BaseX as a Windows Service

[vincentml]

Hello BaseX team,

This issue is about providing another way to run BaseX as an always-on service on Windows operating systems.

I've previously used YAJSW to run BaseX as an always-on service in Windows and contributed to the documentation of this method at https://docs.basex.org/main/YAJSW. More recently however, I've been using a different method that uses Servy to run BaseX as an always-on Service in Windows. Servy has been working well for me, and Servy has some advantages over YAJSW in that it is easier to use and provides monitoring of the service.

I've created a .bat script that makes it very easy to install/uninstall BaseX as a Windows Service using Servy. Here is a copy of the script service.bat in service.zip. If you have any thoughts about how to improve this script please let me know.

Firstly, would this be of interest? Secondly, what would be the best way to share this script and related information? Should I create a pull request to add the .bat script to basex-core/etc, or draft a new documentation page for the Developer Section, or both?

[ChristianGruen]

Hi Vincent, thanks in advance, this sounds promising. It may take some days for us to look at it, but rest assured it won’t be forgotten.

[ChristianGruen]

Finally some feedback: I agree, Servy looks like a nice modern companion to the YAJSW method.

From my point of view, a new documentation page in our Wiki would be best for now. Thanks in advance for your offer to provide it. One reason is that an officially shipped file in basex-core/etc will make us responsible for maintaining the solution. Another one is that it is always interesting to gain some experience first.

The script currently re-declares settings that BaseX already owns (ports, web path, memory, classpath) and passes them itself. This creates two places that define the same thing (the service definition vs. .basex/jetty.xml) which can silently disagree. I think it would be better to let the script handle only service tasks (name, auto-start, working folder, logging, health) and let BaseX read its normal config.

And two bugs to fix:

1. Paths with spaces break it (e.g. under Program Files): if not exist %TEMPDIR% … needs quotes "%TEMPDIR%" (same for the classpath).
2. Minor: --help prints the help and then error messages. I think it should just show help and exit.

[ChristianGruen]

Hi @vincentml, did you have time to digest my comments?

I have updated the Wiki article for YAJSW; I agree Servy would certainly be a step forward.

[vincentml]

Hi @ChristianGruen Thank you for your comments!

You make a really good point. The script shouldn't silently override settings that a user may have defined in the standard locations.

I have different instances of BaseX running on the same machine so having a convenient way to configure what ports BaseX uses from the service configuration / command line is very helpful. In situations where the different instances of BaseX are using the same codebase and configuration files .basex / jetty.xml (but not sharing a data folder) configuring the ports for each instance on the service configuration / command line is far simpler than other methods. However, most users probably wouldn't have such scenarios.

I've revised the script so that it only sets http port, server port, stop port, and web path if these are specified in the command line options. I've also removed the memory settings, corrected the bugs that you found, and made a few more improvements.

The classpath default in this script is copied from BaseX's own scripts in the bin folder, where each script has a copy of the classpath. I'm not sure if there's a way to avoid having the classpath copied in this script too -- other than perhaps to have Servy run basexhttp.bat instead of running directly running java. That might be okay, but that would make the --cp option redundant. I use the --cp option when the jar files are in a non-standard location, which is why both the --cp and --cpa options are available.

Here is an updated version of the script service.bat (EDIT: in service-3.zip). Please let me know if you have any comments.

I will draft a page for the wiki as soon as I have some more time available.

[ChristianGruen]

Hi @vincentml, this looks great, thanks.

On the classpath: keep it as is. Launching java.exe directly looks better to me.
One tip for the Wiki: include an example with a path that contains a space, since that’s the trickiest part to get right.

Looking forward to the draft. Here’s the YAJSW page, which you can use as template… YAJSW.xml …but I’ll also be happy to create an account for you (the Markdown is mostly GFM, but with a stronger focus on HTML/XML).

[ChristianGruen]

@vincentml If you have questions about wiki editing, just let us know.

[vincentml]

Hi @ChristianGruen I'm sorry for the delay on my end. I've been tied up in a project (which uses BaseX :) ) though I haven't forgotten about this.