Python daemon will not run in the background on Ubuntu

SOLVED. I was under the impression that the foreground and the start parameter was two different things. It turns out I just needed to do the following.

def run(self):    while True:        time.sleep(2)

to

def start(self):    while True:        time.sleep(2)

I then removed the foreground parameter, because I can run the script from the terminal using the start command to see the output in the foreground.

python /opt/my-daemon.py start

Also, in rc.local I start the script as follows:

python /opt/my-daemon.py start &

This hides the daemon process and executes the script on startup regardless of the user who logs in :)

Instead of using daemon.py, you may want to consider leveraging Ubuntu's Upstart system which provides an easy way to set up a respawning daemon. From the same link, it features:

* Services may be respawned if they die unexpectedly* Supervision and respawning of daemons which separate from their parent process

If you are using Ubuntu9.10 or later, take a look at /etc/init/cron.conf as an example. For earlier versions of Ubuntu, I believe the upstart scripts are located in /etc/event.d/.

For an explanation of Upstart keywords, see here.

You may try this http://gunslingerc0de.wordpress.com/2010/03/02/forking-daemon-process-in-unix/