===Daemontools and upstart===
Create a file under /etc/event.d
%%
# svscanboot

start on runlevel 2
start on runlevel 3
start on runlevel 4
start on runlevel 5

stop on shutdown

exec /usr/local/bin/svscanboot
respawn
%%

Then start this upstart service and check its status
%%
initctl start svscanboot
initctl status svscanboot
%%



=== Installing daemontools ===
Download daemontools from http://cr.yp.to/daemontools/install.html
Install it and then reboot
%%
cd admin/daemontools-0.76
package/install
%%

If you run into error saying "cp: cannot stat `compile/svscan': No such file or directory", patch daemontools with the following

%%
diff -ur daemontools-0.76.old/src/error.h daemontools-0.76/src/error.h
--- daemontools-0.76.old/src/error.h	2001-07-12 11:49:49.000000000 -0500
+++ daemontools-0.76/src/error.h	2003-01-09 21:52:01.000000000 -0600
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 #ifndef ERROR_H
 #define ERROR_H
 
-extern int errno;
+#include <errno.h>
 
extern int error_intr;
extern int error_nomem;
%%

Create run files for different services. For example, for apache:
%%
#!/bin/sh

# pick up any necessary environment variables
if test -f /usr/local/sbin/envvars; then
  . /usr/local/sbin/envvars
fi
exec 2>&1
exec /usr/local/sbin/httpd -f /usr/local/etc/apache22/httpd.conf >> /var/log/httpd.log 2>&1
%%

Even for mysql
%%
#!/bin/sh
exec /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld --user=mysql --datadir=/var/mysql/data
%%

Check service status
%%
svstat /service/mysql
%%

=== Starting / stopping services ===
~ svc -h /service/yourdaemon: sends HUP
~ svc -t /service/yourdaemon: sends TERM, and automatically restarts the daemon after it dies
~ svc -d /service/yourdaemon: sends TERM, and leaves the service down
~ svc -u /service/yourdaemon: brings the service back up
~ svc -o /service/yourdaemon: runs the service once