Startup Scripts discussion ( GERONIMO-693 )

[sissonj]

To get the ball rolling on startup scripts http://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/GERONIMO-693 , what do people think about basing the startup scripts (as much as possible) on tomcat's catalina.bat & catalina.sh http://cvs.apache.org/viewcvs.cgi/jakarta-tomcat-catalina/catalina/src/bin/ (since they have been used for years and many users would be familiar with their style of configuration)?

Here is my initial list of requirements for startup scripts for discussion.  If anyone else has some requirements to add (please indicate priority.. e.g. mandatory or nice to have)?  I will consolidate comments into a proposal (e.g. documenting command syntax).

Server Startup:
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* script must specify -Djava.endorsed.dirs=lib/endorsed to ensure Tomcat works
* allow plan names to be specified for advanced users.  
* start under JPDA debugger if 1st argument is "jpda" instead of "start"  (optional JPDA_TRANSPORT & JPDA_ADDRESS environment variables)
* start under security manager (causes -Djava.security.manager and  -Djava.security.policy==xx to be passed to the JVM)  How should a policy file be specified?
* specify directory for temporary files (e.g. GERONIMO_TMPDIR environment variable)
* allow jvm options to be passed (e.g. JAVA_OPTS environment variable)
* (for discussion) should the one server startup script also be used for starting Geronimo as a service?  I don't plan to implement this initially, but would like to plan how we would do it.  Currently Tomcat can be started as a service, but they don't use a script to start it as a service.  See http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-5.5-doc/setup.html . Does anyone know if there is a JIRA issue for starting Geronimo as a service?  I can't find one.

* (for discussion) Can we introduce some type of startup mode parameter that removes the need for people to remember to start the org/apache/geronimo/RuntimeDeployer configId).  Could having such a parameter make manuals/books easier to write?  I see a few possible modes of startup (please comment if you can think of others):
  - start with previous configuration (no configIds specified as arguments on Java command).  This would be the default mode.
  - start with a specific list of configIds.  Only these configIds will be started.  
  - start with a minimal configuration for J2EE (this includes the org/apache/geronimo/RuntimeDeployer configuration).
  - (future) start with a minimal configuration for non-J2EE use.  There was a discussion on the dev list
  - (future) start with a rolled back configuration?

Server Shutdown
==============
More thought needed here. Any comments?

Deploy Tool Startup:
=================
* starting under JPDA debugger
* allow jvm options to be passed

Currently the deploy tool accepts some parameters with two leading minus characters (e.g. --user system).  The Tomcat startup scripts currently have parameters that have a single leading minus character (e.g. -security).  Should the startup script parameters be using the same prefix (two leading minus characters) as the Java code or should it be using a different prefix?

John

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