[Wlug] startup scripts & pid

I'm installing an ircd variant (ircd-hybrid-7) on a server at work. I didn't find an rpm for this newer version, so one of the people in my group built it. However, there is no startup script, so we'll have to cook one ourselves. I have a question about storing the pid in /var/run. Does one of the common functions in the functions script (/etc/rc.d/init.d/functions) handle storing the pid, or is that something that most daemons have built-in? I've found shell code for killing processes using the pid from /var/run, but nothing for storing the pid. Another question... Is there a decent template for writing our own script? I hate to reinvent the wheel. (I never seem to get it very round.) Any suggestions? Thanks, Bill