Thanks Steve Kamerman
Create this searchd script under /etc/init.d, & alter the SUDO_USER & BASEPATH to fit your environment.
#!/bin/bash## Init file for searchd## chkconfig: 2345 55 25## description: searchd ## USE "chkconfig --add searchd" to configure Sphinx searchd service## by Steve Kamerman April 14, 2010# http://www.tera-wurfl.com# public domainSUDO_USER=sphinxBASE_PATH=/usr/local/sphinxPID_FILE=$BASE_PATH/var/log/searchd.pidCONFIG_FILE=$BASE_PATH/etc/sphinx.confEXEC_PATH=$BASE_PATH/binLOG_PATH=$BASE_PATH/var/logDATA_PATH=$BASE_PATH/var/dataRETVAL=0prog="searchd"do_config() { chown -R $SUDO_USER $EXEC_PATH chown -R $SUDO_USER $CONFIG_FILE chown -R $SUDO_USER $DATA_PATH chown -R $SUDO_USER $LOG_PATH chmod 600 $CONFIG_FILE chmod u+rwx $EXEC_PATH/* chmod -R u+rw,go-rwx $DATA_PATH chmod -R u+rw,go-rwx $LOG_PATH}do_start() { echo "Starting $prog" sudo -u $SUDO_USER $EXEC_PATH/$prog --config $CONFIG_FILE RETVAL=$? echo return $RETVAL}do_stop() { echo "Stopping $prog" if [ -e $PID_FILE ] ; then sudo -u $SUDO_USER $EXEC_PATH/$prog --stop sleep 2 if [ -e $PID_FILE ] ; then echo "WARNING: searchd may still be alive: $PID_FILE" fi fi RETVAL=$? echo return $RETVAL}do_status() { RETVAL=$? if [ -e $PID_FILE ] ; then sudo -u $SUDO_USER $EXEC_PATH/$prog --status echo "---" echo "$prog is running (`cat $PID_FILE`)" else echo "$prog is not running" fi return $RETVAL}do_reindex() { echo "Reindexing all $prog indices" if [ -e $PID_FILE ] ; then sudo -u $SUDO_USER $EXEC_PATH/indexer --all --rotate else sudo -u $SUDO_USER $EXEC_PATH/indexer --all fi echo "done." echo RETVAL=$? return $RETVAL}case $* inconfig) do_config ;;start) do_start ;;stop) do_stop ;;status) do_status ;;reindex) do_reindex ;;*) echo "usage: $0 {start|stop|config|status|reindex}" >&2 exit 1 ;;esacexit $RETVALThen alter the permission to make it executable.
chown root:root /etc/init.d/searchdchmod 755 /etc/init.d/searchd
Finalise, make it automatically start on system boot
chkconfig --level 345 searchd on
Now you can use
service searchd start/stop/status
to control the sphinx service
