start Symbolic link to start_unix or start_inet stop Stops the server start_inet Starts the server in INET mode start_unix Starts the server in UNIX mode restart Symbolic link to restart_unix or restart_inet restart_inet Re-starts the server in INET mode restart_unix Re-starts the server in UNIX mode dump Dumps the session file for a particular catalog expire Expires sessions for a particular catalog expireall Expires all catalogs reconfig Runtime reconfiguration of catalogs check Template script to monitor server health checkstat.sh Template script to monitor server upness htpasswd.pl Program to create .htpasswd files offline Does offline build of the database(s) update Does in-place update of the database(s) makecat Make catalog localize Help build a locale file from MiniVend pages
Some thought should be given to where the databases, error logs, and session files should be located, especially on an ISP that might have multiple users sharing a MiniVend server. In particular, you might put all of the session files and logs in a directory that is not writable by the user -- if the directory or file is corrupted the catalog may go down.
To test the format of user catalog configuration files before restarting the server, you can do (from VendRoot):
minivend -test
That will check all configuration files for syntax errors, which might otherwise prevent a catalog from coming up. Once a catalog configures properly, user reconfiguration will not crash it, just cause an error. But it must come up when the server is started.