@@ -398,12 +398,12 @@
 			(thread-sleep! 0.5) ;; give some margin for queries to complete before switching from file based access to server based access
 			(set! *dbstruct-db*  (db:setup)) ;;  run-id))
 			(set! server-going #t)
 			(tasks:server-set-state! (db:delay-if-busy tdbdat) server-id "running")
 			(server:write-dotserver *toppath* (conc iface ":" port))
-			(delete-file* (conc *toppath* "/.starting-server")))
-		      (begin ;; gotta exit nicely
+                        (server:dotserver-starting-remove))
+                      (begin ;; gotta exit nicely
 			(tasks:server-set-state! (db:delay-if-busy tdbdat) server-id "collision")
 			(http-transport:server-shutdown server-id port))))))
 
       ;; when things go wrong we don't want to be doing the various queries too often
       ;; so we strive to run this stuff only every four seconds or so.
@@ -520,14 +520,11 @@
 ;; all routes though here end in exit ...
 ;;
 ;; start_server? 
 ;;
 (define (http-transport:launch run-id)
-  (with-output-to-file
-      (conc *toppath* "/.starting-server")
-    (lambda ()
-      (print (current-process-id) " on " (get-host-name))))
+  (server:dotserver-starting)
   (let* ((tdbdat (tasks:open-db)))
     (set! *run-id*   run-id)
     (if (args:get-arg "-daemonize")
 	(begin
 	  (daemon:ize)
@@ -552,11 +549,12 @@
 		      (- remtries 1)))
 	      (begin
 		;; since we didn't get the server lock we are going to clean up and bail out
 		(debug:print-info 2 *default-log-port* "INFO: server pid=" (current-process-id) ", hostname=" (get-host-name) " not starting due to other candidates ahead in start queue")
 		(tasks:server-delete-records-for-this-pid (db:delay-if-busy tdbdat) " http-transport:launch")
-		(delete-file* (conc *toppath* "/.starting-server"))
+                
+                (server:dotserver-starting-remove)
 		))
 	  (let* ((th2 (make-thread (lambda ()
 				     (debug:print-info 0 *default-log-port* "Server run thread started")
 				     (http-transport:run 
 				      (if (args:get-arg "-server")