I would like to write a Ruby script that runs a daemon Ruby process, so that I can do something like the following:
$ task start
Started...
# start a daemon to do useful work; don't block
# Some time later:
$ task end
Finished.
What's the best way to go about this?
Use the Process.daemon method when you want your process to detach from the terminal and stop being able to send output. To end the process, you will have to send it a signal. Most programs handle this by using a file that contains the PID.
Related
Based on an external redis queue, I want a Sinatra application to run a script like this:
ruby fetch_vin.rb vin_number_123
This will fire up watir-webdriver and report to the queue appropriately. When the script is finished, everything but the Sinatra app should close.
It seems however that Thread, as well as exec and spawn are all blocking when ran from inside ruby.
How do I fire & forget?
You can use Process#spawn:
pid = Process.spawn("ruby fetch_vin.rb vin_number_123")
Process.detach(pid)
I think the bit you were missing was calling detach after the process was spawned. This will detach and let both processes continue to run. Will work for any command, not just a ruby script.
See Process Ruby Docs for more details.
I am trying to daemonize a Ruby script, running on 2.1.1.
My daemon part of the code is like this:
case ARGV[0]
when "-start"
puts "TweetSearcher started."
Process.daemon
when "-stop"
Process.kill(9,Process.pid)
else
puts "Lacks arguments. Use -start/-stop"
abort
end
However, it looks like that the Process.kill(9,Process.pid) is not killing what I wanted to. I want to kill a previous "ruby tweetsearcher.rb -start", already running in background.
How do I proceed?
Typically, the PID is stored in a file that is then read to stop it.
Calling Process.kill(9,Process.pid) kills the "stopper" process itself, rather than the one it's trying to stop.
Here's a guide to writing daemons in Ruby: http://codeincomplete.com/posts/2014/9/15/ruby_daemons/
As you can see, it's not a trivial process.
Here is another blog that suggests that you should not try to daemonize at all, but instead rely on a process monitoring system to take care of those concerns: https://www.mikeperham.com/2014/09/22/dont-daemonize-your-daemons/
How do I launch a thread within a rake task then kill the tread when the task is complete.
Essentially I am writing a rake task to test a jekyll site. I would like be able to launch the server, do some other tasks and then destroy the thread when the task is complete. Here is what I have thus far:
task :test_site do
`ejekyll --server`
`git -Xdn`
if agree( "Clean all ignored files?")
git -Xdf
end
end
but unfortunately the only way I know of to stop the jekyll --server is to use ctrl c. I would be happy to hear of a way to stop a jekyll --server in a manor which does not exit the rake task but please just comment as the question is specifically asking about threading and rake tasks.
You want Process.spawn, not a thread. It's a new process, not a thread of execution within an existing process. You get the PID back, so just send Process.kill(:QUIT, pid) or whatever method you want to use to kill the spawned processed.
pid = Process.spawn(
"ejekyll", "--server",
out: "/dev/null",
err: "/dev/null"
)
# you may need to add a short sleep() here
# other stuff
Process.kill(:QUIT, pid) && Process.wait
If ejekyll has a command line option to run in the foreground, it would be better to use that, otherwise if it self-daemonizes you need to know where it stores its PID file, in order to identify and kill the daemon.
I'm writing a ruby bootstrapping script for a school project, and part of this bootstrapping process is to start a couple of background processes (which are written and function properly). What I'd like to do is something along the lines of:
`/path/to/daemon1 &`
`/path/to/daemon2 &`
`/path/to/daemon3 &`
However, that blocks on the first call to execute daemon1. I've seen references to a Process.spawn method, but that seems to be a 1.9+ feature, and I'm limited to Ruby 1.8.
I've also tried to execute these daemons from different threads, but I'd like my bootstrap script to be able to exit.
So how can I start these background processes so that my bootstrap script doesn't block and can exit (but still have the daemons running in the background)?
As long as you are working on a POSIX OS you can use fork and exec.
fork = Create a subprocess
exec = Replace current process with another process
You then need to inform that your main-process is not interested in the created subprocesses via Process.detach.
job1 = fork do
exec "/path/to/daemon01"
end
Process.detach(job1)
...
better way to pseudo-deamonize:
`((/path/to/deamon1 &)&)`
will drop the process into it's own shell.
best way to actually daemonize:
`service daemon1 start`
and make sure the server/user has permission to start the actual daemon. check out 'deamonize' tool for linux to set up your deamon.
i'm trying to set up a server for integration tests (specs actually) via ruby and can't figure out how to control the process.
so, what i'm trying to do is:
run a rake task for my gem that executes the integration specs
the task needs to first start a server (i use webrick) and then run the specs
after executing the specs it should kill the webrick so i'm not left with some unused background process
webrick is not a requirement, but it's included in the ruby standard library so being able to use it would be great.
hope anyone is able to help!
ps. i'm running on linux, so having this work for windows is not my main priority (right now).
The standard way is to use the system functions fork (to duplicate the current process), exec (to replace the current process by an executable file), and kill (to send a signal to a process to terminate it).
For example :
pid = fork do
# this code is run in the child process
# you can do anything here, like changing current directory or reopening STDOUT
exec "/path/to/executable"
end
# this code is run in the parent process
# do your stuffs
# kill it (other signals than TERM may be used, depending on the program you want
# to kill. The signal KILL will always work but the process won't be allowed
# to cleanup anything)
Process.kill "TERM", pid
# you have to wait for its termination, otherwise it will become a zombie process
# (or you can use Process.detach)
Process.wait pid
This should work on any Unix like system. Windows creates process in a different way.
I just had to do something similar and this is what I came up with. #Michael Witrant's answer got me started, but I changed some things like using Process.spawn instead of fork (newer and better).
# start spawns a process and returns the pid of the process
def start(exe)
puts "Starting #{exe}"
pid = spawn(exe)
# need to detach to avoid daemon processes: http://www.ruby-doc.org/core-2.1.3/Process.html#method-c-detach
Process.detach(pid)
return pid
end
# This will kill off all the programs we started
def killall(pids)
pids.each do |pid|
puts "Killing #{pid}"
# kill it (other signals than TERM may be used, depending on the program you want
# to kill. The signal KILL will always work but the process won't be allowed
# to cleanup anything)
begin
Process.kill "TERM", pid
# you have to wait for its termination, otherwise it will become a zombie process
# (or you can use Process.detach)
Process.wait pid
rescue => ex
puts "ERROR: Couldn't kill #{pid}. #{ex.class}=#{ex.message}"
end
end
end
# Now we can start processes and keep the pids for killing them later
pids = []
pids << start('./someprogram')
# Do whatever you want here, run your tests, etc.
# When you're done, be sure to kill of the processes you spawned
killall(pids)
That's about all she wrote, give it a try and let me know how it works.
I have tried fork, but it has kind of problems when ActiveRecord is involved in both the processes. I would suggest Spawn plugin (http://github.com/tra/spawn). It does fork only but takes care of ActiveRecord.