Running headless on Windows

When I run Pharo 6.1 with -- headless option on Windows, it executes the eval command as expected but during the execution (which lasts 4 sec) it opens the Pharo GUI. 

Is it expected? I thought headless means that the whole execution would happen in the background

Hi.

I think there is separate PharoConsole.exe for headless on Windows

2017-12-27 16:39 GMT+01:00 Andrei Stebakov <[hidden email]>:

When I run Pharo 6.1 with -- headless option on Windows, it executes the eval command as expected but during the execution (which lasts 4 sec) it opens the Pharo GUI. 

Is it expected? I thought headless means that the whole execution would happen in the background

On Wed, Dec 27, 2017 at 04:58:39PM +0100, Cyril Ferlicot D. wrote:
> On 12/27/2017 04:39 PM, Andrei Stebakov wrote:
> > When I run Pharo 6.1 with -- headless option on Windows, it executes the
> > eval command as expected but during the execution (which lasts 4 sec) it
> > opens the Pharo GUI. 
> > Is it expected? I thought headless means that the whole execution would
> > happen in the background
>
> I think that currently Pharo does not have a "real" headless. But I
> heard there was work on that part for Pharo 7.

I know OP is talking about Windows...  I've been running server applications on
Linux without X11 with -vm-display-null and in-image RFBServer for access to
Pharo over VNC. This works very well for me.

I believe "real" headless means GUI is not run at all and therefore does not
consume CPU cycles, which is very welcome. Meanwhile, maybe -vm-display-null
works on Windows for scripting purposes?

Pierce

2017-12-29 3:07 GMT+01:00 Andrei Stebakov <[hidden email]>:

Pierce, I tried all of those "no display" options, the result is the same

On Dec 28, 2017 8:37 PM, "Pierce Ng" <[hidden email]> wrote:

On Wed, Dec 27, 2017 at 04:58:39PM +0100, Cyril Ferlicot D. wrote:
> On 12/27/2017 04:39 PM, Andrei Stebakov wrote:
> > When I run Pharo 6.1 with -- headless option on Windows, it executes the
> > eval command as expected but during the execution (which lasts 4 sec) it
> > opens the Pharo GUI. 
> > Is it expected? I thought headless means that the whole execution would
> > happen in the background
>
> I think that currently Pharo does not have a "real" headless. But I
> heard there was work on that part for Pharo 7.

I know OP is talking about Windows...  I've been running server applications on
Linux without X11 with -vm-display-null and in-image RFBServer for access to
Pharo over VNC. This works very well for me.

I believe "real" headless means GUI is not run at all and therefore does not
consume CPU cycles, which is very welcome. Meanwhile, maybe -vm-display-null
works on Windows for scripting purposes?

Pierce

Hi Andrei,

can you try this:

Open Pharo normal (no headless option).

Change the window size to "not-maximized" (eve if it is actually not maximized, maximize it ones and change it back to "not-maximized")

Save and quit the image.

After that, a call like

pharo --headless pharo.image eval "DateAndTime now"

will write the output to the stdout file, without opening a window.


 

I am using nssm because the service option is broken.

The code seems to still be in the image but disabled (there are quite a few things like that actually).

Phil

On Fri, Dec 29, 2017 at 11:59 AM, Torsten Bergmann <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi, (cross posting vm-dev)

nssm is nice - but requires additional tools.

Since the days of Squeak the windows VM had the

 -service "ServiceName"

option and one was able to run Squeak as a windows service out of the box.

See http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/105 for details.

This option allows to register/deregister with the windows service manager and run
a headless image.

I run a Squeak Wiki (Swiki/Comanche) since years with this and it is very nice and stable.

Unfortunately this is broken in recent Pharo VMs and so far Esteban or others did not
have the time to look into this issue. Would be really nice if this option could
be recovered in 2018. So one could easily deploy and run Seaside or Teapot/Tealight
or Zinc/WebClient based web services on Windows.

If we want to deploy Smalltalk based web applications or services on Windows we
should support that. It will keep Windows administrators happy and we would integrate with
the whole ecosystem (for instance you can start/stop a service using Windows scripting for
doing backups, etc.) right out of the box.

Bye
T.
 
 

Gesendet: Freitag, 29. Dezember 2017 um 11:36 Uhr
Von: "[hidden email]" <[hidden email]>
An: "Any question about pharo is welcome" <[hidden email]>
Betreff: Re: [Pharo-users] Running headless on Windows

If you want to run Pharo as a service, I have found nssm to be working well.
 https://nssm.cc
 
Phil
 
On Dec 29, 2017 09:25, "Nicolai Hess" <[hidden email][mailto:[hidden email]]> wrote:
 
 
2017-12-29 3:07 GMT+01:00 Andrei Stebakov <[hidden email][mailto:[hidden email]]>:
Pierce, I tried all of those "no display" options, the result is the same

 
On Dec 28, 2017 8:37 PM, "Pierce Ng" <[hidden email][mailto:[hidden email]]> wrote:On Wed, Dec 27, 2017 at 04:58:39PM +0100, Cyril Ferlicot D. wrote:
> On 12/27/2017 04:39 PM, Andrei Stebakov wrote:
> > When I run Pharo 6.1 with -- headless option on Windows, it executes the
> > eval command as expected but during the execution (which lasts 4 sec) it
> > opens the Pharo GUI. 
> > Is it expected? I thought headless means that the whole execution would
> > happen in the background
>
> I think that currently Pharo does not have a "real" headless. But I
> heard there was work on that part for Pharo 7.

I know OP is talking about Windows...  I've been running server applications on
Linux without X11 with -vm-display-null and in-image RFBServer for access to
Pharo over VNC. This works very well for me.

I believe "real" headless means GUI is not run at all and therefore does not
consume CPU cycles, which is very welcome. Meanwhile, maybe -vm-display-null
works on Windows for scripting purposes?

Pierce

 
 
Hi Andrei,
 
can you try this:
 
Open Pharo normal (no headless option).
Change the window size to "not-maximized" (eve if it is actually not maximized, maximize it ones and change it back to "not-maximized")
Save and quit the image.
 
After that, a call like
 
pharo --headless pharo.image eval "DateAndTime now"
will write the output to the stdout file, without opening a window.