What is needed for a linux service to be supported by chkconfig?

Question

I am trying to add to the auto start at boottime a linux service through the

chkconfig -add <servicename>

and I get a message saying

service <servicename> does not support chkconfig

I am using Red Hat Enterprise 4. The script I am trying to add to the autostart at boottime is the following:

#!/bin/sh

soffice_start() {   if [ -x /opt/openoffice.org2.4/program/soffice ]; then
        echo "Starting Open Office as a Service"
        #echo " soffice -headless -accept=socket,port=8100;urp;StarOffice.ServiceManager
-nofirststartwizard"
        /opt/openoffice.org2.4/program/soffice
-headless -accept="socket,host=0.0.0.0,port=8100;urp;StarOffice.ServiceManager"
-nofirststartwizard &   else
        echo "Error: Could not find the soffice program. Cannot Start SOffice."   fi }

soffice_stop() {   if [ -x /usr/bin/killall ]; then
        echo "Stopping Openoffice"
        /usr/bin/killall soffice 2> /dev/null   else
        echo "Eroor: Could not find killall.  Cannot Stop soffice."   fi }

case "$1" in  'start')    soffice_start    ;;  'stop')    soffice_stop    sleep 2    ;;  'restart')    soffice_stop    sleep 5  soffice_start    ;;  *)    if [ -x /usr/bin/basename ]; then
        echo "usage: '/usr/bin/basename $0' start| stop| restart"    else
        echo "usage: $0 start|stop|restart"    fi esac

Answer 1

The script must have 2 lines:

# chkconfig: <levels> <start> <stop>
# description: <some description>

for example:

# chkconfig: 345 99 01
# description: some startup script

345 - levels to configure
99 - startup order
01 - stop order

After you add the above headers you can run chkconfig --add

Answer 2

While katriel has already answered this with the bare minimum needed to create an init script, I think you'd also be well served with looking at /etc/init.d/skeleton and using that as a template on which to base your init script. You'll end up with a much more consistent and readable script.

Answer 3

is your service in init.d/