Lunch¶

• Lunch
• Download
  • Get the Latest Version
  • Older versions
• Learn More
• How-to
  • Installation
  • Try it out
  • How to customize your lunch file
  • The add_command function

Lunch is a distributed process starter and manager. It works on GNU/Linux and other operating systems which provide Python, bash, SSH and Twisted. For instance, it works on Mac OS X.

• If you need to use it to start process on more than one computer, the first step is to configure your SSH client. The steps to manage ssh keys are in the SshKeysManagement page.
• Next, download and install lunch on every computer.

Download¶

See the Downloads page for tarball archives to download.

Get the Latest Version¶

If you are running Ubuntu GNU/Linux, the latest package for Ubuntu Lucid can be found in the Metalab archive. See https://launchpad.net/~sat-metalab/+archive/metalab

To quickly install lunch on Ubuntu Lucid:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:sat-metalab/metalab
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install lunch

If you run an other operating system, download the latest tarball archive and follow the instructions in the INSTALL file. We use the Python module setuptools (distutils) for the packaging.

The 0.3 branch has an unstable API, but contains many bugfixes and new features. Please read the list of deprecated arguments for the add_command function. They are listed at the end of this page.

Older versions¶

For production use, one can use the latest release in the 0.2 branch.

The first release of the 0.4 stable branch should be ready for June 30th, 2010. Again, see the Downloads page for the tarballs archives.

Learn More¶

• See the RoadMap to see what is coming.
• Please add tickets to warn us about bugs and ask for features.
• If you are curious, the ReleaseProcess page has details on how we package the application.
• In a latter version, a UserInterface is planned.
• See CopyrightInformations to learn that it is licensed under the GNU General Public License.
• You can also add the new SoftwareSource to your APT sources list.

Here is a process tree created with lunch:

python─┬─python───xeyes
       └─ssh───python───xeyes

How-to¶

Installation¶

On Ubuntu GNU/Linux, you should use the package. Simply download it and Gdebi should ask you if you want to install it.

If you are using an other system, (like Mac OS X) you might need to do it the hard way. See the InstallationHowTo page to learn how.

Try it out¶

Copy the "simple.lunch" example config file to the local ~/.lunchrc. Edit the configuration file to suit your needs.

cp doc/examples/simple.lunch ~/.lunchrc
edit ~/.lunchrc

Start the lunch master::

lunch -g

When the "-g" option is provided, you should see Lunch's window:

How to customize your lunch file¶

The ~/.lunchrc file is written in Python programming language. You only need to call a few functions, such as the add_command() function. Here are some examples::

add_command(command="xlogo", env={}, identifier="xlogo")
add_command(command="mplayer /usr/share/example-content/Ubuntu_Free_Culture_Showcase/StopMotionUbuntu.ogv", env={}, identifier="mplayer")

Setting the user and host arguments make it be issued through SSH to a remote host::

add_command(command="xlogo", env={"DISPLAY":":0.0"}, user="johndoe", host="example.org", identifier="remote_xlogo")

Here is a Lunch config file for miville. Note that the sleep attribute is for processes AFTER which we need to wait.

add_command("/home/aalex/src/miville/branches/services/py/mivilled -o 0", identifier="miville un", sleep_after=1)
add_command("/home/aalex/src/miville/branches/services/py/mivilled -o 1", identifier="miville deux", sleep_after=1)
add_command("xterm -c telnet localhost 14444", identifier="miville un")
add_command("xterm -c telnet localhost 14445", identifier="miville deux")

The Python documentation is at http://docs.python.org/
You might like to have a look at the PythonTricks page.

The add_command function¶

The add_command function is the only thing you need to call from your Python script. You need to call it once for each child process to run, on either local or remote host. Here is a list of its keyword arguments and their default values.

	Keyword		Default value		Python Type		Note
	command		None		str		The bash command to run. The only mandatory argument, and the first positional argument.
	identifier		None		str		Determines the name of the log files and the log keys.
	env		None		dict		A dict of name=value pairs of environment variables to set for the child process.
	user		None		str		The UNIX user name, when using SSH
	host		None		str		The IP address or host name to which connect using SSH. Lunch will not use SSH if not set.
	sleep_after		0.25		float		How long to wait before launching next command.
	respawn		True		bool		Should a child be respawned or not. Will only be run once if set to False.
	minimum_lifetime_to_respawn		0.5		float		Minimum life time a child must last in order to be respawned.
	log_dir		None		str		Specifies the logging directory for the lunch slave and child.
	depends		None		str or list or str		Specifies one or more identifiers of processes on which this one depends.
	ssh_port		None		int		Specifies the SSH port to use when using a remote host.

See the Deprecated page for options to avoid with this function.