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Orchestrates the startup sequence for an email forwarder service by validating environment, dependencies, configuration, and project structure before launching the main application.

Purpose

This function serves as the entry point for starting an email forwarder service. It performs comprehensive pre-flight checks including virtual environment detection, dependency verification, configuration validation, and project structure verification. If all checks pass, it dynamically imports and executes the main application module while handling graceful shutdown on keyboard interrupts and providing detailed error reporting for troubleshooting.

Source Code

def start_service():
    """Start the email forwarder service."""
    print("🚀 Starting Email Forwarder Service")
    print("=" * 40)
    
    # Check virtual environment
    if check_virtual_env():
        print("✅ Running in virtual environment")
    else:
        print("⚠️  Not running in virtual environment")
        print("   Consider using: source venv/bin/activate")
    
    # Check dependencies
    print("📦 Checking dependencies...")
    missing_deps = check_dependencies()
    if missing_deps:
        print(f"❌ Missing dependencies: {', '.join(missing_deps)}")
        print("   Install with: pip install -r requirements.txt")
        return False
    print("✅ All dependencies available")
    
    # Check configuration
    print("⚙️  Checking configuration...")
    config_valid, config_msg = check_configuration()
    if not config_valid:
        print(f"❌ {config_msg}")
        return False
    print(f"✅ {config_msg}")
    
    # Check if project structure exists
    if not Path('src/main.py').exists():
        print("❌ Main application file not found: src/main.py")
        return False
    
    print("✅ Project structure validated")
    print()
    
    # Start the service
    print("🎯 Starting email forwarder...")
    print("   Press Ctrl+C to stop the service")
    print("   Logs will be shown below:")
    print("-" * 40)
    
    try:
        # Add src to Python path and start the service
        sys.path.insert(0, 'src')
        
        # Import and run the main application
        from main import main
        main()
        
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        print("\n\n⏹️  Service stopped by user")
        return True
    except ImportError as e:
        print(f"\n❌ Import error: {e}")
        print("   Check that all dependencies are installed")
        return False
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"\n❌ Service error: {e}")
        return False

Return Value

Returns a boolean value: True if the service started and stopped successfully (via KeyboardInterrupt), False if any validation checks failed or if an error occurred during startup/execution. Returns None implicitly if dependencies are missing.

Dependencies

• dotenv
• pathlib

Required Imports

import os
import sys
import subprocess
import time
from pathlib import Path
from dotenv import load_dotenv

Conditional/Optional Imports

These imports are only needed under specific conditions:

from main import main

Usage Example

# Ensure you have the required helper functions defined:
# - check_virtual_env()
# - check_dependencies()
# - check_configuration()

# Ensure project structure exists:
# project_root/
#   ├── src/
#   │   └── main.py (with main() function)
#   ├── requirements.txt
#   └── .env (optional)

# Call the function to start the service
if __name__ == '__main__':
    success = start_service()
    if success:
        print('Service completed successfully')
    else:
        print('Service failed to start')
        sys.exit(1)

Best Practices

• Ensure all helper functions (check_virtual_env, check_dependencies, check_configuration) are defined before calling this function
• The function modifies sys.path by inserting 'src' at index 0, which may affect module resolution in the calling context
• Use Ctrl+C to gracefully stop the service, which will return True
• The function expects a specific project structure with 'src/main.py' containing a main() function
• All validation checks must pass before the service starts; any failure returns False immediately
• Consider wrapping this function call in a main guard (if __name__ == '__main__':) to prevent unintended execution on import
• The function provides user-friendly console output with emoji indicators for status messages
• Error messages include actionable suggestions for resolving issues (e.g., install commands, activation commands)

Tags

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