winsw/docs/installation.md

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This page provides WinSW installation guidelines for different cases.

Use WinSW as a global tool

1. Take WinSW.exe or WinSW.zip from the distribution.
2. Write myapp.xml (see the XML config file specification for more details)
3. Run winsw install myapp.xml [options] to install the service.
4. Run winsw start myapp.xml to start the service.
5. Run winsw status myapp.xml to see if your service is up and running.

Use WinSW as a bundled tool

In order to setup WinSW, you commonly need to perform the following steps:

1. Take WinSW.exe from the distribution, and rename it to your taste (such as myapp.exe)
2. Write myapp.xml (see the XML config file specification for more details)
3. Place those two files side by side, because that's how WinSW discovers its configuration.
4. Run myapp.exe install [options] to install the service.
5. Run myapp.exe start to start the service.

There are some details for each step available below.

Installation step details

Step 2. Configuration file

You write the configuration file that defines your service. The example below is a primitive example being used in the Jenkins project:

<service>
  <id>jenkins</id>
  <name>Jenkins</name>
  <description>This service runs Jenkins continuous integration system.</description>
  <env name="JENKINS_HOME" value="%BASE%"/>
  <executable>java</executable>
  <arguments>-Xrs -Xmx256m -jar "%BASE%\jenkins.war" --httpPort=8080</arguments>
  <log mode="roll"></log>
</service>

The full specification of the configuration file is available here.

Step 3. Service registration

The Installer can be also started with the /p option. In such case it will prompt for an account name and password, which should be used as a service account.