[ic] Interchange as a System service.

Daniel Davenport ddavenport at newagedigital.com
Mon Mar 14 19:17:11 EST 2005


>>> andreb at techess.com 03/10/05 08:48PM >>>
> Hi all.. how do i setup interchange as a service to start up on the
> different run levels..
>
> Andre

(NOTE:  this message describes how RH/Fedora does services.  YMMV.  If
you use another flavor of Linux, i guarantee nothing about how well this
stuff works.)

The only thing "special" about services, as opposed to other daemons,
is that a service has a script in /etc/init.d (and links in
/etc/rc.d/rc[0-6].d) that can tell the daemon to start, stop, or
whatever.  You need a script like the ones in /etc/rc.d/init.d, but
which instead of starting sshd or apache or whatever, starts
interchange.  It's not too hard to write....it can just be a shell
script that takes a command as the first parameter/argument/whatever. 
Personally, since i'm not a whiz with shell scripts, i'll often just
make a copy of one of the existing scripts and change the commands
around to suit the service i need started.  Replace
'/usr/sbin/someotherd' with '/usr/local/interchange/bin/interchange',
etc.  :)  Look at the various scripts in init.d; one is usually better
than others for making these kinds of changes.

(note: since IC usually runs as interch(ange)?, you might do better to
just strip out the start and stop commands and put in what you usually
put in to start IC.  su -c and all.)

The commands can be just about anything....apache, for example,
responds to a "configtest" command--which runs just long enough to
check/parse the config files, and doesn't disturb the already-running
server.  Helpful.  :)   If you want your service's script to be useful,
you'll need to at least respond to 'start' and 'stop' commands. 
'restart' would be good too. 

init.d scripts also have a couple of comment lines near the top of the
file that describe the service and specify what runlevels the service
should start in by default, and in what order it should start (relative
to other programs in the same runlevel).  If you look at other scripts
in init.d, you'll see a line like

# chkconfig: 2345 60 40

That's the important one--it specifies the default runlevels, start
order, and stop order for the service.  The first number is really a
string of digits, one for each default runlevel.  '2345' means the
service will start in all the standard runlevels, unless you tell it to
do otherwise.  (0, 1, and 6 are special.  Don't set up a daemon to run
in any of those runlevels.)  The last two numbers are the start order
and stop order respectively, should each be two digits, and can be
anything from 00 to 99.  Services with 00 as their start order will be
started first, and 99 means it wil be started last.  In the case of IC,
make sure it starts after all of the services it depends on (httpd,
postgres or mysqld, network, etc), and stops before any of them....or
there will be trouble.  Personally, i prefer that the numbers add up to
99 or 100....just because that helps make sure that what starts last
stops first, and vice versa.

Your safest bet is to use a line like

#chkconfig: 2345 99 00

This will make IC one of the last services to start, and one of the
first to stop.  Until you're comfortable with manipulating services,
paranoia is not a bad thing.

Another line you'll find useful is

# description: Starts and stops the Interchange server.

Whatever you put after description: will be shown in programs like
system-config-services (or redhat-config-services, for the rh[8-9]
folks) when you click on the service name.  I'm not sure whether this
line is really required (although i've never had a problem, `man
chkconfig` suggests it is), but it can't hurt to include it.

when your script is done, cp/mv it to /etc/rc.d/init.d/interchange. 
chmod it a-rwx,u=rx; and chown it to root.root.  Then say "chkconfig
--add interchange".  That'll put the symlinks in the right places so
that IC starts at the right time.

Once your script is in init.d and properly chmodded, you can say
"service interchange start".  Guess what that does.

/


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