This is an init script for memcached that uses a specific directory for the memcached configuration: /etc/memcached.

It's th erefore much easier to manage your memcache configuration since it's now restricted to a specific subdirectory of /etc.

Now it's easy to implement a multiserver setup. Just copy each file to a file named:

/etc/memcached_server1.conf
/etc/memcached_server2.conf
        .
        .
        .
/etc/memcached_serverN.conf

Now you can either start/stop/restart all of your servers with a single command like, for example:

service memcached start 

Or start/stop/restart a specific server, for example server 3, like this:

service memcached start server3

Of course the numeric naming of the files is a mere convenience you can name them as you wish as long as you maintain the pattern of the underscore for separating the server name. For example, server 2 works caching drupal menus. Providing a service before provided by the cache_menu database table. You could name the specific memcached server like this:

memcached_server_cache_menu.conf

for example.

1. Create the /etc/memcached directory.

2. Clone the repo

   git clone git://github.com/perusio/memcached-better-init-script.git
   

3. Move your memcached configuration file(s) to /etc/memcached.

4. Copy this script to /etc/init.d.

5. Issue service memcached force-reload

6. Done.

/usr/share/memcached/scripts/start-memcached

Around line 27, once the $pidfile variable has been initially set you'll need to implement the below 4 lines

if (scalar(@ARGV) == 2) {
    $etcfile = shift(@ARGV);
    $pidfile = shift(@ARGV);
}

The original init script is part of the debian testing distribution wheezy. YMMV on other distrubutions.