hostconfig process

[Dan Shoop]

On Aug 14, 2007, at 7:43 PM, R.L. Grigg wrote:

> On Aug 10, 2007, at 4:06 PM, Justin C. Walker wrote:
>>
>> On Aug 10, 2007, at 11:11 , R.L. Grigg wrote:
>>
>>> Theres a remote OSX 10.4.10 system that I administor by ssh, and  
>>> after I modify /etc/hostconfig, what process do I need to kill - 
>>> HUP to have it read up the new settings so I dont have to reboot it
>>
>> You need to reboot to have this file re-scanned.  In essence, it  
>> provides a lot of basic settings for the system (processes that  
>> may run only at boot-time, or long-lived processes that have  
>> nothing to do with the boot process) to use, and without  
>> restarting the whole system, you won't get what you want.
>>
>> This may have changed in recent releases, but AFAIK, this is the  
>> still the case.
>
> For example in Sys Prefs under Sharing when you select to enable  
> Apple Remote Desktop it modifies the settings in /etc/hostconfig:
>    ARDAGENT=-YES-
> and then somehow enables it without a reboot. I assume by  
> restarting some process. Just wondering which one? Or is there a  
> simpler way to do this.

Actually you're misinterpreting that.

When you invoke System Preferences to enable ARD it writes the value  
to hostconfig (so the system knows to start it next time) but also  
goes ahead and starts the agent through kickstart. The affect of  
changing the qualifier in hostconfig is a side effect not the change  
itself.

-dhan

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Dan Shoop <shoop at iwiring.net>
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