execute nohup command with playframework get Bad file descriptor error

Question

I use playframework2.2 and sbt 0.13.1, I can run the sbt and start the server on command line

sbt start

it works ok. but when I run:

nohup sbt start

It run a while and then stop with log error:

(Starting server. Type Ctrl+D to exit logs, the server will remain in background)  java.io.IOException: Bad file descriptor
at java.io.FileInputStream.read0(Native Method)
at java.io.FileInputStream.read(FileInputStream.java:210)
at jline.internal.NonBlockingInputStream.read(NonBlockingInputStream.java:248)
at jline.internal.InputStreamReader.read(InputStreamReader.java:261)
at jline.internal.InputStreamReader.read(InputStreamReader.java:198)
at jline.console.ConsoleReader.readCharacter(ConsoleReader.java:2038)
at  play.PlayConsoleInteractionMode$$anonfun$waitForKey$1.play$PlayConsoleInteractionMode$$anonfun$$waitEOF$1(PlayInteractionMode.scala:36)
at play.PlayConsoleInteractionMode$$anonfun$waitForKey$1$$anonfun$apply$1.apply$mcV$sp(PlayInteractionMode.scala:45)
at play.PlayConsoleInteractionMode$$anonfun$doWithoutEcho$1.apply(PlayInteractionMode.scala:52)
at play.PlayConsoleInteractionMode$$anonfun$doWithoutEcho$1.apply(PlayInteractionMode.scala:49)
at play.PlayConsoleInteractionMode$.withConsoleReader(PlayInteractionMode.scala:31)
at play.PlayConsoleInteractionMode$.doWithoutEcho(PlayInteractionMode.scala:49)
at play.PlayConsoleInteractionMode$$anonfun$waitForKey$1.apply(PlayInteractionMode.scala:45)
at play.PlayConsoleInteractionMode$$anonfun$waitForKey$1.apply(PlayInteractionMode.scala:34)
at play.PlayConsoleInteractionMode$.withConsoleReader(PlayInteractionMode.scala:31)
at play.PlayConsoleInteractionMode$.waitForKey(PlayInteractionMode.scala:34)
at play.PlayConsoleInteractionMode$.waitForCancel(PlayInteractionMode.scala:55)
at play.PlayRun$$anonfun$24$$anonfun$apply$9.apply(PlayRun.scala:373)
at play.PlayRun$$anonfun$24$$anonfun$apply$9.apply(PlayRun.scala:352)
at scala.util.Either$RightProjection.map(Either.scala:536)
at play.PlayRun$$anonfun$24.apply(PlayRun.scala:352)
at play.PlayRun$$anonfun$24.apply(PlayRun.scala:334)
at sbt.Command$$anonfun$sbt$Command$$apply1$1$$anonfun$apply$6.apply(Command.scala:72)
at sbt.Command$.process(Command.scala:95)
at sbt.MainLoop$$anonfun$1$$anonfun$apply$1.apply(MainLoop.scala:100)
at sbt.MainLoop$$anonfun$1$$anonfun$apply$1.apply(MainLoop.scala:100)
at sbt.State$$anon$1.process(State.scala:179)
at sbt.MainLoop$$anonfun$1.apply(MainLoop.scala:100)
at sbt.MainLoop$$anonfun$1.apply(MainLoop.scala:100)
at sbt.ErrorHandling$.wideConvert(ErrorHandling.scala:18)
at sbt.MainLoop$.next(MainLoop.scala:100)
at sbt.MainLoop$.run(MainLoop.scala:93)
at sbt.MainLoop$$anonfun$runWithNewLog$1.apply(MainLoop.scala:71)
at sbt.MainLoop$$anonfun$runWithNewLog$1.apply(MainLoop.scala:66)
at sbt.Using.apply(Using.scala:25)
at sbt.MainLoop$.runWithNewLog(MainLoop.scala:66)
at sbt.MainLoop$.runAndClearLast(MainLoop.scala:49)
at sbt.MainLoop$.runLoggedLoop(MainLoop.scala:33)
at sbt.MainLoop$.runLogged(MainLoop.scala:25)
at sbt.StandardMain$.runManaged(Main.scala:57)
at sbt.xMain.run(Main.scala:29)
at xsbt.boot.Launch$$anonfun$run$1.apply(Launch.scala:57)
at xsbt.boot.Launch$.withContextLoader(Launch.scala:77)
at xsbt.boot.Launch$.run(Launch.scala:57)
at xsbt.boot.Launch$$anonfun$explicit$1.apply(Launch.scala:45)
at xsbt.boot.Launch$.launch(Launch.scala:65)
at xsbt.boot.Launch$.apply(Launch.scala:16)
at xsbt.boot.Boot$.runImpl(Boot.scala:32)
at xsbt.boot.Boot$.main(Boot.scala:21)
at xsbt.boot.Boot.main(Boot.scala)
error[0m] [0mjava.io.IOException: Bad file descriptor[0m
error[0m] [0mUse 'last' for the full log.[0m

Any one know which file is Bad file descriptor. And How to solve this problem.

Answer 1

The error happens because standard input get redirected from /dev/null by nohup - you get the same error if you do play start < /dev/null. The sbt process starts the actual server in a separate process, the sets itself up to display logs and wait for you to type Ctrl-D or Ctrl-C. It uses JLine to wait for user input, which attempts to attach to the standard input as a terminal. /dev/null can't be used in this way, so it dies complaining of a bad file descriptor. However, the background server process continues running.

If you want to start Play non-interactively, you need to use the stage task. See Using the stage task in the Play documentation.