How do I launch and stop the helper process?

Launching the helper process

To launch the helper process that will perform the specified resource fork and permission operations, use the upper part of the Fork Server Helper control window:

1. Make sure all options in the bottom part of the window have been set as desired. The options are explained in detail on other help pages.
2. To run the helper process continuously in the background, set the checkmark Run in background every ... minutes. You can set the time interval when the process should do its work by entering the amount of minutes in the text field or changing the current value by the stepper button. If you deselect the Run in background checkmark, the folders will be processed only once.
3. Press the launch button in the upper left corner.
4. For security reasons, Mac OS X will display an authentication panel. Enter name and password to identify. Only users with administrative rights (members of the administrator group) can launch the helper process.

IMPORTANT: Running the helper process in the background is not possible with Mac OS X Leopard.

The launch button is only enabled if there is at least one entry in the list of folders to be processed. If there is a technical problem launching the helper process, the control window will display an error sheet that contains more information about the problem.

Note: The background time interval you set is the time between the end of the previous pass and the begin of the next pass. The interval is not necessarily identical to the time between launches. This makes sure the next pass cannot start before the previous has ended, which could be a problem depending on how much work the helper process actually has to do.
Values between one minute and one day (1440 minutes) will be accepted.

If you run the helper process in the background, you can quit the Fork Server Helper control application or even logout from the system. The process will continue to run and do its work silently in the background.

Stopping the helper process

When Fork Server Helper has a running helper process in the background, the launch button in the upper left corner is automatically replaced by a stop sign.

1. To stop the background process, press the stop button in the upper left corner of the control window.
2. For security reasons, Mac OS X will display an authentication panel. Enter name and password to identify. Only users with administrative rights (members of the administrator group) can stop the helper process.

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