Question on user_launch

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1

Is there any documention on how user_launch is working ?

If I understood correctly it allows to start some jobs/services once the system is started like LaunchBox below (which depends on a setting) :

job x-vnd.Haiku-LaunchBox {
	launch /system/apps/LaunchBox
	if setting ~/config/settings/LaunchBox/main_settings autostart
	on initial_volumes_mounted
	legacy
	no_safemode
}

Not sure how the setting command is working and what legacy/safemode mean.

2

Have a look at The Haiku Book: Introduction to the Launch Daemon

3

The doc I linked doesn’t specifically mention the condition “setting”.

It appears the “setting” condition in

if setting ~/config/settings/LaunchBox/main_settings autostart

decodes the flattened BMessage ~/config/settings/LaunchBox/main_settings and checks if there’s a field named “autostart” and sees if it’s true or false.

4

Safenmode is related to booting with safemode from the bootloader. Not sure what legacy means though.

5

My understanding is that if the service does not use BServer, which is private, then legacy should be used.

6

I’ve an additional question : the documentation is also referring to “after user login (when it’s in ~/config/data/launch/ )”.

However the directory doesn’t exist, what is the correct directory to add user services/jobs instead of system services/jobs ?

EDIT : maybe /boot/home/config/settings/boot/launch/ ?

7

The documentation is severely lacking. The launch directory is for system services, the user_launch directory is for user services.

The ~/config/data/launch or user_launch directories will appear as-needed(when a package is installed which contains a file in that directory). However, the directories in ~/config are part of a separate packagefs mount from /system. This means that a package installed to /system/packages will use /system/data/user_launch and a package installed to ~/config/packages will use ~/config/data/user_launch.

8

Ok maybe I will explain what I have in mind :

Suppose I have installed a package like “postgresql” where the package is not using the “launch daemon” feature.

Is there any possibility to define a user launcher like below without changing the package ?

job.x-vnd.postgresql {
  launch pg_ctl -D /boot/home/postgresql
  no_safemode
  legacy
  on initial_volumes_mount
}

Or maybe it’s better to add a bash script in the /boot/home/config/settings/boot/launch/ folder ?

9

I’m not sure if I understand the question properly, that “user launcher” is being run by the launch daemon. If you’re talking about creating launch_roster scripts outside of a package, then you can create/use the non-packaged directories. Like, /system/non-packaged/data/user_launch or ~/config/non-packaged/data/user_launch

10

Ok I’ve created the folder /boot/home/config/non-packaged/data/user_launch and put the script above but it’s not working.

postgresql is not exactly “outside of a package” because it’s installed via pkgman (postgresql12_server), however I would like to enhance it by starting the server via a user_launch :slight_smile:

11

I was a little bit mistaken, the ~/config/non-packaged/data/user_launch doesn’t appear to be working, but the /system one does. Seems like a bug to me.

The launch script requires some changes too. The job should probably be switched to a service and you have an extra period in there after job, service x-vnd.postgresql. The on statement should be on initial_volumes_mounted. You may need to specify the full path to the pg_ctl command, I’m not sure of that.

12

Thank you for these details, indeed the folder recognized is “/system/non-packaged/data/user_launch”

I can see that “job” is working with the below :

job x-vnd.postgresql {
  launch /bin/pg_ctl -D /boot/home/postgresql -l /boot/home/postgresql/postgresql.log start
  no_safemode
  legacy
  on initial_volumes_mounted
}
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