diff --git a/pkgs/servers/server-scripts/generic/functions b/pkgs/servers/server-scripts/generic/functions
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..4143163865f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/servers/server-scripts/generic/functions
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+#! @bash@/bin/sh -e
+
+## Generic service scripts for NixOS, which provide
+## * functions to write state to files (/var/run/nix-services)
+## * functions to read state from file (/var/run/nix-services)
+## * sanity checking functions
+
+STATEDIR=/var/run/nix-services