NAME

Win32::ServiceManager - Manage Windows Services

VERSION

version 0.001000

SYNOPSIS

 use Win32::ServiceManager;
 use Path::Class 'file';

 my $dir = file(__FILE__)->parent->absolute;
 my $sc = Win32::ServiceManager->new(
    nssm_path => $dir->file(qw( cgi exe nssm.exe ))->stringify,
 );

 $sc->create_service(
    name => 'LynxWebServer01',
    display => 'Lynx Web Server 1',
    description => 'Handles Web Requests on port 3001',
    command =>
       $dir->file(qw( App script server.pl ))->stringify .
          ' -p 3001',
 );
 $sc->start_service('LynxWebServer01', { use_sc => 0 });
 $sc->stop_service('LynxWebServer01');
 $sc->delete_service('LynxWebServer01');

METHODS

create_service

 $sc->create_service(
    name        => 'GRWeb1',
    display     => 'Giant Robot Web Worker 1',
    description => 'Handles Giant Robot Web Requests on port 3001',
    use_perl    => 1,
    use_nssm    => 1,
    command     => 'C:\code\GR\script\server.pl -p 3001',
    depends     => [qw(MSSQL Apache2.4)],
 );

Takes a hash of the following arguments:

• name

  (required) The name of the service (which is used when doing a sc start etc.)

• use_nssm

  (defaults to the value of use_nssm_default) Set this to start your service with "nssm"

• use_perl

  (defaults to the value of use_perl_default) Set this to create perl services. Uses $^X. If for some reason you want to use a different perl you will have to set use_perl to false.

• display

  (required) The display name to give the service

• description

  (optional) The description to give the service.

• command

  (required) The command that is effectively your service

• args

  (optional) Arguments that get passed to the command above. XXX: do these even make sense?

• depends

  (optional) List of service names that must be started for your service to function. You may either pass a string or an array ref. A string gets passed on directly, the array reference gets properly joined together.

Note: there are many options that sc can use to create and modify services. I have taken the few that we use in my project and forced the rest upon you, gentle user. For example, whether you like it or not these services will restart on failure and start automatically on boot. I am completely willing to add more options, but in 4 distinct projects we have never needed more than the above. Patches Welcome!

start_service

 $sc->start_service('GRWeb1', { use_sc => 1 });

Starts a service with the passed name. The second argument is an optional hashref with the following options:

• usc_sc

  (defaults to the value of "use_sc_default") Set this to false if you want to block until the service starts.

stop_service

 $sc->stop_service('GRWeb1', { use_sc => 1 });

Stops a service with the passed name. The second argument is an optional hashref with the following options:

• usc_sc

  (defaults to the value of "use_sc_default") Set this to false if you want to block until the service stops.

restart_service

 $sc->restart_service('GRWeb1', { use_sc => 1 });

Stops and starts a service with the passed name. The second argument is an optional hashref with the following options:

• usc_sc

  (defaults to the value of "use_sc_default") Set this to false if you want to block until the service starts. (Note that the blocking until the service has stopped is required.)

ATTRIBUTES

use_nssm_default

The default value of use_nssm for the "create_service" method.

use_perl_default

The default value of use_perl for the "create_service" method.

use_sc_default

Set this to true (default) to use sc to start or stop services. sc is faster, but asyncronous. Sometimes using ye olde net is better as it allows for restarts, for example.

nssm_path

Set this to the path to nssm (default is just 'nssm.exe').

nssm

nssm is a handy service wrapper for Windows. Instead of adding hooks directly to your program to handly Windows service signals, this program runs your program for you and intercepts the signals and acts appropriately. It is open source and clocks in at less than two megabytes of RAM. The code is at git://git.nssm.cc/nssm/nssm.git.

PRO-TIPS

The best way to use this module is to subclass it for your software. So for example we have a subclass that looks something like the following:

 package Lynx::ServiceManager

 use Moo;
 extends 'Win32::ServiceManager';

 our $DIR = file(__FILE__)->parent->absolute;
 sub create_catalyst_service {
    my ($self, $i) = @_;

    $self->create_service(
       name => "LynxWebServer$i",
       display => "Lynx Web Server $i",
       description => 'Handles Web Requests on port 3001',
       command =>
          $dir->file(qw( App script server.pl ))->stringify .
             " -p 300$i",
    );

 }

 sub start_catalyst_service { $_[0]->start_service("LynxWebServer$_[1]", $_[2]) }

 ...

The above makes it very easy for use to start, stop, add, and remove catalyst services.

CAVEAT LECTOR

I have used this at work and am confident in it, but it has only been used on Windows Server 2008. The tests can do no better than ensure the generated strings are as expected, instead of ensuring that a service was correctly created or started or whatever.

Additionally, in my own work when I get an error from sc I just report it and move forward. Because of this I have done very little to make exceptions useful. I am open to making them objects but again, I do not need that myself, so Patches Welcome!

AUTHOR

Arthur Axel "fREW" Schmidt <frioux+cpan@gmail.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2013 by Arthur Axel "fREW" Schmidt.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

cpanm Win32::ServiceManager

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Win32::ServiceManager