Fix releases not starting as a Windows Service

[vais]

No description provided.

[josevalim]

Hi @vais! Thanks for the PR. Which error are you seeing? You cannot start it or you can't stop/connect to it? The erlsrv command expects the name as a separate option, can you please try the change I pushed above? Thanks!

[vais]

Hi, @josevalim, my bad, sorry for the confusion - my "fix" is totally wrong and only worked by coincidence. It looks like what's really causing the Windows service not to start is the presence of config files in the _build\prod\rel\database\tmp directory.

Let's take a step back, here's the problem I'm seeing when I try to start the newly installed service:

C:\Windows\System32>C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\project\database\_build\prod\rel\my_project_name_here\erts-10.3\bin\erlsrv.exe start database_database
C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\project\database\_build\prod\rel\my_project_name_here\erts-10.3\bin\erlsrv.exe: Failed to start service database_database.
Error: The process terminated unexpectedly.

And here's a screenshot of the same error when attempting to start that service via the Windows GUI services applet:

I noticed that every time I try to run the install command, a _build\prod\rel\database\tmp directory is created (if it does not already exist) and a file named something like database-0.1.0-20190823082-1488.runtime.config is added. If I remove or rename this file or the entire tmp directory, then the Windows service starts up just fine. This tmp directory is not recreated when the service starts. It looks like it's only created when the service is installed.

That's all I got so far...

[josevalim]

Perfect. I know what is causing this issue. Meanwhile can you please try my patch and let me know if it currently works too?

[josevalim]

To be clear: let me know if my patch causes triggers the same problem as above or a different one.

[josevalim]

Actually, I don't know what is causing the issue. :D I thought it was because we removed the config files but we don't do that by default. Please try changing the file in this PR by adding -debugtype reuse before -args. You will now find a .log file in the directory of the service and hopefully that log file will tell us what is going wrong. :)

[vais]

Perfect. I know what is causing this issue.

@josevalim Great! Looking forward to seeing the fix then 😄

Meanwhile can you please try my patch and let me know if it currently works too?
To be clear: let me know if my patch causes triggers the same problem as above or a different one.

I am seeing the same behavior before and after your patch: with tmp folder present the service does not start, without the tmp folder the service starts up fine.

But I think your patch is a good idea regardless - it should be -name or -sname depending on the desired distribution, i.e. having -name be hard-coded (as before your patch) is a bug of its own.

Thanks!

[vais]

Oh, just saw your latest comment after posting mine 🤦‍♂
Let me see...

[vais]

@josevalim here you go:

C:\Windows\System32>type database_database.debug
{"init terminating in do_boot",{#{'__exception__'=>true,'__struct__'=>'Elixir.ArgumentError',message=><<"could not fetch environment variable \"RELEASE_SYS_CONFIG\" because it is not set">>},[{'Elixir.System','fetch_env!',1,[{file,"lib/system.ex"},{line,518}]},{'Elixir.Config.Provider','resolve_config_path!',1,[{file,"lib/config/provider.ex"},{line,134}]},{'Elixir.Config.Provider',boot,3,[{file,"lib/config/provider.ex"},{line,157}]},{init,eval_script,2,[{file,"init.erl"},{line,941}]},{init,do_boot,3,[{file,"init.erl"},{line,817}]}]}}
init terminating in do_boot ({,[{Elixir.System,fetch_env!,1,[{_},{_}]},{Elixir.Config.Provider,resolve_config_path!,1,[{_},{_}]},{Elixir.Config.Provider,boot,3,[{_},{_}]},{init,eval_script,2,[{_},{_}]

Crash dump is being written to: erl_crash.dump...done

[josevalim]

@vais I see! Please try adding this now:

-args "-env RELEASE_SYS_CONFIG !RELEASE_SYS_CONFIG! ...`

And let me know if it works!

[josevalim]

Adding:

-args "-env RELEASE_SYS_CONFIG !RELEASE_SYS_CONFIG! -env RELEASE_ROOT !RELEASE_ROOT! ...

Worked here! I am pushing a fix soon!

[vais]

✨ Thank you @josevalim, you did it! ✨
Works on my end as well when I add all those -env args from your commit.
🎉

[josevalim]

We did it! Thank you for the report and helping sanity check everything!

[vais]

❤️