mongrel PID files and reboot

rubyonrails-talk
1

I have followed the instructions on the mongrel website, and now have mongrel_cluster running my apps at boot time, works great.

Now, if the server goes down ungracefully, the mongrel processes do not start up on reboot because the mongrel PID files are still hanging around.

I have boot job that cleans those up now, but is there a "GOOD" way to handle this ???

-- Thanks

2

Well, that’s how I’ve handled it… I’d also like to know if anyone has any better methods.

3

Actually, I just found this, its looks cleaner than what I have...

Basically just a change to the mongrel_rails script to delete PID files that reference a process that is not actually running...sounds like a good thing to be included to me.

4

this is what I am using now (changed in mongrel-1.0.1/bin/ mongrel_rails           if File.exist? defaults[:pid_file]             #===== new stuff             pid = File.new(defaults[:pid_file]).readline             if `ps --pid #{pid} --no-headers`.length > 0                 log "!!! PID file #{defaults[:pid_file]} exists, but is stale, and will be deleted so that this mongrel can run."                 File.delete(defaults[:pid_file])             else                 log "!!! PID file #{defaults[:pid_file]} already exists and the process id referred to in it is running. This mongrel is probably already running. #{defaults[:log_file]} for errors. EXITING."                 exit 1             end             #===== old stuff             #log "!!! PID file #{defaults[:pid_file]} already exists. Mongrel could be running already. Check your #{defaults[:log_file]} for errors."             #log "!!! Exiting with error. You must stop mongrel and clear the .pid before I'll attempt a start."             exit 1           end

5

oops, this is actually what I am running now (again patched into /usr/ lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1/bin/mongrel_rails)

          if File.exist? defaults[:pid_file]             #===== new stuff             pid = File.new(defaults[:pid_file]).readline             if `ps --pid #{pid} --no-headers`.length > 0                 log "!!! PID file #{defaults[:pid_file]} already exists and the process id referenced is running. This mongrel is probably already running. #{defaults[:log_file]} for errors. EXITING."                 exit 1             else                 log "!!! PID file #{defaults[:pid_file]} exists, but is stale, and will be deleted so that this mongrel can run."                 File.delete(defaults[:pid_file])             end             #===== old stuff             #log "!!! PID file #{defaults[:pid_file]} already exists. Mongrel could be running already. Check your #{defaults[:log_file]} for errors."             #log "!!! Exiting with error. You must stop mongrel and clear the .pid before I'll attempt a start."           end

6

Found this thread searching the archives, after running into this same problem. Anyone know why this hasn't been added to mongrel_cluster trunk yet? Very annoying. Or maybe it has been, but just wasn't in the distro I got?

Problem is if your server/mongrels dies ungracefully, then /etc/init.d/mongrel_cluster won't succesfully start up your mongrels again, since there are stale pids.

aktxyz@gmail.com wrote:

7

Okay, I found that, at least in the newest versions of mongrel_cluster, you can supply a --clean argument to have mongrel_cluster delete any leftover pids.

Anyone know how I get this to happen on boot? Right now I'm just linking /etc/init.d/mongrel_cluster to mongrel_cluster_gem/resources/mongrel_cluster . Any way short of hacking the source (meaning it will break next time I update) to get --clean to be the default for mongrel_cluster start?

Jonathan

Jonathan Rochkind wrote: