Support for systemd watchdog via sd_notify

docs/bot-usage.md

@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ optional arguments:
   --db-url PATH         Override trades database URL, this is useful if
                         dry_run is enabled or in custom deployments (default:
                         None).
-
+  --sd-notify           Notify systemd service manager.
 ```
 
 ### How to use a different configuration file?

docs/configuration.md

@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ Mandatory Parameters are marked as **Required**.
 | `strategy` | DefaultStrategy | Defines Strategy class to use.
 | `strategy_path` | null | Adds an additional strategy lookup path (must be a folder).
 | `internals.process_throttle_secs` | 5 | **Required.** Set the process throttle. Value in second.
+| `internals.sd_notify` | false | Enables use of the sd_notify protocol to tell systemd service manager about changes in the bot state and issue keep-alive pings. See [here](installation.md#7-optional-configure-freqtrade-as-a-systemd-service) for more details.
 
 ### Parameters in the strategy
 

docs/installation.md

@@ -428,6 +428,19 @@ For this to be persistent (run when user is logged out) you'll need to enable `l
 sudo loginctl enable-linger "$USER"
 ```
 
+If you run the bot as a service, you can use systemd service manager as a software watchdog monitoring freqtrade bot 
+state and restarting it in the case of failures. If the `internals.sd_notify` parameter is set to true in the 
+configuration or the `--sd-notify` command line option is used, the bot will send keep-alive ping messages to systemd 
+using the sd_notify (systemd notifications) protocol and will also tell systemd its current state (Running or Stopped) 
+when it changes. 
+
+The `freqtrade.service.watchdog` file contains an example of the service unit configuration file which uses systemd 
+as the watchdog.
+
+!!! Note: 
+The sd_notify communication between the bot and the systemd service manager will not work if the bot runs in a 
+Docker container.
+
 ------
 
 ## Windows