Launchd plist service is not shutting down - macos

Question

I have application i want to run as LaunchDaemon on OSX. My plist looks like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>KeepAlive</key>
<false/>
<key>Label</key>
<string>my.service</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/servertest/MyService</string>
<string>-jvm</string>
<string>server</string>
<string>-nodetach</string>
<string>-outfile</string>
<string>out.txt</string>
<string>-errfile</string>
<string>err.txt</string>
<string>-verbose</string>
<string>-debug</string>
<string>-home</string>
<string>/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Home</string>
<string>-cp</string>
<string>./lib/hsqldb.jar:./lib/myservice-wrapper.jar:./lib/commons-daemon-1.0.8.jar</string>
<string>my.service.DaemonMac</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
<string>/servertest/stderr.log</string>
<key>StandardOutPath</key>
<string>/servertest/stdout.log</string>
<key>WorkingDirectory</key>
<string>/servertest</string>
</dict>
</plist>
Service starts on load or when i call 'launchctl start my.service'. But it's not going down when i use 'launchctl stop my.service' or even unload plist. It remains in memory and runs as if nothing happened. Have no idea what could be the reason. Please, help!

Answer 1

Does your application daemonize itself (i.e. drop into the background)? If so, it's essentially detaching itself from launchd and hence preventing launchd from managing it.
EDIT: if the application isn't daemonizing itself, the next thing to look at is to see what launchd thinks is going on with launchctl list my.service. This should dump a list of properties of the daemon, including its PID (if launchd thinks it's running) and LastExitStatus (whether it exited successfully last time it ran). Does the PID correspond to the actual running process? Does the result change when you try to stop the service (esp. does the PID change to 0)? Does a process listing (e.g. with ps -axj) show any child processes living on after the parent exits?
Oh, and just to make sure: when managing LaunchDaemons, you need to use sudo launchctl (without the sudo, launchctl will try to manage LaunchAgents within your user session).

Answer 2

The file that worked for me is below. I've learned that my deamon must not detach itself from controling process and it has to be "OnDemand" so i could stop it when i want. I've made some shaman dances while working on it and though it's not clear to me at which point it began to work. Now it does.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>KeepAlive</key>
<false/>
<key>Label</key>
<string>myserver</string>
<key>OnDemand</key>
<true/>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/opt/MYServer/MYServer</string>
<string>-server</string>
<string>-outfile</string>
<string>/opt/MYServer/out.txt</string>
<string>-errfile</string>
<string>/opt/MYServer/err.txt</string>
<string>-verbose</string>
<string>-debug</string>
<string>-nodetach</string>
<string>-home</string>
<string>/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Home</string>
<string>-cp</string>
<string>/opt/MYServer/lib/hsqldb.jar:/opt/MYServer/lib/my-wrapper.jar:/opt/MYServer/lib/commons-daemon-1.0.8.jar</string>
<string>my.service.DaemonMac</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
<string>/opt/MYServer/stderr.log</string>
<key>StandardOutPath</key>
<string>/opt/MYServer/stdout.log</string>
<key>WorkingDirectory</key>
<string>/opt/MYServer</string>
</dict>
</plist>