Run Tunnel on Startup with rc.local

rc.local is a traditional way to run commands at the end of the multi-user runlevel on many Linux distributions. While many modern systems have moved to systemd, rc.local remains a popular and simple choice for quick startup scripts.

Prerequisite

Generate an SSH key if you haven’t already. Since rc.local runs as the root user, it’s easiest to generate the key for the root user.

In your terminal, run: sudo ssh-keygen
Press Enter until the command finishes.

This is necessary for the SSH command to connect without requiring a password.

Step 1: Create a Startup Script

It’s best practice to put your tunnel command in a separate script file rather than putting it directly in rc.local.

Create the Script:

sudo nano /usr/local/sbin/pinggy-startup.sh

Paste your Pinggy command:
```
#!/bin/bash
# Run Pinggy tunnel in the background
ssh -p 443 -R0:localhost:8000 -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o ServerAliveInterval=30 free.pinggy.io >> /var/log/pinggy.log 2>&1 &
```
Note: If you want to run the tunnel as a specific user instead of root, you can use su:
```
su - yourusername -c 'ssh -p 443 -R0:localhost:8000 -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o ServerAliveInterval=30 free.pinggy.io' >> /var/log/pinggy.log 2>&1 &
```
You can customize the command here:
SSH CLI
Mac / Linux Windows Powershell Windows CMD

When the tunnel reconnects, your public URL will change. Upgrade to Pinggy Pro for persistent URLs.
Settings:

Region
Password Protect
QR Code
Keep Alive
Auto Reconnect
Web Debugger
Manually check host key
IP Whitelist

Invalid CIDR Format
Key / Token Authentication

IP Whitelist

Invalid CIDR Format
HTTPS only
Forward to other hosts
Connect to HTTPS Server
No Reverse Proxy
Force
Allow CORS preflight
X-Forwarded-For header
Original request url header
Use Token
Alphanumeric characters only
Web Debugger Port
Live Header Modifications

Make the Script Executable:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/pinggy-startup.sh

Step 2: Configure rc.local

Check if /etc/rc.local exists: If the file does not exist, you can create it.
```
sudo nano /etc/rc.local
```

Add the script to rc.local: Add the path to your script before the exit 0 line (if it exists).

#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.

/usr/local/sbin/pinggy-startup.sh

exit 0

Ensure rc.local is executable:
```
sudo chmod +x /etc/rc.local
```

Note for Systemd users: On modern systems using systemd, ensure that the rc-local.service is enabled and running:

sudo systemctl status rc-local.service
# If it is not running, try:
sudo systemctl enable rc-local.service
sudo systemctl start rc-local.service

Step 3: Verification

Reboot your system to verify that the tunnel starts automatically:

sudo reboot

After rebooting, you can check if the SSH process is running:

ps aux | grep ssh

Or check the log file:

cat /var/log/pinggy.log