Configure Yosemite Server WebApp with LaunchD

Question

Has anyone successfully been able to start a webapp via a

webappctl

configuration which specifies a launchd configuration in their webapp.plist

launchKeys

key?

Background

Specifically, with Server.app installed, one can, in theory, configure custom web applications which would show up in the Server.app GUI under the "Advanced Settings" of a Website configuration.

If you take a look at the

ReadMe.txt

in

/Library/Server/Web/Config/apache2

there's a section which states:

webapps/

This directory contains the webapp.plist files for all defined webapps. See the man page for webapp.plist(8) and webappctl(8). (Server app man pages are present in /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/share/man/.)

Administrators are strongly encouraged to use the webapp mechanism instead of modifying virtual host config files directly. In general, you can place Apache configuration directives in an "Include" file, and create a webapp.plist file that references that Include file. You can then activate or de-activate that Include file for the default sites, or for specific custom sites, by using webappctl(8).

You can also read the man entries, as suggested in the

ReadMe.txt

by these terminal commands:

man -M /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/share/man/ webapp.plist

man -M /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/share/man/ webappctl

There's also a sample webapp configuration

/Library/Server/Web/Config/apache2/com.example.mywebapp.plist

which has some comments in it about how this plist could be configured.

Setup

In my case I have added a webapp.plist to the

/Library/Server/Web/Config/apache2/

directory which looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<!-- See man pages for webapp.plist(5) and webappctl(8) for information about webapp.plist -->

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>includeFiles</key>

<array/> <!-- Include files are activated in virtual host when webapp is started -->

<key>launchKeys</key>

<array> <!-- Launchd plists in /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/System/Library/LaunchDaemons are loaded when webapp is started -->

<string>org.levi.foo</string>

</array>

<key>name</key>

<string>org.apache.tomcat</string>

<key>displayName</key> <!-- Name shown in Server app -->

<string>Tomcat</string>

<key>proxies</key> <!-- ProxyPass/ProxyPassReverse directives are activated when webapp is started -->

<dict/>

<key>requiredModuleNames</key>

<array/>

<key>installationIndicatorFilePath</key> <!-- The presence of this file indicates web app is installed -->

<string>/Library/Tomcat/Home/bin/catalina.sh</string>

<key>sslPolicy</key> <!-- Determines webapp SSL behavior -->

<integer>0</integer> <!-- 0: default, UseSSLWhenEnabled -->

<!-- 1: UseSSLAlways -->

<!-- 2: UseSSLOnlyWhenCertificateIsTrustable -->

<!-- 3: UseSSLNever -->

<!-- 4: UseSSLAndNonSSL -->

</dict>

</plist>

Paying specific attention to:

<key>launchKeys</key>

<array>

<string>org.levi.foo</string>

</array>

which specifies my launchd.plist which is located at

/Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.levi.foo.plist

and looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>Label</key>

<string>org.levi.foo</string>

<key>RunAtLoad</key>

<true/>

<key>Program</key>

<string>/Library/Tomcat/start.sh</string>

</dict>

</plist>

which should simply call the script

/Library/Tomcat/start.sh

which is simply:

#!/bin/bash

BASENAME=`basename $0`

LOGGER_B="/usr/bin/logger"

function log {

MESSAGE="$1"

${LOGGER_B} -i -p daemon.notice -t ${BASENAME} ${MESSAGE}

}

log "Here I am!"

Issue

If I use

launchctl

to manually load the

org.levi.foo.plist

:

$ sudo launchctl load org.levi.foo.plist

I get the expected message in

/var/log/system.log

:

Apr 2 16:12:01 host sudo[85791]: levi : TTY=ttys000 ; PWD=/Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/System/Library/LaunchDaemons ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/launchctl load org.levi.foo.plist

Apr 2 16:12:01 host start.sh[85795]: Here I am!

However, if I use

webappctl

to start my webapp configuration (above):

$ sudo webappctl start org.apache.tomcat

I get an error in

/var/log/system.log

:

Apr 2 16:18:46 host sudo[85904]: levi : TTY=ttys000 ; PWD=/Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/System/Library/LaunchDaemons ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/sbin/webappctl start org.apache.tomcat

Apr 2 16:18:47 host serverctl[85914]: ERROR: The operation couldn’t be completed. Operation not permitted

Apr 2 16:18:49 host serverctl[85915]: ERROR: The operation couldn’t be completed. Operation not permitted

Apr 2 16:18:49 host servermgr_web[85908]: XSWebConfig:ERROR: Failed on second attempt to load /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.l evi.foo.plist

and I don't see my "Here I am!" message.

This seems to indicate that my

launchd.plist

is not making it as far as running the script when trying to start via

webappctl

, but I have no idea what operation couldn't be completed, or why not. All of the files I've mentioned are owned by

root:wheel

with

rw-r--r--

permissions, except for the script, which is

rwx-r-xr-x

.

So, what magic must be performed to get my webapp to load/unload my launchd configuration on start/stop?

Side note:

Obviously these configurations and scripts are simple examples I've used for debugging purposes and to simplify the details here. In reality I'm trying to stand up an instance of Tomcat as a "webapp" to run behind Apache 2 on my server such that I can deploy true web apps through Tomcat and have them served to the web.)

Side note 2:

I know I can install my

launchd.plist

in

/Library/LaunchDaemons

, and omit the

launchKeys

from my

webapp.plist

as a workaround, but this does not allow me to start/stop the webapp via Server.app (or the command line equivalent), and, I mean, it should work, right?

Many thanks,

Levi