How may I automatically stop and start Mail services at a set time please

Question

Hi folks. I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to automatically stop and start Mail services (or any other services) at a set time please in Leopard Server? Is there a script someone has created which might help?
Cheers, David ( a realy newbie when it comes to administering OS X server)

Answer 1

launchd works through a series of XML documents that define tasks to run, either at launch, on a time schedule, in response to network events, etc.
So you'll need to create two .plists - one to start the mail server and one to stop it. They should be saved in /Library/LaunchDaemons. I'd suggest something like:
/Library/LaunchDaemons/local.postfix.stop.plist:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple
.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>local.postfix.stop</string>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/usr/sbin/serveradmin</string>
    <string>stop</string>
    <string>mail</string>
  </array>
  <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
  <dict>
    <key>Hour</key>
    <integer>1</integer>
    <key>Minute</key>
    <integer>00</integer>
  </dict>
</dict>
</plist>
and /Library/LaunchDaemons/local.postfix.start.plist:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple
.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>local.postfix.start</string>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/usr/sbin/serveradmin</string>
    <string>start</string>
    <string>mail</string>
  </array>
  <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
  <dict>
    <key>Hour</key>
    <integer>4</integer>
    <key>Minute</key>
    <integer>00</integer>
  </dict>
</dict>
</plist>
You'll need to either use launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/local.postfix.stop (or start) to load the tasks, or reboot your server.
I'm curious, though, as to why you want to do this. Mail is typically one of the services that people want to run 24/7 so they don't miss out on any emails (even though SMTP can tolerate this). Why do you want to shut yours down?