I always run linux applications manually using the terminal during the development stage. This has helped me immensely as I could see all the messages that were printed on to the linux console. I also had the habit of forgetting to start the Java program once the linux machine reboots. Well how many of you have had that experience? Ohh yes, I forgot to mention that I will be using a compiled java program as an example executable file for this tutorial.
Though this is acceptable for a system that is under development, it is not suitable to run an executable program using a terminal in production environment. So I would go about setting up a cron job to check if the process is running and start it up if it is not, using a shell script. This tutorial will give you an understanding of how to check for a running processes and start the process if not running using a shell script in linux.
