What is the goal?

The goal is to implement a program in Python+Twisted (using PB for network access) under Windows XP or 2000+, that can be run before a user logs on, so it has to be a windows service, launched automatically, at boot. Another goal is to show some developement patterns in Twisted. You will find a lot of ‘theoretical’ patterns about how to make singletons/borgs, proxy, and stuff, but I never found patterns about ‘Twisted code’, except for the wonderful ‘finger tutorial’ by the squishy moshez. This tutorial can be split in two parts: The first one is about writing a good skeleton for your Twisted development. The second part is about making a Windows service.

Note that these instructions (the service building part) will not work under Windows 98, 95 or older.

Required packages

On the Windows machine, we have two categories of requirements:

The required stuff for generating the files: To do so, we need: ActiveState Python 2.3+ (because it includes the latest version of the modules pywin32), Twisted 1.3+, and py2exe 0.5+, and eventually gvim for editing the files.
The required stuff when we have generated all the required files: nothing, as we’ll have a compiled program which includes all the required DLLs.

Installation of the required packages

Nothing special here, just click, except that I had to add the path to the scripts (twistd) in Python2.3 (installation path to Python and path to scripts directory).

Writing the program

In our program, we don’t need anything specific that will require the use of the specially made reactor for win32, in fact, there’s not really any reason to use it anyway. There’s just the case if you want to use the utils.getProcessValue() method of twisted which doen’t work if you use the default select recator. That’s not really a problem, since you can use the win32pipe.popen() from the pywin32 modules which works perfectly in Twisted (at least for me).

Here, our program is a simple one that just listens on port 1234 using PB, making the method getFoo() available to the outside. This method just returns the current time.
Simple, Fast and short code

Here is the simplest code, without using tricks to shorten the code making it unreadable: Myprog1.py

# -*- coding: latin-1 -*-
 from twisted.internet import reactor,defer,app
 from twisted.application import service,internet
 from twisted.internet import defer
 from twisted.spread import pb
 from twisted.python import log,logfile
 from twisted.cred import portal,checkers,credentials
 from twisted.manhole.telnet import ShellFactory
 from twisted.cred.portal import IRealm

import time

class SimpleRealm:
 __implements__ = IRealm

def requestAvatar(self, avatarId, mind, *interfaces):
 if pb.IPerspective in interfaces:
 p = Presence()
 return pb.IPerspective, p, lambda : None
 else:
 raise NotImplementedError("no interface")

class Presence(pb.Avatar):
 def perspective_getFoo(self, data):
 return time.time()

def main():
 from twisted.cred.portal import Portal
 from twisted.cred.checkers import InMemoryUsernamePasswordDatabaseDontUse

portal = Portal(SimpleRealm())
 checker = InMemoryUsernamePasswordDatabaseDontUse()
 checker.addUser("foo", "bar")
 portal.registerChecker(checker)
 reactor.listenTCP(1234, pb.PBServerFactory(portal))
 reactor.run()

if __name__ == '__main__':
 main()

How to run this code: Simply type python Myprog1.py.

The method requestAvatar of the class SimpleRealm is called whenever a user (a pb client here) has been authenticated. This method associates the user to a class (here Presence) which contains the allowed remotely callable methods (identified by perspective_*). In this example, there is just one method that can be called: getFoo. A PB factory is created to respond to external requests, and map successful requests to the SimpleRealm class.

To test this code, you can write a simple PB client that will ask for the getFoo method and get the result. I’ve done it for you in the file miniclient.py:

# -*- coding: latin-1 -*-
 from twisted.spread import pb
 from twisted.internet import reactor,stdio,defer
 from twisted.python.util import println
 from twisted.cred import credentials
 from twisted.python import log,logfile
 from twisted.protocols import basic

import sys,time,os,ConfigParser

class Client(pb.Referenceable, pb.Broker):
 def __init__(self):
 pb.Broker.__init__(self, isClient=1)
 self.presence = None

# Low LEVEL methods

def run(self):
 self.connect()

def connect(self):
 user = 'foo'
 password = 'bar'
 log.msg('Attempting to connect to server as user %s...' % user)

self.factory = pb.PBClientFactory()
 reactor.connectTCP("localhost", 1234, self.factory)
 def1 = self.factory.login(credentials.UsernamePassword(user, password),
 client=self)
 def1.addCallbacks(callback=self.connected, errback=self.noLogin)
 def1.addCallback(callback=self.action)
 def1.addErrback(errback=self.genericError)

def genericError(self, ref) :
 log.msg( "Generic error: %s." % ref.getErrorMessage() )

def noLogin(self, reason):
 print "Got rejected, will try in 5 seconds", reason
 reactor.callLater(5, self.connect)
 self.factory.disconnect()
 return defer.fail(reason)

def connected(self, perspective):
 print "Connected, got perspective ref:", perspective
 self.presence = perspective
 perspective.notifyOnDisconnect(self.server_disconnected)

def server_disconnected(self, ref):
 """ """
 #print "Server has disconnected, trying to reconnect in 5 seconds"
 #reactor.callLater(5, self.connect)

def shutdown(self):
 reactor.stop()

# High LEVEL methods
 def action(self,data):
 """ """
 log.debug("Executing action")
 df1 = self.presence.callRemote('getFromCommon','hello')
 df1.addCallback(lambda x: println(">>>>>>>>> Result: %s" % x))
 df1.addCallback(lambda x: reactor.stop())

if __name__ == '__main__':
 log.startLogging(sys.stdout, 0)
 c = Client()
 c.run()

reactor.run()

If you are not familiar with the deferred mechanism, you can read the corresponding HOWTO on http://twistedmatrix.com/projects/core/documentation/howto/defer.html.

Cleaner, more open, but more verbose code

For a cleaner, more ‘Production grade’ source, you can look at this one: Myprog2.py

# -*- coding: latin-1 -*-

from twisted.internet import reactor,defer,app
 from twisted.application import service,internet
 from twisted.internet import defer
 from twisted.spread import pb
 from twisted.python import log,logfile
 from twisted.cred import portal,checkers,credentials
 from twisted.manhole.telnet import ShellFactory

from twisted.cred.portal import Portal,IRealm
 from twisted.cred.checkers import InMemoryUsernamePasswordDatabaseDontUse
 import time,sys

class SimpleRealm:
 __implements__ = IRealm

def requestAvatar(self, avatarId, mind, *interfaces):
 if pb.IPerspective in interfaces:
 p = Presence()
 return pb.IPerspective, p, lambda : None
 else:
 raise NotImplementedError("no interface")

class Presence(pb.Avatar):
 def perspective_getFoo(self):
 log.msg('getFoo is called')
 return time.time()

class Agent(service.Service,pb.Referenceable):
 def __init__(self, *args, **kw):
 self.realm = None

def getRealmResource(self):
 self.realm = SimpleRealm()

checker = InMemoryUsernamePasswordDatabaseDontUse()
 checker.addUser("foo", "bar")

p = Portal(self.realm)
 p.registerChecker(checker)
 return pb.PBServerFactory(p)

if __name__ == '__main__':
 log.startLogging(sys.stdout, 0)

application = service.Application('Agent')
 serviceCollection = service.IServiceCollection(application)

pSvc = Agent('Agent', application)
 pSvc.setName('Agent')
 pSvc.setServiceParent(serviceCollection)

shellF = ShellFactory()
 shellF.setService(pSvc)
 shellF.username = 'admin'
 shellF.password = 'test'
 reactor.listenTCP(8789,shellF)

reactor.listenTCP(1234, pSvc.getRealmResource())
 reactor.run()

How to run this code: Simply type python Myprog2.py.

The difference from the previous Myprog1.py program is that a new class Agent is created, a subclass of service.Service. There are multiple reasons for doing this:

It allows us to have a “central class” where you can store your common methods to all your eventual different Presences and other methods. You could store them in SimpleRealm (and you’d be right if your program is really small) but I don’t think that’s really clean. The way I see it, the class related to realms is just supposed to contain classes related to user management.
If you want to use twistd, .tac and other fun Twisted stuff, you have to get an application defined. The first child of this application would be an instance of the Agent class.

This code is much cleaner, but longer, but allows to continue developping without barriers like communication between services, etc. This version is launched just by running python and the .py file.

Code shaped for usage with twistd

In Twisted you have the possibility to launch a .py file with a wrapper, named twistd (note the absence of ‘e’). But to do this, you need to initialize things differently from the method shown in Myprog2.py. Here’s the code: Myprog3.py

# -*- coding: latin-1 -*-

 from twisted.internet import reactor,defer,app
 from twisted.application import service,internet
 from twisted.internet import defer
 from twisted.spread import pb
 from twisted.python import log,logfile
 from twisted.cred import portal,checkers,credentials
 from twisted.manhole.telnet import ShellFactory

 from twisted.cred.portal import Portal,IRealm
 from twisted.cred.checkers import InMemoryUsernamePasswordDatabaseDontUse
 import time, sys

class SimpleRealm:
 __implements__ = IRealm

def requestAvatar(self, avatarId, mind, *interfaces):
 if pb.IPerspective in interfaces:
 p = self.getPerspectiveNamed(avatarId)
 p.attached(mind)
 return (pb.IPerspective, p, lambda p=p, mind=mind: p.detached(mind))
 else:
 raise NotImplementedError("no interface")

def getPerspectiveNamed(self, name):
 log.msg('getPerspective() called for perspective named: %s' % name)
 presence = OnePresence(perspectiveName=name)
 presence.setRealm(self)
 return presence

class Presence(pb.Avatar):
 def __init__(self, perspectiveName, identityName='Nobody'):
 self.identity = perspectiveName
 self.remote = None
 self.realm = None

def setRealm(self, realm): self.realm = realm

def success(self, message): log.msg('Success: %s' % message)
 def failure(self, error): log.msg("Failure: error received: %s" % error)

def attached(self, mind):
 """ Called when a client connects to this Presence """
 log.msg('Attached: mind: %s' % (mind))
 self.remote = mind
 return self

def detached(self, remote):
 """ Called when a client disconnects from his Presence """
 log.msg('Detached: mind: %s' % (remote))
 self.remote = None

def perspective_test(self, text):
 log.msg('Presence received: %s' % text)
 if self.remote:
 return text
 else:
 print 'no remote?!'
 return None

def OnePresence(Presence):
 def perspective_getFoo(self):
 log.msg('getFoo is called')
 return time.time()

def perspective_getFromCommon(self, data):
 pass

class Agent(service.Service, pb.Referenceable):
 def __init__(self, *args, **kw):
 self.realm = None

def getRealmResource(self):
 self.realm = SimpleRealm()

 checker = InMemoryUsernamePasswordDatabaseDontUse()
 checker.addUser("foo", "bar")

 p = Portal(self.realm)
 p.registerChecker(checker)
 return pb.PBServerFactory(p)

###############################################
 application = service.Application('Agent')
 serviceCollection = service.IServiceCollection(application)

 pSvc = Agent('Agent', application)
 pSvc.setName('Agent')
 pSvc.setServiceParent(serviceCollection)

 shellF = ShellFactory()
 shellF.setService(pSvc)
 shellF.username = 'admin'
 shellF.password = 'test'

 shell = internet.TCPServer(8789,shellF)
 shell.setName('shell')
 shell.setServiceParent(serviceCollection)

 tcpServer = internet.TCPServer(1234, pSvc.getRealmResource())
 tcpServer.setServiceParent(serviceCollection)

How to run this code: use twistd -noy Myprog3.py.

Here, what happens is that twistd looks for an object named application and uses it. So you ABSOLUTELY need to have that object named application. There are some modifications compared to Myprog2.py, where SimpleRealm is more verbose and allows to create different presences.

Dispatching code in different files/modules

The code is a little longer, making it more difficult to read. So I made another version, where code is split in two files: Myprog4.py and Myprog4Presences.py

# -*- coding: latin-1 -*-

from twisted.internet import reactor,defer,app
 from twisted.application import service,internet
 from twisted.internet import defer
 from twisted.spread import pb
 from twisted.python import log,logfile
 from twisted.cred import portal,checkers,credentials
 from twisted.manhole.telnet import ShellFactory

from twisted.cred.portal import Portal,IRealm
 from twisted.cred.checkers import InMemoryUsernamePasswordDatabaseDontUse
 import time, sys

from Myprog4Presences import OnePresence

class SimpleRealm:
 __implements__ = IRealm

def __init__(self, refServer):
 self.refServer = refServer

def requestAvatar(self, avatarId, mind, *interfaces):
 if pb.IPerspective in interfaces:
 p = self.getPerspectiveNamed(avatarId)
 p.attached(mind)
 return (pb.IPerspective, p, lambda p=p, mind=mind: p.detached(mind))
 else:
 raise NotImplementedError("no interface")

def getPerspectiveNamed(self, name):
 log.msg('getPerspective() called for perspective named: %s' % name)
 presence = OnePresence(perspectiveName=name)
 presence.setRealm(self)
 return presence

class Agent(service.Service, pb.Referenceable):
 def __init__(self, *args, **kw):
 self.realm = None

def getRealmResource(self):
 self.realm = SimpleRealm(refServer=self)

checker = InMemoryUsernamePasswordDatabaseDontUse()
 checker.addUser("foo", "bar")

p = Portal(self.realm)
 p.registerChecker(checker)
 return pb.PBServerFactory(p)

## Specific code ##########################
 def doSomething(self, data):
 return "Hello %s" % data

###############################################
 application = service.Application('Agent')
 serviceCollection = service.IServiceCollection(application)

pSvc = Agent('Agent', application)
 pSvc.setName('Agent')
 pSvc.setServiceParent(serviceCollection)

# Manhole installation for DEBUGGING only
 # Faire "import __main__" puis "service", "service.parent"  pour voir ce qu'il y a.
 shellF = ShellFactory()
 shellF.setService(pSvc)
 shellF.username = 'admin'
 shellF.password = 'test'

shell = internet.TCPServer(8789,shellF)
 shell.setName('shell')
 shell.setServiceParent(serviceCollection)

tcpServer = internet.TCPServer(1234, pSvc.getRealmResource())
 tcpServer.setServiceParent(serviceCollection)

And the file Myprog4Presences.py:

# -*- coding: latin-1 -*-
 from twisted.internet import reactor, defer
 from twisted.spread import pb
 from twisted.python import log

import time

class Presence(pb.Avatar):
 def __init__(self, perspectiveName, identityName='Nobody'):
 self.identity = perspectiveName
 self.remote = None
 self.realm = None

def setRealm(self, realm): self.realm = realm

def success(self, message): log.msg('Success: %s' % message)
 def failure(self, error): log.msg("Failure: error received: %s" % error)

def attached(self, mind):
 """ Called when a client connects to this Presence """
 log.msg('Attached: mind: %s' % (mind))
 self.remote = mind
 return self

def detached(self, remote):
 """ Called when a client disconnects from his Presence """
 log.msg('Detached: mind: %s' % (remote))
 self.remote = None

def perspective_test(self, text):
 log.msg('Presence received: %s' % text)
 if self.remote:
 return text
 else:
 print 'no remote?!'
 return None

class OnePresence(Presence):
 def perspective_getFoo(self):
 log.msg('getFoo is called')
 return time.time()

def perspective_getFromCommon(self, data):
 return self.realm.refServer.doSomething(data)

How to run this code: use twistd -noy Myprog4.py.

Besides splitting the classes in different files, I added an example of perspective (perspective_getFromCommon) that goes to the “main application” (in fact the root of the tree where you have the app, then the simulation realm, and then the presences) to execute a ‘common’ method. Note: This code uses the ex-manhole stuff (now ShellFactory) to allow connection to the program while running. I’ll write a small tutorial on this later.

Using .tac file to finish the skeleton

Finally, we’re at the last step of achieving our ‘perfect pattern program’ in Twisted. The last thing to do, is to create a .tac file. Why? Well, it’s not useful, but it’s a requirement for building a service under Windows. A .tac is really simple: it’s just the ‘main’ part of the program put in a separate file with an extension ‘.tac’: Myprog5.py, Myprog5Presences.py and Myprog5.tac

from twisted.internet import reactor
 from twisted.application import service,internet
 from twisted.manhole.telnet import ShellFactory

from Myprog5 import Agent

application = service.Application('Agent')
 serviceCollection = service.IServiceCollection(application)

pSvc = Agent('Agent', application)
 pSvc.setName('Agent')
 pSvc.setServiceParent(serviceCollection)

 # Manhole installation for DEBUGGING only
 # Faire "import __main__" puis "service", "service.parent"  pour voir ce qu'il y a.
 shellF = ShellFactory()
 shellF.setService(pSvc)
 shellF.username = 'admin'
 shellF.password = 'test'

 shell = internet.TCPServer(8789,shellF)
 shell.setName('shell')
 shell.setServiceParent(serviceCollection)

How to run this code: use twistd -noy Myprog5.tac.

Final note and update

As you surely know, Twisted is a fast moving target, it seems it is now the usage not to use internet.TCP/UDP* anymore, but the method strports.service(), which will surely allows in the future to pass the information on the twistd command-line.

As an example, now you just need to replace the following code:

tcpServer = internet.TCPServer(1234, pSvc.getRealmResource())
tcpServer.setServiceParent(serviceCollection)

With:

 from twisted.application import strports
 [...]
 tcpServer = strports.service('tcp:1234',pSvc.getRealmResource())
 tcpServer.setServiceParent(serviceCollection)

Making a service of the program

(This section is now specific to Windows).

How to create a service, having a python program? The only way I know is to use the py2exe program whose initial goal is to find all the dependencies (modules and libraries), make an archive of it, and create an executable of the main program. The goal is to be able to easily distribute some python program without having requirements like ‘python must be installed, wxPython and wax modules have to be present on version >x.y’. Another advantage of py2exe is to allow the developer to choose how your program is compiled. It can be of three formats: console, window, com_server or service. For testing purposes, it is best to use ‘console’ mode, which, when your program will be launched, will open a Windows shell and run your program inside, making it easy to see any exception or other error.

To use py2exe, we’ll have to create a setup.py file because py2exe uses the nice distutils module (which should always be installed with python by default on ANY distribution).

We’ll first try to compile our program as a console app. Normally, for a normal python program the setup.py file would be as simple as running python setup.py build:

 from distutils.core import setup
 import py2exe 

 setup(console=["myscript.py"])

When this works correctly, you can continue (the hard part) to transform your program into a Windows service. Now that your program runs in a console, we’ll make it a service. What are the advantages of making of your program a service? Simple, you can launch your service before anyone logs on, at the machine boot, that means you’re not attached to the presence of a user logged on. That allows you to secure a little more you application by setting the owner/runner of the service a least privileged user. Another reason is that you can easily start/stop/restart your service graphically by clicking in the Windows Service Manager.

For a normal python program that’s not really a problem, here’s the corresponding setup.py file:

 from distutils.core import setup
 import py2exe 

 setup(service=["MyService"])

Here, you’ll need to have an attribute _svc_name_ in a module named MyService.

OK. That’s easy, you say, and you’re right. The only problem is that this doesn’t work if you’re using Twisted. The main reason is that that class containing the _svc_name_ has to be a loop, where you have a start, a stop, etc. That means you’ll be stuck running this loop, and not the reactor :-(

Moreover, we want to be able to run our program which is in a .tac, and with twistd. So we’ll have to use a supplementary module, written by Moonfallen, available in his svn sandbox (svn co svn://svn.twistedmatrix.com/svn/Twisted/sandbox/moonfallen). You can view it using the web interface on http://svn.twistedmatrix.com/cvs/sandbox/moonfallen/ . You’ll get the following files:

 lstep@nefesh moonfallen $ ll
 total 92
 drwxr-xr-x  4 lstep users   280 Jun 20 17:49 ./
 drwxr-xr-x  4 lstep users   112 Jun 20 17:49 ../
 drwxr-xr-x  7 lstep users   296 Jun 20 17:49 .svn/
 -rw-r--r--  1 lstep users  3163 Jun 20 17:49 README.txt
 -rwxr-xr-x  1 lstep users   772 Jun 20 17:49 TODO.txt*
 -rw-r--r--  1 lstep users 49833 Jun 20 17:49 modulegraph.zip
 drwxr-xr-x  3 lstep users   200 Jun 20 17:49 ntsvc/
 -rwxr-xr-x  1 lstep users   766 Jun 20 17:49 pysvc.ico*
 -rw-r--r--  1 lstep users   799 Jun 20 17:49 serviceinfo.ini
 -rw-r--r--  1 lstep users 21751 Jun 20 17:49 tpusage.py

Install them in the directory where you put your setup.py file. and unzip modulegraph.zip in your site-packages directory (follow the instructions in the README).
Bug in Py2exe 0.5.4

If you just installed Py2exe without patching it, you will certainly end up with an error when you’ll try to run your program (a can’t find module linecache or os). As written in moonfallen’s README, you have to patch the boot_service.py file which should be in C:Python24site-packagespy2exe:

 --- boot_service.py     2004-11-03 11:02:31.147398500 -0800
 +++ boot_service.py.new 2004-11-03 11:02:19.522844900 -0800
 @@ -9,7 +9,11 @@
 service_klasses = []
 try:
 for name in service_module_names:
 -        mod = __import__(name)
 +        # Use the documented fact that when a fromlist is present,
 +        # __import__ returns the innermost module in "name".
 +        # This makes it possible to have a dotted name work the
 +        # way you would expect.
 +        mod = __import__(name, globals(), locals(), ["DUMMY"])
 for ob in mod.__dict__.values():
 if hasattr(ob, "_svc_name_"):
 service_klasses.append(ob)

How to write the setup.py file

Modify the setup.py to use ntsvc:

from distutils.core import setup
 import py2exe
 import os,sys,glob
 import ntsvc

data_files = [
 ('', ['afile.conf']),
 ]

setup(appconfig='Myprog5.tac', options =
 {'twistedservice':
 {'dll_excludes': ['tk84.dll','tcl84.dll'],
 },
 'py2exe': {'optimize':2,},
 },
 data_files = data_files
 )

And then run python setup.py twistedservice. You should have an output that looks like this:

running twistedservice
 I: finding modules imported by agent.tac
 *** searching for required modules ***
 *** parsing results ***
 creating python loader for extension 'py2exe.py2exe_util'
 creating python loader for extension 'servicemanager'
 creating python loader for extension 'win32pipe'
 creating python loader for extension '_tkinter'
 creating python loader for extension 'win32service'
 creating python loader for extension 'win32api'
 [...]
 creating python loader for extension 'perfmon'
 *** finding dlls needed ***
 *** create binaries ***
 *** byte compile python files ***
 skipping byte-compilation of C:\Python24\lib\ConfigParser.py to ConfigParser.pyc
 skipping byte-compilation of C:\Python24\lib\Queue.py to Queue.pyc
 [...]
 *** copy extensions ***
 *** copy dlls ***
 *** copy data files ***
 setting sys.winver for 'C:\TAL\agent-windows\dist\python24.dll' to 'py2exe'
 copying C:\Python24\lib\site-packages\py2exe\run.exe -> C:\TAL\agent-windows\dist\agentctl.exe
 The following modules appear to be missing
 ['Crypto.Cipher', 'FCNTL', 'OpenSSL', '_ssl', 'hexdump', 'resource']

The missing libraries at the end of the generation is not a problem if you don’t use them (they’re mostly crypto related).

What you get

What python setup.py twistedservice does is:

* Create a directory named dist (and build, which is less important)
* Analyzes all the dependencies of your python code
* Copy all the dependent modules and dependent libraries to that dist directory
* Generate a library.zip with all the libraries.
* In our case (because we chose to use ‘service’ in the setup.py file), we got an executable with the name of our .tac with ctl appended to it.

Here’s an example of the content of the dist directory:

Le volume dans le lecteur C n'a pas de nom.

Repertoire de C:\TAL\AGENT\dist

24/06/2005  11:25              .
 24/06/2005  11:25              ..
 07/06/2005  12:46               295 Agent.conf
 07/06/2005  16:24             2461 agent.tac
 24/06/2005  11:25            13312 agentctl.exe
 24/06/2005  11:25         4053167 library.zip
 07/06/2005  15:23               107 ntsvc.cfg
 30/03/2005  09:51            12288 perfmon.pyd
 22/10/2004  20:00             9728 py2exe_util.pyd
 30/03/2005  09:51           135168 pyexpat.pyd
 30/03/2005  09:51         1867776 python24.dll
 30/03/2005  09:51           311296 pythoncom24.dll
 30/03/2005  09:51            98304 pywintypes24.dll
 30/03/2005  09:51             8192 select.pyd
 30/03/2005  09:51            23552 servicemanager.pyd
 24/06/2005  11:23              tcl
 30/03/2005  09:51           405504 unicodedata.pyd
 30/03/2005  09:51             4608 w9xpopen.exe
 30/03/2005  09:51            69632 win32api.pyd
 30/03/2005  09:51            15872 win32pipe.pyd
 30/03/2005  09:51            26624 win32process.pyd
 30/03/2005  09:51            29696 win32service.pyd
 30/03/2005  09:51           651264 win32ui.pyd
 30/03/2005  09:51            65536 zlib.pyd
 30/03/2005  09:51            49152 _socket.pyd
 30/03/2005  09:51            40960 _tkinter.pyd
 27/05/2005  14:07            11264 _zope_interface_coptimizations.pyd

For example, if our .tac file was agent.tac, we would end up with an executable named agentctl.exe. if we run it, we see that it’s a “control program” to add/remove our newly made service:

Services are supposed to be run by the system after they have been installed.
 These command line options are available for (de)installation:
 -help
 -install
 -remove
 -auto
 -disabled
 -interactive
 -user:
 -password:

Connecting to the Service Control Manager

If you run agentctl.exe -install, and then look in the Windows Service GUI, you should see a new line:
images/service.png

You’ll just have to right-click on it and click on Start Service.

Add-on: how to make an installation file

OK, now you have a directory that you can distribute, without having to require Python, Twisted and other dependencies. But it’s a directory. You can zip it, but it’s not very efficient, especially if you have to be able to remove it later, or deploy it on several machines.

What I recommend is to use the new installation format, used by the official Python package too, that is, MSI.

Generating an MSI package

Generating an MSI file is really easy, especially if you’re using Windows XP, as the kit is already included, otherwise you’ll have to download it from Microsoft’s website.

To summarize: to generate an MSI you’ll have to create an xml file where you have quite a lot of variables (program path, name of program, files to copy, etc.). This is quite long, and, without a GUI that does it for you, it’s nearly impossible. That’s why I recommend you Installer2Go. It’s a really nice freeware (there’s a registered version if you want support) that allows you to build your .msi all by just clicking:
images/i2g2.png

You can even define the automatic registration and the removal of you service:
images/i2g1.png

That’s all for now. It’s the first release of this document, so there may be some typo errors. I checked all the Myprog*.py, they all work on my machine (Python2.3 or Python2.4, Twisted 1.3 or Twisted 2.0.1).

References

http://starship.python.net/crew/theller/moin.cgi/Py2Exe
http://svn.twistedmatrix.com/cvs/sandbox/moonfallen/
http://twistedmatrix.com/~moonfallen/
http://svn.twistedmatrix.com/cvs/sandbox/moonfallen/README.txt?view=auto
http://www.installsite.org/pages/en/msi/authoring.htm
http://www.dev4pc.com/installer2go.html
http://www.qwerty-msi.com/
http://www.aksdb.org/downloads.php
http://msi2xml.sourceforge.net/
http://desktopengineer.com/index.php?topic=0070MSI

Making and deploying a Twisted project as a service under Windows

admin in python, software, twisted | June 20, 2005

Published

June 20, 2005