Re: How to debug why a service doesn't want to start.

> # cat /var/svc.d/users/wwwadmin/run
> #!/bin/sh -e
> 
> USER=`basename $PWD`
> SVPATH=/home/$USER/service
> 
> exec 2>&1
> exec chpst -u$USER runsvdir $SVPATH

 You're relying on the PWD environment variable. This variable has no
reason to be set in a boot environment.
 The basename command doesn't like this, so it exits nonzero.
 Since you're using "/bin/sh -e" as your interpreter, your script exits
as soon as a command exits nonzero. So here it exits right after the
basename command, without writing anything anywhere.

 I haven't looked at the truss output, because it's too cluttered up
with dynamic linking (guys, try to use STATIC binaries when you trace
a program, so we can get directly to the point), but I'm ready to bet
that it's what happens: basename exits nonzero, the shell exits. Game over.

 Your script works when you type "./run" because you're running it in
a user environment, where the PWD environment variable is defined.

 You should find a more reliable way to set USER. Why not hardcode it,
since the run script isn't supposed to be automatically generated?

 More generally, it's really important to see the difference between
a boot environment and a user environment. This difference is what makes
runit (and other supervision suites) more secure than System V schemes:
the boot environment is always the same no matter what, and it's good
for services to have that guarantee. A user environment (when you have
an interactive shell) can change, and it's not reliable to start or test
services from it.

-- 
 Laurent