Instead of using position sensor, a position measurement and output feedback tracking method is proposed based on pressure sensor for a class of hydraulic servo system. First, the desired accumulator pressure is calculated and obtained in an open-loop way according to the desired cylinder position. Then, the position tracking task can be indirectly realized by achieving the pressure control. As a result, only one pressure sensor is required instead of position sensor, which is different from almost all the traditional output feedback position controller of hydraulic system. For the closed-loop pressure tracking, a desired compensation method and an auxiliary variable-based state observer are integrated to form the nonlinear controller. The theoretical and numerical simulation results demonstrate that the presented controller can attain satisfactory pressure tracking performance.