Rails - Jan 2006 - File Upload Problems With Apache and Lighttpd But Not Webrick...

I am having trouble uploading files through a form when using Apache
(production) or Lighttpd (development). The odd thing is that when I force
script/server to load Webrick, the upload works just fine on the same
code-base.

When it fails, the upload just sits there forever. Some browsers eventually
return an error code, others spin for a long time... Anyway, it never
recovers.

The file is a 1.7MB SWF (Flash) file and we''re using File Column.

Since it happens on Apache and Lighttpd, I''m thinking either:

1. FCGI. Both of those server setups are using FCGI but Webrick is not... Is
FCGI doing something bad?

2. MIME issues of some kind?? I dunno about this one but I''ve tried
everything so I''m looking at strange stuff. Both have entries for SWF
files
in their MIME types though, so this shouldn''t be a problem, right?

Anyway, I''m on MacOS X 10.4.

Has anyone seen anything like this? Any help appreciated.

Cheers.

Hunter''s Lists wrote:
> I am having trouble uploading files through a form when using Apache
> (production) or Lighttpd (development). The odd thing is that when I 
> force  script/server to load Webrick, the upload works just fine on the
same
> code-base.
>...
> Anyway, I''m on MacOS X 10.4.
> 
> Has anyone seen anything like this? Any help appreciated.

Are you uploading via Safari? Lighttpd requires the following to be 
added to your lighttpd.conf file for uploads via file_column to work:

$HTTP["useragent"] =~ "^(.*MSIE.*)|(.*AppleWebKit.*)$" {
    server.max-keep-alive-requests = 0
  }

This doesn''t explain the Apache troubles you''re experiencing
though.
Perhaps if you posted the error message you''re receiving it might help 
track it down. Also check the development.log file to see what''s going 
on when the browser hangs.


-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Nick,

Thanks for getting back.

Yes, I am on Safari and your trick did solve the problem on Lighttpd -
thanks!

Unfortunately, production is Apache so I still need to solve that issue.

When this happens on Apache, it just hangs there. The last thing in the log
file is the rendering of the page that submits the file - nothing about the
upload submission.

The browser error message depends on the browser. Safari says it lost a
connection, IE just gives ''Page Cannot Be Displayed'' though
both browsers
hang for a few minutes before they return the error.

If anyone could give me any tips as to what I could do to continue testing
this, I''d really appreciate it.

Is there a keep alive setting for Apache similar to this Lighttpd setting
that I should tweak?

Cheers,
Hunter
> From: "Nick C." <graphis1@mac.com>
> Reply-To: <rails@lists.rubyonrails.org>
> Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2006 09:57:13 +0100
> To: <rails@lists.rubyonrails.org>
> Subject: [Rails] Re: File Upload Problems With Apache and Lighttpd But Not
We
> 
>> I am having trouble uploading files through a form when using Apache
>> (production) or Lighttpd (development). The odd thing is that when I
>> force  script/server to load Webrick, the upload works just fine on the
same
>> code-base.
> 
>> ...
> 
>> Anyway, I''m on MacOS X 10.4.
>> 
>> Has anyone seen anything like this? Any help appreciated.
> 
> 
> Are you uploading via Safari? Lighttpd requires the following to be
> added to your lighttpd.conf file for uploads via file_column to work:
> 
> $HTTP["useragent"] =~ "^(.*MSIE.*)|(.*AppleWebKit.*)$"
{
>     server.max-keep-alive-requests = 0
>   }
> 
> This doesn''t explain the Apache troubles you''re
experiencing though.
> Perhaps if you posted the error message you''re receiving it might
help
> track it down. Also check the development.log file to see what''s
going
> on when the browser hangs.

Hunter''s Lists wrote:
> Nick,
> 
> Thanks for getting back.
> 
> Yes, I am on Safari and your trick did solve the problem on Lighttpd -
> thanks!
Pleased to hear it :)
> If anyone could give me any tips as to what I could do to continue 
> testing this, I''d really appreciate it.
> 
> Is there a keep alive setting for Apache similar to this Lighttpd 
> setting that I should tweak?
I did some digging, and found this very handy article by Scott Laird 
about optimising Apache for use with Rails:
http://scottstuff.net/blog/articles/2005/07/20/apache-tuning-for-rails-and-fastcgi

Here''s a quote - "By default, FastCGI assumes that your server
will
respond to queries within 30 seconds. I added the -idle-timeout 120 
parameter just so I can deal with really slow responses better."

Here''s my guess:
In your locally hosted environment the 1.7mb upload flies up well within 
the 30 seconds and the limit that FastCGI imposes isn''t a problem. When
you switch to a remote hosted (I''m assuming?) production environment, 
the upload takes over 30seconds causing FastCGI to choke.

Try adding the following to your apache.conf file as Scott suggests, 
replacing /path/to/your with the correct path for your server 
environment:

FastCgiServer /path/to/your/dispatch.fcgi -idle-timeout 120 \
       -initial-env RAILS_ENV=production -processes 2

This forces the timeout to a more sensible number and runs two FastCGI 
processes. (Try going a bit higher with the timeout value if things 
still aren''t happy.)

Good luck!

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.