new file mode 100755
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/start-memcached
@@ -0,0 +1,117 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl -w
+
+# start-memcached
+# 2003/2004 - Jay Bonci <jaybonci@debian.org>
+# This script handles the parsing of the /etc/memcached.conf file
+# and was originally created for the Debian distribution.
+# Anyone may use this little script under the same terms as
+# memcached itself.
+
+use strict;
+
+if($> != 0 and $< != 0)
+{
+	print STDERR "Only root wants to run start-memcached.\n";
+	exit;
+}
+
+my $params; my $etchandle; my $etcfile = "/etc/memcached.conf";
+
+# This script assumes that memcached is located at /usr/bin/memcached, and
+# that the pidfile is writable at /var/run/memcached.pid
+
+my $memcached = "/usr/bin/memcached";
+my $pidfile = "/var/run/memcached.pid";
+
+# If we don't get a valid logfile parameter in the /etc/memcached.conf file,
+# we'll just throw away all of our in-daemon output. We need to re-tie it so
+# that non-bash shells will not hang on logout. Thanks to Michael Renner for 
+# the tip
+my $fd_reopened = "/dev/null";
+
+	sub handle_logfile
+	{
+		my ($logfile) = @_;
+		$fd_reopened = $logfile;
+	}
+
+	sub reopen_logfile
+	{
+		my ($logfile) = @_;
+
+		open *STDERR, ">>$logfile";
+		open *STDOUT, ">>$logfile";
+		open *STDIN, ">>/dev/null";
+		$fd_reopened = $logfile;
+	}
+
+# This is set up in place here to support other non -[a-z] directives
+
+my $conf_directives = {
+	"logfile" => \&handle_logfile,
+};
+
+if(open $etchandle, $etcfile)
+{
+	foreach my $line (<$etchandle>)
+	{
+		$line ||= "";
+		$line =~ s/\#.*//g;
+		$line =~ s/\s+$//g;
+		$line =~ s/^\s+//g;
+		next unless $line;
+		next if $line =~ /^\-[dh]/;
+
+		if($line =~ /^[^\-]/)
+		{
+			my ($directive, $arg) = $line =~ /^(.*?)\s+(.*)/; 
+			$conf_directives->{$directive}->($arg);
+			next;
+		}
+
+		push @$params, $line;		
+	}
+
+}else{
+	$params = [];
+}
+
+	push @$params, "-u root" unless(grep "-u", @$params);
+	$params = join " ", @$params;
+
+if(-e $pidfile)
+{
+	open PIDHANDLE, "$pidfile";
+	my $localpid = <PIDHANDLE>;
+	close PIDHANDLE;
+
+	chomp $localpid;
+	if(-d "/proc/$localpid")
+	{
+		print STDERR "memcached is already running.\n"; 
+		exit;		
+	}else{
+		`rm -f $localpid`;
+	}
+
+}
+
+my $pid = fork();
+
+if($pid == 0)
+{
+		reopen_logfile($fd_reopened);
+		exec "$memcached $params";
+		exit(0);
+
+}else{
+	if(open PIDHANDLE,">$pidfile")
+	{
+		print PIDHANDLE $pid;
+		close PIDHANDLE;
+	}else{
+
+		print STDERR "Can't write pidfile to $pidfile.\n";
+	}
+}
+