Unlike Ubuntu's Upstart or newer systems using systemd, Debian traditionally relies on SysVinit scripts for daemon management. However, you can still create manual start/stop control without relying on boot-time execution.

Debian provides start-stop-daemon - the standard way to handle daemon processes. It handles PID file creation, process management, and user privileges. Here's a basic implementation:

#!/bin/sh
# /etc/init.d/custom-daemon

DAEMON="/usr/bin/my_program"
DAEMON_OPTS="--config /etc/my_program.conf"
PIDFILE="/var/run/my_program.pid"
NAME="my_program"

case "$1" in
  start)
    echo -n "Starting $NAME: "
    start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- $DAEMON_OPTS
    echo "done."
    ;;
  stop)
    echo -n "Stopping $NAME: "
    start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE
    echo "done."
    ;;
  *)
    echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop}"
    exit 1
    ;;
esac

exit 0

After creating the script:

sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/custom-daemon

To use your daemon without automatic startup:

sudo update-rc.d custom-daemon disable  # Prevent automatic start
sudo service custom-daemon start       # Manual start
sudo service custom-daemon stop        # Manual stop

For newer Debian releases with systemd:

[Unit]
Description=My Custom Daemon

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/my_program --config /etc/my_program.conf
PIDFile=/var/run/my_program.pid
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Save as /etc/systemd/system/my_program.service then:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start my_program

When creating your own implementation, ensure proper PID file handling:

# In your application:
with open("/var/run/my_program.pid", "w") as f:
    f.write(str(os.getpid()))

While Ubuntu's Upstart was once popular, modern Debian systems primarily use systemd for service management. However, the traditional SysV init system (/etc/init.d) remains available. For manually controlled daemons, both approaches are valid.

Create a custom service file in /etc/systemd/system/:

[Unit]
Description=My Custom Daemon
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/my_daemon --option=value
PIDFile=/var/run/my_daemon.pid
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Control commands:

sudo systemctl start my_daemon
sudo systemctl stop my_daemon
sudo systemctl status my_daemon

For those preferring SysV style, create /etc/init.d/my_daemon:

#!/bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          my_daemon
# Required-Start:    $remote_fs $syslog
# Required-Stop:     $remote_fs $syslog
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: Custom daemon
### END INIT INFO

DAEMON="/usr/local/bin/my_daemon"
PIDFILE="/var/run/my_daemon.pid"
OPTIONS="--option=value"

case "$1" in
  start)
    start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --background \
      --make-pidfile --pidfile $PIDFILE \
      --exec $DAEMON -- $OPTIONS
    ;;
  stop)
    start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE
    ;;
  *)
    echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/my_daemon {start|stop}"
    exit 1
    ;;
esac
exit 0

Make it executable and control it:

sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/my_daemon
sudo /etc/init.d/my_daemon start
sudo /etc/init.d/my_daemon stop

For quick manual control without full service files:

# Start
start-stop-daemon --start --background --make-pidfile \
  --pidfile /var/run/my_daemon.pid \
  --exec /usr/local/bin/my_daemon -- --option=value

# Stop
start-stop-daemon --stop --pidfile /var/run/my_daemon.pid

For modern systems, systemd offers better logging and integration. The init.d method remains useful for compatibility. The direct start-stop-daemon approach works well for temporary daemons during development.