Public bug reported: This is an enhancement request. I have not yet checked 13.04 or upstream to see if things have changes since 12.04.
Consider the job false.conf: respawn #respawn limit 10 15 script sleep 1 false end script First problem: After "initctl start false", this job will respawn forever, because the default spawn limit of "10 5" does not consider jobs that take one second to be runaway jobs, even if they always fail. Second problem: with that job still respawning, uncomment the respawn limit line. It will continue respawning forever. Wasn't upstart supposed to watch config files? Third problem: watching syslog only tells you that a job ended with status 1 and is being respawned. It would be lovely if that line showed how much of the spawn limit was left, to give upstart novices a little help in understanding what's going on. All three of these issues hit me, a relative upstart novice, this morning. It took about an hour to get unconfused. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04 Package: upstart 1.5-0ubuntu7.2 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-49.75-generic 3.2.46 Uname: Linux 3.2.0-49-generic x86_64 NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.3 Architecture: amd64 Date: Thu Aug 8 10:46:26 2013 MarkForUpload: True ProcEnviron: LANGUAGE=en_US: TERM=xterm PATH=(custom, no user) LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: upstart UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) ** Affects: upstart (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Tags: amd64 apport-bug precise -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1210242 Title: respawn behavior confusing, default limit insufficient To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/upstart/+bug/1210242/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs