Question

Here’s a simple python daemon I can’t manage to run as a background process:

#!/usr/bin/env python 

import socket 

host = '' 
port = 843 
backlog = 5 
size = 1024 
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM) 
s.bind((host,port)) 
s.listen(backlog) 
while 1: 
   client, address = s.accept() 
   data = client.recv(size) 
   if data == '<policy-file-request/>\0': 
       client.send('<?xml version="1.0"?><cross-domain-policy><allow-access-from domain="*" to-ports="*"/></cross-domain-policy>') 
   client.close()

It’s a socket policy file server (you may have heard of the restiction Adope put on socket connection – http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer/articles/socket_policy_files.html); that works well when gets run like an “ordinary” process – “python that_server.py”, – but I get problem to run it in the background.

Running like so: “that_server.py &”, – does not work.

EDIT: Here’s what I got from the shell:

ircd@smoky43g:~$ ls
server.py

ircd@smoky43g:~$ sudo nohup python server.py &
[8] 19817
ircd@smoky43g:~$

[8]+  Stopped                 sudo nohup python server.py
ircd@smoky43g:~$

I run it then just press the enter button – and it says ‘stopped’. What is the problem?

Without the sudo command, the similiar happen:

ircd@smoky43g:~$ nohup python server.py &
[9] 20341
ircd@smoky43g:~$ nohup: ignoring input and appending output to `nohup.out'

[9]   Exit 1                  nohup python server.py
ircd@smoky43g:~$

EDIT 2: I fount this in the nohup.out file:

python: can't open file 'sudo': [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "server.py", line 10, in <module>
    s.bind((host,port))
  File "<string>", line 1, in bind
socket.error: [Errno 13] Permission denied

UPDATE: I have managed to run it using the root account, but could not as the ircd user (that belongs to the suddoers). And the question now is why not?

Answer 1

I instrumented your code and it works fine here:

$ cat server.py
#!/usr/bin/env python 

import socket 
import sys

host = '' 
port = 843 
backlog = 5 
size = 1024 
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM) 
print >> sys.stderr, 'socket'
s.bind((host,port)) 
print >> sys.stderr, 'bind'
s.listen(backlog) 
print >> sys.stderr, 'listen'
while 1: 
    try:
       client, address = s.accept() 
       print >> sys.stderr, 'accept'
       data = client.recv(size) 
       print >> sys.stderr, 'recv'
       # ignore data because I can't type a '\0'
       client.send('<?xml version="1.0"?><cross-domain-policy><allow-access-from domain="*" to-ports="*"/></cross-domain-policy>') 
       client.close()
       print >> sys.stderr, 'close'
    except Exception as e:
        print e;
        s.close();
        print >> sys.stderr, 'close'
        sys.exit(1);
$ sudo nohup python server.py &
[1] 11218
nohup: ignoring input and appending output to `nohup.out'
$ jobs
[1]+  Running                 sudo nohup python server.py &
# a couple of telnets to 843
$ jobs
[1]+  Running                 sudo nohup python server.py &
$ sudo kill 11218
$ sudo cat nohup.out
socket
bind
listen
accept
recv
close
accept
recv
close