By default, on Ubuntu, SphinxSearch is using /etc/sphinxsearch/sphinx.conf and /etc/default/sphinxsearch to start/stop daemon.

If you need to use specific command line options (like -c ), you need to update your /etc/init.d/sphinxsearch

In the do_start() function, change the line :

start-stop-daemon --start --pidfile $PIDFILE --chuid www-data --exec ${DAEMON}

with

start-stop-daemon --start --pidfile $PIDFILE --chuid www-data --exec ${DAEMON} -- ${DAEMON_OPTS}

Set the DAEMON_OPTS variable at the beginning of the file. For example :

CONFIG=/var/www/udg/app/config/sphinx.conf
DAEMON_OPTS="-c ${CONFIG}"

I’ve also updated all /etc/sphinxsearch/sphinx.conf occurrences to ${CONFIG}