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On Sun, 18 May 2008 11:03:01 +0100 Neil Williams <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Sun, 2008-05-18 at 10:46 +0100, Neil Winchurst wrote: > > One thing I have never worked out in Linux. When I log in there are > > various programs that start automatically. If I do ps -e I can see a > > list of what is running. > > Programs related to your desktop environment are tracked via the various > Preferences settings of that environment, System->Preferences->Sessions > in GNOME. These include applets and other GUI stuff. > > > Is there some way of removing a program from this list so that it > > does not start at log in? I am thinking of something like mysql which > > I use sometimes but not every time I log in. > > MySQL is actually running all the time - it isn't started at login, it > is started at boot, it is just that you can't see it without logging in > (either directly or via SSH etc.) > > > I do not necessarily > > want such programs to be running all the time in the background in > > case I want to use them. > > If you are running a website on that box, you will need it all the time > in the background if the website needs SQL data. MySQL exists as a > server to support server-type operations - running websites and other > applications that can be queried remotely. i.e. LAMP - Linux, Apache and > MySQL need to always be running (PHP/Perl are special cases that are > called on-demand). > > Starting mysql each time is quite a bit of overhead - mysql is designed > to run in the background and does various clean-up tasks in idle time. > > Server processes are dictated by the /etc/init.d files and relevant > runlevel symlinks in /etc/rc*.d/ - configured by root and controllable > using 'sudo invoke-rc.d prog start|stop|restart' etc. > > You probably don't actually want to stop mysql from behaving as a server > - if you don't want a database acting as a server, uninstall mysql and > use SQLite instead. The amount of overhead of a background mysql process > is tiny - until you start running queries. > > If you need to temporarily stop mysql, use invoke-rc.d > > -- > > > Neil Williams Thanks for all that info. Mysql was a bad example. I should have suggested something like zattoo which I would not want to run very often. Rather than have it running in the background all the time I would start it up manually whenever I wanted to use it. Is that a better example please? Neil Winchurst -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html