Debian init.d

/etc/init.d/zm script - slightly modified from the original to correctly echo output on debian

copy/paste the following into: /etc/init.d/zm

#!/bin/sh
# description: Control ZoneMinder as a Service
# chkconfig: 2345 99 99

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

prog=ZoneMinder
ZM_PATH_BIN="/usr/local/bin"
command="$ZM_PATH_BIN/zmpkg.pl"

start() {
        echo -n "Starting $prog: "
        $command start
        RETVAL=$?
        [ $RETVAL = 0 ] && echo success
        [ $RETVAL != 0 ] && echo failure
        echo
        [ $RETVAL = 0 ] && touch /var/lock/subsys/zm
        return $RETVAL
}
stop() {
        echo -n $"Stopping $prog: "
        $command stop
        RETVAL=$?
        [ $RETVAL = 0 ] && echo success
        [ $RETVAL != 0 ] && echo failure
        echo
        [ $RETVAL = 0 ] && rm -f /var/lock/subsys/zm
}
status() {
        result=`$command status`
        if [ "$result" = "running" ]; then
                echo "ZoneMinder is running"
                RETVAL=0
        else
                echo "ZoneMinder is stopped"
                RETVAL=1
        fi
}

case "$1" in
'start')
        start
        ;;
'stop')
        stop
        ;;
'restart')
        stop
        start
        ;;
'status')
        status
        ;;
*)
        echo "Usage: $0 { start | stop | restart | status }"
        RETVAL=1
        ;;
esac
exit $RETVAL

after creating the file...

debian:~# chmod 755 /etc/init.d/zm
debian:~# update-rc.d zm defaults

...to make ZM start automatically during boot