONTROLFILE"
PIDFILE=/tmp/mplayerd.pid

start() {
    echo "Starting mplayer..."

    # Prepare fifo file
    rm -rf $CONTROLFILE
    mkfifo $CONTROLFILE
    chmod a+rw $CONTROLFILE

    start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --user $DAEMONUSER    \
            --make-pidfile --pidfile $PIDFILE --background       \
            --exec /bin/bash -- -c "$DAEMON $DAEMON_ARGS > /tmp/mplayerd.log 2>&1"

    echo "Started for user: $DAEMONUSER."
}

stop() {
    echo "Stopping mplayer..."
    kill -9 `cat $PIDFILE`
    # Cleanup fifo file
    rm -rf $CONTROLFILE
}

status() {
    if [ -z `cat $PIDFILE` ];
    then
        echo "mplayerd: not running."
    else
        echo "mplayerd: running."
    fi
}


case "$1" in
  start)
    start
    ;;

  stop)
    stop
    ;;

  restart|reload|force-reload)
    stop
    start
    ;;

  status)
    status
    ;;

  *)
    echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/mplayerd {start|stop|reload|force-reload|restart|status}"
    exit 1

esac

exit 0

But there is something wrong, because when I try to start the script the player return an error and doesn't start correctly:

root@jb:/tmp# service mplayerd start
Starting mplayer...
Started for user: jb.
root@jb:/tmp#
root@jb:/tmp# cat /tmp/mplayerd.log
Cannot find HOME directory.
MPlayer 1.0rc4-4.4.3 (C) 2000-2010 MPlayer Team
root@jb:/tmp#

Additionaly, how can automatically run /etc/inid.d/mplayerd stop at the startup and stop at the shutdown?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Declare HOME=/home/$DAEMONUSER before the shell command.

start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --user $DAEMONUSER    \
        --make-pidfile --pidfile $PIDFILE --background       \
        --exec /bin/bash -- -c "HOME=/home/$DAEMONUSER $DAEMON $DAEMON_ARGS > /tmp/mplayerd.log 2>&1"