startupitems and port load

[Rainer Müller]

On 2009-09-13 01:51 , Jeremy Lavergne wrote:
> Does `sudo port load ...` do a force load (`launchctl load -F ...`) or  
> does it write it out as runnable (`launchctl load -w ...`)?

It's an alias for `launchctl load -w`. And note that this feature is
broken in 1.8.0, http://trac.macports.org/ticket/21128

> If it writes it out, is this the preferred way to run ports with  
> startupitems?

`port load` has just been created as an easier alias to start and stop
daemons installed through MacPorts. If you want other things (like -F)
it is quite inflexible.

> When creating your own launchd files, how does one correctly install it?

I wanted to say to take the dbus port as example. But apparently it
installs the plist files to ${prefix}/Library/LaunchDaemons (why not
${frameworks_dir}?) and adds symlinks to /Library/LaunchDaemons.

Marcus, why does dbus use this way and is not directly installing to
/Library/LaunchDaemons?

I can't think of other ports with custom launchd files...

> I've heard that using daemondo allows us to account for ports that  
> don't expect launchd to handle them.  I think that we should go a  
> little beyond this and determine if we should use it or not.
> 
> I propose that we avoid using daemondo only if the portfile explicitly  
> uses launchd, maintaining backwards compatibility.  Any thoughts on  
> this?

You mean flag in the Portfile to indicate if daemondo should be used or not?

Rainer