Play framework doesn't bind port in "Start" mode

Question

If I run play run from my scala project root, it launches normally and I can test against it.

If I run play start, it does not bind to a port and there's no log output or any other indication that anything is wrong.

$ play run
[info] Loading project definition from /Users/Daenyth/myproject/project
[info] Set current project to myproject (in build file:/Users/Daenyth/myproject/)

--- (Running the application from SBT, auto-reloading is enabled) ---

[info] play - Listening for HTTP on /0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0%0:9000

(Server started, use Ctrl+D to stop and go back to the console...)

---

$ play start
[info] Loading project definition from /Users/Daenyth/Localytics/myproject/project
[info] Set current project to profile-api (in build file:/Users/Daenyth/myproject/)

(Starting server. Type Ctrl+D to exit logs, the server will remain in background)

---

If I start the app by using the launcher generated by play dist or play stage it shows me the process ID but it does not bind the port.

I'm at a loss on how to proceed here - googling hasn't returned anything useful at all.

Edit:

After leaving it running for quite a long time (at least 10 minutes, I'm not sure), it finally put this output:

[error] c.j.b.h.AbstractConnectionHook - Failed to obtain initial connection Sleeping for 0ms and trying again. Attempts left: 0. Exception: java.net.ConnectException: Connection timed out.Message:Communications link failure

The last packet sent successfully to the server was 0 milliseconds ago. The driver has not received any packets from the server.
Oops, cannot start the server.
Configuration error: Configuration error[Cannot connect to database [default]]
    at play.api.Configuration$.play$api$Configuration$$configError(Configuration.scala:92)
    at play.api.Configuration.reportError(Configuration.scala:570)
    at play.api.db.BoneCPPlugin$$anonfun$onStart$1.apply(DB.scala:252)
    at play.api.db.BoneCPPlugin$$anonfun$onStart$1.apply(DB.scala:243)
    at scala.collection.TraversableLike$$anonfun$map$1.apply(TraversableLike.scala:244)
    at scala.collection.TraversableLike$$anonfun$map$1.apply(TraversableLike.scala:244)
    at scala.collection.immutable.List.foreach(List.scala:318)
    at scala.collection.TraversableLike$class.map(TraversableLike.scala:244)
    at scala.collection.AbstractTraversable.map(Traversable.scala:105)
    at play.api.db.BoneCPPlugin.onStart(DB.scala:243)
    at play.api.Play$$anonfun$start$1$$anonfun$apply$mcV$sp$1.apply(Play.scala:88)
    at play.api.Play$$anonfun$start$1$$anonfun$apply$mcV$sp$1.apply(Play.scala:88)
    at scala.collection.immutable.List.foreach(List.scala:318)
    at play.api.Play$$anonfun$start$1.apply$mcV$sp(Play.scala:88)
    at play.api.Play$$anonfun$start$1.apply(Play.scala:88)
    at play.api.Play$$anonfun$start$1.apply(Play.scala:88)
    at play.utils.Threads$.withContextClassLoader(Threads.scala:18)
    at play.api.Play$.start(Play.scala:87)
    at play.core.StaticApplication.<init>(ApplicationProvider.scala:52)
    at play.core.server.NettyServer$.createServer(NettyServer.scala:243)
    at play.core.server.NettyServer$$anonfun$main$3.apply(NettyServer.scala:279)
    at play.core.server.NettyServer$$anonfun$main$3.apply(NettyServer.scala:274)
    at scala.Option.map(Option.scala:145)
    at play.core.server.NettyServer$.main(NettyServer.scala:274)
    at play.core.server.NettyServer.main(NettyServer.scala)
Caused by: com.mysql.jdbc.exceptions.jdbc4.CommunicationsException: Communications link failure

The last packet sent successfully to the server was 0 milliseconds ago. The driver has not received any packets from the server.
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:526)
    at com.mysql.jdbc.Util.handleNewInstance(Util.java:411)
    at com.mysql.jdbc.SQLError.createCommunicationsException(SQLError.java:1116)
    at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.<init>(MysqlIO.java:344)
    at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.coreConnect(ConnectionImpl.java:2332)
    at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.connectOneTryOnly(ConnectionImpl.java:2369)
    at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.createNewIO(ConnectionImpl.java:2153)
    at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.<init>(ConnectionImpl.java:792)
    at com.mysql.jdbc.JDBC4Connection.<init>(JDBC4Connection.java:47)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:526)
    at com.mysql.jdbc.Util.handleNewInstance(Util.java:411)
    at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.getInstance(ConnectionImpl.java:381)
    at com.mysql.jdbc.NonRegisteringDriver.connect(NonRegisteringDriver.java:305)
    at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(DriverManager.java:571)
    at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(DriverManager.java:215)
    at com.jolbox.bonecp.BoneCP.obtainRawInternalConnection(BoneCP.java:363)
    at com.jolbox.bonecp.BoneCP.<init>(BoneCP.java:416)
    at com.jolbox.bonecp.BoneCPDataSource.getConnection(BoneCPDataSource.java:120)
    at play.api.db.BoneCPPlugin$$anonfun$onStart$1.apply(DB.scala:245)
    ... 22 more
Caused by: java.net.ConnectException: Connection timed out
    at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(Native Method)
    at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.doConnect(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:339)
    at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:200)
    at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.connect(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:182)
    at java.net.SocksSocketImpl.connect(SocksSocketImpl.java:392)
    at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:579)
    at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:528)
    at java.net.Socket.<init>(Socket.java:425)
    at java.net.Socket.<init>(Socket.java:241)
    at com.mysql.jdbc.StandardSocketFactory.connect(StandardSocketFactory.java:257)
    at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.<init>(MysqlIO.java:294)
    ... 40 more

Answer 1

The issue here was that the mysql server that I had configured was not reachable from my local machine, and I had a mistake in my EC2 security group that prevented my deployed instance from connecting. The defaults for timeout and max retry are very high, so I didn't see it at first because it doesn't print anything if you ^C it.

Changing my network security rules solved the problem.