Developing full-stack applications often involves running both backend and frontend projects simultaneously. For developers using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), managing these processes efficiently can be a challenge, especially when you want your apps to start automatically and run reliably in the background.

In this article, we'll walk through setting up a Django backend and a React frontend (built with Vite) to run as background services using systemd on WSL. This setup ensures your applications launch on system startup and stay running without manual intervention — making your development environment more seamless and production-like.

Whether you’re building APIs with Django or modern UIs with React, this guide will help you automate your workflow and better manage your full-stack projects on WSL.

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1. Understanding the Need for systemd Services on WSL

Why manage your apps with systemd?

Systemd is a system and service manager for Linux systems. It allows you to manage processes (like your Django and React apps) as services, which means they can start automatically when your system boots and restart if they crash. This is particularly useful in a development environment where you want your applications to be always available without manually starting them each time.