X-Git-Url: http://git.iain.cx/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=README.txt;h=fd47350881152956fb1dd788313831b511994075;hb=7bceb3325f17fcfcf44838f51a3d3e06ad76487d;hp=21718ba4a7b6414ba4be1a01ca4bb10f76e89225;hpb=167b3e74003ed8f2b61bda7037f31447c488c29b;p=nssm.git diff --git a/README.txt b/README.txt index 21718ba..fd47350 100644 --- a/README.txt +++ b/README.txt @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ NSSM: The Non-Sucking Service Manager -Version 2.0, 2006-09-09 +Version 2.13, 2012-05-20 NSSM is a service helper program similar to srvany and cygrunsrv. It can start any application as an NT service and will restart the service if it @@ -7,9 +7,31 @@ fails for any reason. NSSM also has a graphical service installer and remover. +Full documentation can be found online at + + http://nssm.cc/ + Since version 2.0, the GUI can be bypassed by entering all appropriate options on the command line. +Since version 2.1, NSSM can be compiled for x64 platforms. +Thanks Benjamin Mayrargue. + +Since version 2.2, NSSM can be configured to take different actions +based on the exit code of the managed application. + +Since version 2.3, NSSM logs to the Windows event log more elegantly. + +Since version 2.5, NSSM respects environment variables in its parameters. + +Since version 2.8, NSSM tries harder to shut down the managed application +gracefully and throttles restart attempts if the application doesn't run +for a minimum amount of time. + +Since version 2.11, NSSM respects srvany's AppEnvironment parameter. + +Since version 2.13, NSSM is translated into French. +Thanks François-Régis Tardy. Usage ----- @@ -49,13 +71,59 @@ Managing the service -------------------- NSSM will launch the application listed in the registry when you send it a start signal and will terminate it when you send a stop signal. So far, so -much like srvany. But NSSM is the Non-Sucking service manager and will take +much like srvany. But NSSM is the Non-Sucking service manager and can take action if/when the application dies. -NSSM will try to restart itself if it notices that the application died but -you didn't send it a stop signal. NSSM will keep trying, pausing 30 seconds -between each attempt, until the service is successfully started or you send -it a stop signal. +With no configuration from you, NSSM will try to restart itself if it notices +that the application died but you didn't send it a stop signal. NSSM will +keep trying, pausing between each attempt, until the service is successfully +started or you send it a stop signal. + +NSSM will pause an increasingly longer time between subsequent restart attempts +if the service fails to start in a timely manner, up to a maximum of four +minutes. This is so it does not consume an excessive amount of CPU time trying +to start a failed application over and over again. If you identify the cause +of the failure and don't want to wait you can use the Windows service console +(where the service will be shown in Paused state) to send a continue signal to +NSSM and it will retry within a few seconds. + +By default, NSSM defines "a timely manner" to be within 1500 milliseconds. +You can change the threshold for the service by setting the number of +milliseconds as a REG_DWORD value in the registry at +HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\\Parameters\AppThrottle. + +NSSM will look in the registry under +HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\\Parameters\AppExit for +string (REG_EXPAND_SZ) values corresponding to the exit code of the application. +If the application exited with code 1, for instance, NSSM will look for a +string value under AppExit called "1" or, if it does not find it, will +fall back to the AppExit (Default) value. You can find out the exit code +for the application by consulting the system event log. NSSM will log the +exit code when the application exits. + +Based on the data found in the registry, NSSM will take one of three actions: + +If the value data is "Restart" NSSM will try to restart the application as +described above. This is its default behaviour. + +If the value data is "Ignore" NSSM will not try to restart the application +but will continue running itself. This emulates the (usually undesirable) +behaviour of srvany. The Windows Services console would show the service +as still running even though the application has exited. + +If the value data is "Exit" NSSM will exit gracefully. The Windows Services +console would show the service as stopped. If you wish to provide +finer-grained control over service recovery you should use this code and +edit the failure action manually. Please note that Windows versions prior +to Vista will not consider such an exit to be a failure. On older versions +of Windows you should use "Suicide" instead. + +If the value data is "Suicide" NSSM will simulate a crash and exit without +informing the service manager. This option should only be used for +pre-Vista systems where you wish to apply a service recovery action. Note +that if the monitored application exits with code 0, NSSM will only honour a +request to suicide if you explicitly configure a registry key for exit code 0. +If only the default action is set to Suicide NSSM will instead exit gracefully. Removing services using the GUI @@ -77,6 +145,18 @@ To remove a service without confirmation from the GUI, run Try not to remove essential system services... +Logging +------- +NSSM logs to the Windows event log. It registers itself as an event log source +and uses unique event IDs for each type of message it logs. New versions may +add event types but existing event IDs will never be changed. + +Because of the way NSSM registers itself you should be aware that you may not +be able to replace the NSSM binary if you have the event viewer open and that +running multiple instances of NSSM from different locations may be confusing if +they are not all the same version. + + Example usage ------------- To install an Unreal Tournament server: @@ -90,8 +170,28 @@ To remove the server: Building NSSM from source ------------------------- -NSSM is known to compile with Visual Studio 6 and Visual Studio 2005. +NSSM is known to compile with Visual Studio 6, Visual Studio 2005 and Visual +Studio 2008. +NSSM will also compile with Visual Studio 2010 but the resulting executable +will not run on versions of Windows older than XP SP2. + + +Credits +------- +Thanks to Bernard Loh for finding a bug with service recovery. +Thanks to Benjamin Mayrargue (www.softlion.com) for adding 64-bit support. +Thanks to Joel Reingold for spotting a command line truncation bug. +Thanks to Arve Knudsen for spotting that child processes of the monitored +application could be left running on service shutdown, and that a missing +registry value for AppDirectory confused NSSM. +Thanks to Peter Wagemans and Laszlo Keresztfalvi for suggesting throttling restarts. +Thanks to Eugene Lifshitz for finding an edge case in CreateProcess() and for +advising how to build messages.mc correctly in paths containing spaces. +Thanks to Rob Sharp for pointing out that NSSM did not respect the +AppEnvironment registry value used by srvany. +Thanks to Szymon Nowak for help with Windows 2000 compatibility. +Thanks to François-Régis Tardy for French translation. Licence -------