Running Python script on Raspberry Pi5 bootup

Prepare the Python Script

Let’s create a python file which we need to execute continuously after pi boot up automatically.

sudo nano /home/pi5/python/main.py

As an example, I’m adding following code block. This will print Script is running every 10sec...and it logs to the log file in the same directory.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import time
import logging

# Set up logging
logging.basicConfig(
    filename='/home/pi5/python/log',
    level=logging.INFO,
    format='%(asctime)s - %(message)s'
)

while True:
    # Your code here
    message = "Script is running every 10sec..."
    print(message)  # This will go to systemd journal
    logging.info(message)  # This will go to the log file
    time.sleep(10)

Now make the script executable

sudo chmod +x main.py

Create a Systemd service file

Create a new service file in the systemd directory

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sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/py_bootup.service

Then add the following content

[Unit]
Description=Python Script Service
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /home/pi5/python/main.py
WorkingDirectory=/home/pi5/python
StandardOutput=inherit
StandardError=inherit
Restart=always
User=pi5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Now enable and start the service we created
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable py_bootup.service
sudo systemctl start py_bootup.service

Now check status of the service

sudo systemctl status py_bootup.service

Let’s verify the log if our script is really getting executed. As you see below, the print statement is appeared every 10 sec of executing the command ( cat log )

Now, restart the pi, and again verify the log. You should be able to see the file is appended with new print statements every 10sec.