oneshot

Oneshot

A oneshot service runs to completion during startup. Dependents wait until it exits successfully — ideal for migrations, schema setup, or fixture loading.

Config

# Run a oneshot migration to completion before the app starts.
processes:
  - name: migrate
    command: /usr/local/bin/migrate
    args: ["-c", "echo migrated; exit 0"]
    startup: oneshot
  - name: app
    command: /usr/local/bin/app
    args: ["300"]
    after: [migrate]
    on-failure: shutdown

• startup: oneshot — migrate runs once and must exit before dependents start.
• app declares after: [migrate], so it only starts once migrate exits 0.
• A failing oneshot is fatal: gopherd exits rather than starting dependents.

Expected behavior

• migrate runs, prints migrated, and exits 0.
• app then starts and reports running.
• gopherd status migrate reports stopped (it has already completed).

Test

The placeholder migrate binary is replaced with /bin/sh so its args run as a script; app is replaced with /usr/bin/sleep. The test asserts status app is running (the gate opened) and that migrate is no longer running.

go test ./documentation/oneshot/ -v