> > > Mind you I only work with ant very rarely but what should work is this: > /path/to/ant -buildfile /greenstone/gs3/build,xml -Dbasedir=/greenstone/gs3 > Dennis your suggestion works well so for the moment I am going with # Systemd unit file for Greenstone 3 [Unit] Description=Greenstone 3 Server After=syslog.target network.target [Service] Type=forking Environment=PATH=/usr/apache-ant-1.9.6/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/root/bin ExecStart=/usr/apache-ant-1.9.6/bin/ant -buildfile /greenstone/gs3/build.xml -Dbasedir=/greenstone/gs3 start ExecStop=/usr/apache-ant-1.9.6/bin/ant -buildfile /greenstone/gs3/build.xml -Dbasedir=/greenstone/gs3 stop SuccessExitStatus=143 User=gs3 Group=gs3 [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target Thanks to everyone who commented :)