[omniORB] omniNames.exe and the -start parameter. omniNames as an NT service.

[John Kamp]

I was wondering what the idea was behind omniNames exiting when -start was used
for the second time. When trying to automate the startup of our servers, I'm
finding that I need to write a script(s) which do something like this:

if omniNames log files exist
   exec=omniNames
else
   exec=omniNames -start 1234
end

This is because issueing an "omniNames -start <port>" is fatel. Is there any
chance that the semantics could be changed slightly so that if omniNames is
issued for a second/third time etc.., its non fatel?

This would help greatly. As it turns out, this change is trivial in the code.

Lastly, I have code which adds the following command line options to
omniNames.exe:

-install
-uninstall

which installs or de-installs omniNames as an NT service. Is anyone interested
in seeing this code in omniNames? Or would this be getting far too platform
specific. The problem with NT services is that you need a thread in the server
itself to respond SCM events. On UNIX, inetd requires no such response system.
Anyway, this NT service code is generic enough such that any .exe can be turned
into an NT service in short order.

Thanks for any feedback. We are maintaining this code locally anyhow, it seems a
shame to have to port it to each new release of omniNames.

Cheers

John Kamp