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I have a Java application I am deploying with Chef. I would like it to start, and allow the Chef client to exit. However, it seems like chef-client waits for the command to finish, no matter how I run it.

I have tried:

  1. Executing javaw with the execute resource
  2. Executing with start
  3. Executing with start /B
  4. Creating a batch script and running that with start and start /B

Is there a way to run the Java program without blocking chef-client?

2 Answers 2

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Edit: the answer below works on Linux, not Windows. It's probably not what you need, but since I wrote it already without noticing that it's a Windows question, I'll leave it for the sake of potential future readers.

This is how it can be done on Linux:

I guess you could write a bash script and run it as a service. I'm using the daemon package to do this. Here is an example recipe you can start with:

# the package that lets you easily define new services
package "daemon"

# script file used by service to launch your java program
file "/my/path/run_script.cmd" do
    content "java --flag1 --flag2 -jar /my/program.jar\n"
end

# setup the service (based on the script above),
# start it, and make it start at boot
cookbook_file '/etc/init.d/myservice' do
    source 'etc_initd_myservice'
end
service "myservice" do
    supports :restart => true, :start => true, :stop => true, :reload => true
    action [:enable]
end

Note that you'll need to add a file named etc_initd_myservice to your cookbook. You can use the content in this answer as basis for this file. This is the file that employs the "daemon" package to run a script as a service.

Also, the following question might contain relevant information if you're having problems with defining a service and creating its init.d script in the same recipe.

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  • I wish creating a service in WIndows was as easy as it is in Linux. Unfortunately, you need either a program coded to be a service, or use a service wrapper.
    – kjw0188
    Feb 18, 2013 at 19:59
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I ended up solving this by making the program a service, and running it that way. A Windows service requires either a code change or a service wrapper. YAJSW worked for me. YAJSW is easy to set up, since it includes scripts to help generate configuration, install as a service, and run the service. In the chef recipe, I include the configuration file generated on a test machine, and install and run the service with the build in scripts.

One gotcha was making sure the user running the service can run services.

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