[maemo-developers] Running multiple maemo-launchers?

[From: Matan Ziv-Av]

On Sat, 18 Apr 2009, Qole wrote:

> I'm trying to run Mer apps and Maemo apps side by side, but there seems to
> be some conflict between the two versions of maemo-launcher.
>
> Once the Mer maemo-launcher starts running, Maemo apps (the ones dependent
> on maemo-launcher) quit launching, even though the Maemo version of
> maemo-launcher is still running.
>
> I notice that one of the parameters of maemo-launcher is "--pidfile" which
> has the following listed in the help file:
>
>  --pidfile FILE      Specify a different pid file (default
> /tmp/maemo-launcher.pid).
>
> It would seem that this has the possibility for two or more maemo-launchers
> to share the system, by using two different "PID files," but I can't see any
> way to specify which maemo-launcher to use in the documentation of
> maemo-invoker.
>
> As it is now, the most recently launched maemo-launcher takes all the
> maemo-invoker calls, leaving the older maemo-launcher (still running, in the
> shadows) leaning against the wall, feeling lonely. And so the non-Mer apps
> fail to start, because the Mer maemo-launcher stares blankly at the Maemo
> apps and says, "I'm sorry, do I know you?"
>
> Any suggestions?

It seems that communicatio between maemo-invoker and maemo-launcher is 
through /tmp/.maemo-launcher pipe.

But it seems that maemo-launcher has a few other files that it uses 
(/tmp/maemo-launcher.state for example) so it is unreasonable to expect to 
run two instances.

I think that the easiest way should be to replace the --pidfile option 
with --basename option which will replace the "maemo-launcher" with 
another string in all file names used by maemo-launcher. Of course, you'll 
need to add a similar option to maemo-invoker as well.

-- 
Matan.