Configure service options
  
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Note: this advanced option screen is only available in install4j Enterprise Edition and is reachable by selecting the executable step and choosing "Service options" from the [Advanced options] popup menu or by clicking directly on the index.

In this step of the launcher wizard, you define further options for service executables. All options on this screen will only be enabled if the selected executable type in the executable step is "Service".

  The Startup options section is only relevant for Microsoft Windows.

Windows services are registered by the installer. It is also possible to install services from the command line by passing /install to the generated service executable. The default start mode of the service can be determined in this section:

  • default start type
    • start on demand
      In start on demand mode, your service must be manually started by the user in the Windows service manager. Use this option, if you're not sure if your users will actually want to run your application as a service, but you want to give them an easy way to do so. This installation mode can be forced on the command line if the user passes /install-demand to the generated executable instead of /install.
    • auto start
      In auto start mode, your service is always started when Windows is booted. This installation mode can be forced on the command line if the user passes /install-auto to the generated executable instead of /install.
  • Allow user to change the start type in the installer
    If you select this checkbox, users will be presented with a checkbox auto start on bootup in the installer so they can change the default start type themselves.

Windows services are always uninstalled by passing /uninstall to the generated service executable. All command line switches also work with a prefixed dash instead of a slash (like -uninstall) or two prefixed dashes (like --uninstall).

To start or stop the service, the /start and /stop options are available.

As a second parameter after the /install parameter, you can optionally pass a service name. In that way you can

  • install a service with a different service name than the default name.
  • Use the same service executable to start multiple services with different names. To distinguish several running service instances at runtime, you can query the system property exe4j.launchName for the service name. Note that you also have to pass the same service name as the second parameter if you use the /uninstall, /start and /stop parameters.

  If your service depends on another service, say a database, you can enter the service name (the name of the startup item on Mac OS X) of the other service in the platform specific Dependencies section.

You do not have to enter core OS services such as filesystem or network, these services will always be initialized before your service is launched. If you have dependencies on multiple services, you can enter a list of these service names separated by commas. Text fields for specifying dependencies are available for Windows and Mac OS X. On Unix-like platforms, the start/stop script has to be integrated into the boot sequence by the administrator.

In most cases, you can leave the dependencies empty.

  Click [Next] to proceed to the next step or [Cancel] to leave the generated launcher wizard without applying any changes.