Hello,

This is really a Unix question, since I'm working in the terminal window of Mac OS X.

I am running a web-accessible FileMaker database and have just moved it to OS X. So far the transfer has worked. But, I want to run FileMaker as a background process so that (i) a user doesn't have to be logged in for it to be running (i.e. security), and (ii) other people can log in while it's running. I know this is possible in Unix (the apache web server runs in the background).

So far I have tried (from the terminal window):

I.

open -a "FileMaker Pro.app" "Database Name" &

I get something like:

[2] 795

Then I try to put job 2 into the background with:

bg %2

But, I get:

no such job

The "jobs" command seems to only give a response for the first several seconds. (Does it just count as a job while it's loading?)

I also tried:

II.

/<path>/<to>/FileMaker Pro.app/Contents/MacOS/FileMaker Pro "database name" &

(as suggested by Gary on an Apple OS X discussion list). That produced a volley of error messages.

What I have learned:

(1) Spaces in file names are now a major annoyance. Put names in double quotes (") to refer to them in the unix shell. Or use " " (backslash-space, without quotes).

(2) Changing names (i.e. with mv) to remove spaces doesn't always work out. (The open command above didn't recognize the application when I renamed it to "FileMakerPro")

But I still can't run it in the background.

Anybody know how to do this?

thanks

Sarah

Wow, so user friendly Mac becomes 100 times more complicated, than standard 5 years old PC, where the background services are smooth...

Sorry, I like Apple but couldn't resist

Apple user since 1982

FileMaker Pro (ie client not server) has NEVER been officially supported as being able to run in the background, even on Windows.

While you can "hack" FMP to run as a service on NT, it is not recommended nor supported.

Also, I believe even on NT, you must be logged in to run the FMS service. So this would not be different in OS X.

As far as I know, there is no way to run FMP or FMS as a background service outside of a login. And even if there was, I wouldn't recommend it since it is not supported, and may result in unexpected/undesired behavior.

Physical security is always more significant and effective than software security. Keep the program in the foreground and running in an admin login, and lock the whole machine physically up into a server room.

FYI

"But I still can't run it in the background." Sarah

On NT

Background as minimized applications or background as service?

FM server as service without login = yes

FM client as service without login = not recommended, but I saw it.

FM client as background application with login = OK without performance penalty.