Starting mysql daemon hangs applescript studio app

Question

hi,
i am currently writing a small application with applescript studio that starts an apache server and a mysql database.
Starting apache via a 'do shell' command is no problem at all but starting mysql with this command
do shell script "/pathto/mysqldsafe --port=2323 --somemoreoptions &"
hangs my application.
Executing the command in a shell works well.
I guess the problem is that firing the command (in the terminal) causes the terminal to return to the command prompt (username:~ username$ ) pretty immediatley. But after one or two seconds there are some more information echoed to the shell ('Starting mysqld daemon with databases from pathto_datadir').
Maybe this confuses my app and it starts waiting for things that will never end.
My current workaround is to open the terminal and to execute the command there:
tell application "Terminal"
  do script "pathto/mysqldsafe --port=3023 --somemoreoptions &"
  delay 1
  if terminalwasopen is equal to false then
    quit
  else
    close window 1
  end if
end tell
Any ideas how to get rid off this wokaround and how to manage this with a simple 'do shell script'?
Thanks in advance.
i++
PowerBook Pro 15"   Mac OS X (10.4.7)  

Answer 1

This issue is discussed in the do shell script technote.
Specifically, even though you tell the process to background (by appending the &), AppleScript still holds onto the process' stdout and stderr, waiting for the output of the command.
The solution is to suppress or redirect stdout and stderr, e.g.:
do shell script "/pathto/mysqldsafe --port=2323 --somemoreoptions > /dev/null 2>&1 &"
The '> /dev/null' suppresses stdout (which could go to a file if you prefer), and '2>&1' sends stderr to the same place as stdout.
Incidentally, I assume you have some check to ensure apache and/or mysql aren't already active, right? This would cause a problem if mysql is already running.