CentOS 6 - Install LibreOffice as a service

The purpose of this post is to show how to install LibreOffice in CentOS 6, without GUI. My requirements were to use LibreOffice as a PDF converter.

Install LibreOffice by using yum:

yum install libreoffice-headless

yum install libreoffice-writer

libreoffice --version

The install directory will be /usr/lib64/libreoffice

In order to make a test, you can try convert a file:

echo 'hola' > prueba.txt

libreoffice --headless --convert-to pdf prueba.txt

If you want to install it as a service, just create the following file and save it in /etc/init.d (I copied this file from here):

#!/bin/sh
#
# ooffice       openoffice conversion service
#
#
# chkconfig: 345 50 25
# description: Startup script for the Open Office conversion process
# pidfile: /var/run/ooffice.pid

# Source function library.
. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions

proc="/usr/lib64/libreoffice/program/soffice.bin"
options="--headless --accept=\"socket,host=0,port=8100,tcpNoDelay=1;urp\" --nodefault --nofirststartwizard --nolockcheck --nologo --norestore --invisible &"
if [ ! -f $proc ]; then
        proc="/usr/lib64/openoffice.org3/program/soffice.bin"
        options="--headless --accept=\"socket,host=0,port=8100,tcpNoDelay=1;urp\" --nodefault --nofirststartwizard --nolockcheck --nologo --norestore --invisible &"
fi


prog=ooffice
PID_FILE=/var/run/ooffice.pid

LOG=/var/log/ooffice
if [ ! -f $LOG ]; then
        touch $LOG
        chmod 644 $LOG
fi


start() {
        echo -n $"Starting $prog: "
        umask 000
        daemon $prog $options
        RETVAL=$?
        echo
        sleep 1
        pidofproc $proc > $PID_FILE
        echo "`date +\"%Y-%m-%d %T\"`  Starting ooffice." >> $LOG
        return $RETVAL
}

stop() {
        echo -n $"Stopping $prog: "
        killproc -p $PID_FILE $prog
        RETVAL=$?
        echo
        echo "`date +\"%Y-%m-%d %T\"`  Stopping ooffice." >> $LOG
        return $RETVAL
}

case "$1" in
        start)
                start
                ;;
        stop)
                stop
                ;;
        restart)
                stop
                sleep 1
                start
                ;;
        status)
                status -p $PID_FILE $prog
                ;;
        *)
                echo $"Usage: $prog {start | stop | restart | status}"
                exit 1
esac

exit $RETVAL

Finally configure this script as an executable and set the service as autostart:

chmod +x /etc/init.d/soffice
chkconfig --add soffice
chkconfig soffice on
service soffice start