Integration with FreeBSD's rc.conf / rc.d system

This describes how to start a cherrypy site using its built-in HTTP server
and cherryd in such a way that it integrates nicely with FreeBSD's rc system.
FreeBSD uses a text file /etc/rc.conf in combination with a set of
scripts in /usr/local/etc/rc.d to start local daemons.

I set out to achieve the following:

- automatically start the site when the server boots
- being able to stop, start and restart the site
- no need to install a third-party web server like Apache
- compatible with FreeBSD's rc system and /var/run pidfiles
- uses cherryd for daemonization
- able to use standard port 80

In the following example I have my site defined in chsite.py and chsite.conf,
which both reside in /www.

First, make sure the cherryd script itself is executable.
In a standard install of cherrypy under FreeBSD:

    chmod a+x /usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/cherrypy/cherryd

Include the following lines in /etc/rc.conf:

    cherryd_enable="YES"
    cherryd_wwwdir="/www"
    cherryd_flags="-c chsite.conf -i chsite"

Put the script 'cherryd' in /usr/local/etc/rc.d, and don't forget to make it executable.

After these changes, the site should start automatically when the machine is restarted.
To stop, start, restart the site you'd use the commands:

# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/cherryd stop
# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/cherryd start
# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/cherryd restart