Managing launchd

[Bryan Blackburn]

On Thu, Jul 02, 2009 at 07:06:35PM +0300, Panagiotis Atmatzidis said:
> Hello,
> 
> I have a mac mini G4 that acts as a server on my home LAN offering
> services (dns, http, AFP, etc).
> 
> I've installed dnsmasq but I don't know how to make launchd start
> dnsmasq on boot. I understand that this has something to do with
> launchd but I could not find any documentation on how to do it.

Looks like the dnsmasq port doesn't currently install a launchd item (it has
at least some of the bits but they are commented-out).  Best would probably
be to file a ticket for it:

<http://trac.macports.org/newticket>

> 
> My second issue is that when I've installed lighttpd, I did a quick
> configuration on the lighttpd.conf in order to make it work. I copy
> and paste at the terminal the command line in order to start the
> demon via launchd at boot something like this:
> 
> sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/
> org.macports.lighttpd.plist
> 
> Now the problem is that while, I can clearly see that lighttpd
> doesn't bind any port(!) is running and apparently every time I kill
> the process it starts by itself, so at this point I don't have
> control over this. How can manage this situation? I want to configure
> it first and the put it at startup. Here's what I'm talking about:

Right, launchd will keep it running so if you kill it, launchd restarts it;
that is how it works.  If you want to shut it down, use the converse of the
command you used to load it:

$ sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.lighttpd.plist

Then use the load again when you want to start it again.

Bryan

[...]
> 
> 
> Thank you for your time in advance,
> 
> regards
> 
> 
> Panagiotis (atma) Atmatzidis
> 
> email:	atma at convalesco.org
> URL:	http://www.convalesco.org
> GnuPG key id: 0xFC4E8BB4
> --
> The wise man said: "Never argue with an idiot. They bring you down to
> their level and beat you with experience."