diff --git a/mercurial/cmdutil.py b/mercurial/cmdutil.py
--- a/mercurial/cmdutil.py
+++ b/mercurial/cmdutil.py
@@ -827,16 +827,17 @@ def service(opts, parentfn=None, initfn=
         writepid(util.getpid())
 
     if opts['daemon_postexec']:
-        inst = opts['daemon_postexec']
         try:
             os.setsid()
         except AttributeError:
             pass
-        if inst.startswith('unlink:'):
-            lockpath = inst[7:]
-            os.unlink(lockpath)
-        elif inst != 'none':
-            raise error.Abort(_('invalid value for --daemon-postexec'))
+        for inst in opts['daemon_postexec']:
+            if inst.startswith('unlink:'):
+                lockpath = inst[7:]
+                os.unlink(lockpath)
+            elif inst != 'none':
+                raise error.Abort(_('invalid value for --daemon-postexec: %s')
+                                  % inst)
         util.hidewindow()
         sys.stdout.flush()
         sys.stderr.flush()
diff --git a/mercurial/commands.py b/mercurial/commands.py
--- a/mercurial/commands.py
+++ b/mercurial/commands.py
@@ -6320,7 +6320,7 @@ def root(ui, repo):
     [('A', 'accesslog', '', _('name of access log file to write to'),
      _('FILE')),
     ('d', 'daemon', None, _('run server in background')),
-    ('', 'daemon-postexec', '', _('used internally by daemon mode')),
+    ('', 'daemon-postexec', [], _('used internally by daemon mode')),
     ('E', 'errorlog', '', _('name of error log file to write to'), _('FILE')),
     # use string type, then we can check if something was passed
     ('p', 'port', '', _('port to listen on (default: 8000)'), _('PORT')),
diff --git a/tests/dumbhttp.py b/tests/dumbhttp.py
--- a/tests/dumbhttp.py
+++ b/tests/dumbhttp.py
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
     parser.add_option('-f', '--foreground', dest='foreground',
         action='store_true',
         help='do not start the HTTP server in the background')
-    parser.add_option('--daemon-postexec')
+    parser.add_option('--daemon-postexec', action='append')
 
     (options, args) = parser.parse_args()