Service directory ----------------- Create /service directory where services to be run are linked. mkdir /service Running daemontools ------------------- svscanboot starts svscan in the /service directory. There are several different ways to run it: 1. Add the following to /etc/rc.d/rc.local if [ -x /usr/sbin/svscanboot ]; then echo "Starting svscanboot" /usr/sbin/svscanboot & fi OR 2. Add the following to the end of /etc/inittab SV:12345:respawn:/usr/sbin/svscanboot After doing either of the above, restart your system and check that the svscan command is running. The difference between the rc.local and inittab versions is that the inittab version is supervised by init, ie, in case svscan dies due to some reason, init can restart it.