launchctl starts program but does not list pid

Question

I have been troubleshooting this issue for a while now. Consulted the web, several stackexchange platforms and discussion forums. Here is my problem description:

Usecase:

I have naviserver installed on a mac os x el capitan 10.11.6

Instead of calling

/usr/local/ns/bin/nsd -f -u nsadmin -g nsadmin -t /usr/local/ns/conf/nsd-config.tcl

to start the server and a kill command to stop the server I would like to manage it through a LaunchDaemon.

Problem Description:

I can successfully start a LaunchDaemon through launchctl. However when looking at the launchctl list it lists the plist without a PID. I therefore need to stop the service manually via kill - instead I would like to be able to stop the service with launchctl stop.

Question in essence:

Why doesn't launchctl list the PID of it's successfully started LaunchDaemon?

What I have tried so far

1. Changing the plist file, minimizing parameters, no KeepAlive, no OnDemand, include Program parameter
2. Changing ownerships admin:wheel nsadmin:nsadmin admin:root
3. Running as LaunchAgent via /Library/LaunchAgents directory

Here is what I have done:

I have the following plist under /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.naviserver.dev01.plist

<?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“UTF-8”?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC “-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN” “http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd”>
       <plist version=“1.0”>
          <dict>
           <key>Label</key>
               <string>org.naviserver.dev01</string>

               <key>ProgramArguments</key>
           <array>
                   <string>/usr/local/ns/bin/nsd</string>
                   <string>-u</string>
                   <string>nsadmin</string>
                   <string>-g</string>
                   <string>nsadmin</string>
                   <string>-t</string>
                   <string>/usr/local/ns/conf/nsd-config.tcl</string>
           </array>

           <key>StandardOutPath</key>
               <string>/usr/local/var/log/naviserver_daemon.log</string>

           <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
               <string>/usr/local/var/log/naviserver_daemon.log</string>
       </dict>
    </plist>

The following privileges and ownerships apply

-rw-r--r--  1 root  admin  857 Aug 11 15:03 org.naviserver.dev01.plist

Starting the service works

sudo launchctl load org.naviserver.dev01.plist
sudo launchctl start org.naviserver.dev01

However the launchctl list does not show the service’s PID

sudo launchctl list | grep naviserver
-   0   org.naviserver.dev01

I can find the running process via

ps -ax | grep nsd

Currently I am always manually restarting the server through a kill via the PID, which isn’t nice. I’d like to manage this through launchctl which works with starting the process but not with stopping it again.

Has anyone else run into this problem and is there anything obviously wrong with my approach, which I can change to solve this issue?

Answer 1

It looks like you've left the -f (foreground) flag out of the ProgramArguments array. Without that, naviserver re-runs itself in the background and then exits, meaning that launchd doesn't know the PID of the (backgrounded) server process.