Sam Westby

How to Run a Script on Startup for the Raspberry Pi

Just power on your Pi and let a script magically run in the background. This is a beginner tutorial that will put you on the path to making expert projects.

Samuel Westby

May 30th, 2022

# raspberry pi

There are a bunch of ways to run a script on startup with a Raspberry Pi. I find crontab the best. It's easy and straightforward which is more than I could ask for when I'm programming.

Supplies

Raspberry Pi
Micro SD Card
Computer (optional)

Setup

I'm assuming you have your Pi setup and are able to access a terminal. It doesn't matter if you use ssh or the Pi as a desktop. You also need the script you want to run. In the video and in this tutorial, I use a script called buzzer.py. It activates a buzzer that I have connected to my Pi's GPIO pins.

Initialize `crontab`

In the terminal, run

 sudo crontab -e

You may get a menu that looks like the picture below. We'll select option 1.

crontab options on first use

Edit `crontab`

Now you're editing the crontab file in the editor Nano. Move your curser to the bottom of the file and add the following code:

@reboot YOUR_SHELL_COMMAND &

Replace "YOUR_SHELL_COMMAND" with any command that you can run in your terminal. This is what will be run on startup. Here's what mine looks like:

adding a command to the crontab page

Finally, Ctrl + S to save and Ctrl + X to exit.
IMPORTANT: Don't forget the "&" at the end.

Conclusion

That's it! Just reboot your Pi and it should work. If not, double check your shell command.