Mongrel users - Sep 2006 - Finally! Mongrel 0.3.13.4 Official (for Unix)

Hello!  Today I''m announcing a "soft but official" release of
Mongrel
0.3.13.4 for the Unix fans in the crowd.  It''s been running stable for
quite some time now for many people, and should be great for nearly
everyone.

You can read the announce at:

http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/

This release includes new versions of mongrel_upload_progress and
mongrel_cluster.


INSTALLING

As usual you install it using:

 gem install mongrel

And I''m really really sorry about the forty thousand gems that get
listed.  I promise to drive one of the RubyGems guys into a corner until
they help me clean that mess out.

*Win32* people will be able to upgrade in the next week or so.


CHANGES

Coming soon... it''s lots of stuff.


WIN32 LAG

In the past I''ve held up Mongrel releases in order to get win32 working
well, but now we''ll do a separate release when win32 is done and most
likely give it a slightly different version number like the mysql folks
do.

This should let us get releases out to both parties as they''re stable.

BTW, all you folks who really like Mongrel on win32 might want to
consider pitching in and at least learning how to build the gem and test
it.  That way when a Unix release comes out you can give us feedback and
possibly help with the release engineering.

Contact me off-list if you''re interested.


NEXT STEPS

I''ve been experimenting with lots of weird little ideas and going
through various potential moves for the future of Mongrel. Let me know
what you''d like in Mongrel.  Some of my top hit list items are:

* A "mostly C" version for Unix only that''s fast as blazes.
* Getting rid of mongrel_cluster and working on a complete unified
system that properly manages a set of Ruby interpreters.  Contemplating
working this out so that win32 also gets a similar setup.
* Is anyone else tired of 10_000 ways to deploy Mongrel?  Maybe work on
developing "the one true way" with all the others being a optional
setups, and working on making this TOTW damn easy.
* Nginx module?  Why nginx?  Because I can read nginx code.  Sad that I
can read a Russian''s code better than the Apache code and that his
configuration file format is way better.
* Get with the ServerSide fellow and talk about a merger since that
thing is damn fast.
* Certificates for all the newly minted MUDCRAP-CE graduates!

What else would people like to see worked on, and what are you all
willing to help with?

-- 
Zed A. Shaw, MUDCRAP-CE Master Black Belt Sifu
http://www.zedshaw.com/
http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/
http://www.lingr.com/room/3yXhqKbfPy8 -- Come get help.

Thanks for your effort on this Zed. I certainly appreciate what you are
doing and the effort you put into Mongrel.

Is it time to step back and consider what Mongrel is about? Is it the
wrapper around Rails (in which case couldn''t it be a lot simpler.
Automatic
cluster and eliminate the thread code so that Mongrel simply refuses
connections if the dispatcher is operational)? Or do you intend that it
should be more than that?

I think Mongrel feels more complex than it used to do. I''d certainly
like to
see a degree of abstraction coming in that hides the complexity for the
majority case - which I still hope is launching Rails apps in a Ruby driven
application server probably as a cluster of separate processes and
front-ended by one of the web servers - Apache for want of a lighter
alternative that works.

You can buy raw execution speed - that''s relatively cheap. What the web
and
application systems need to take away, IMHO, are the problems of running web
applications, ie deal with overloading, provide monitoring, and sort
out memory leaks and databases getting stuck.

What I want, and probably many others, is an application stack that takes
away all the problems of deploying web-apps - much as Rails takes away all
the problems of writing them. All this vision stuff is much wider than just
Mongrel - but I certainly see Mongrel as being part of the solution whatever
that ends up being.

What does the dog want to grow up to be?

On 18/09/06, Zed Shaw <zedshaw at zedshaw.com>
wrote:
>
> * A "mostly C" version for Unix only that''s fast as
blazes.
>


-- 
Neil Wilson (neil at aldur.co.uk)
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On Mon 18.09.2006 02:26, Zed Shaw wrote:
[snipped]
>* Nginx module?  Why nginx?  Because I can read nginx code.  Sad that I
>can read a Russian''s code better than the Apache code and that his
>configuration file format is way better.
;-))

What do you mean with a ''nginx module'' such as the
''perl module''?!

Regards

Aleks

Re: different version numbers for unix/win32.

I think this has been done with the mysql ruby module, and it''s
actually causing me problems. Every time I do a gem update, it thinks
that the 2.7.1 is new on unix and tries to rebuild it, even though
it''s already at 2.7.0, which is the newest unix version.

On 9/18/06, Alexander Lazic <al-mongrelusers at none.at>
wrote:
> On Mon 18.09.2006 02:26, Zed Shaw wrote:
> [snipped]
>
> >* Nginx module?  Why nginx?  Because I can read nginx code.  Sad that I
> >can read a Russian''s code better than the Apache code and that
his
> >configuration file format is way better.
>
> ;-))
>
> What do you mean with a ''nginx module'' such as the
''perl module''?!
>
> Regards
>
> Aleks
> _______________________________________________
> Mongrel-users mailing list
> Mongrel-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/mongrel-users
>

On 9/18/06, Neil Wilson <neil at aldur.co.uk> wrote:
> Is it time to step back and consider what Mongrel is about? Is it the
I would agree with this.
> wrapper around Rails (in which case couldn''t it be a lot simpler.
Automatic
> cluster and eliminate the thread code so that Mongrel simply refuses
> connections if the dispatcher is operational)? Or do you intend that it
> should be more than that?
Mongrel is being used as a preferred way for Nitro users to deploy
Nitro apps, and it will soon become an important way for IOWA users to
deploy apps in that framework, as well.  In addition, Camping users
employ it as a primary deployment vehicle, too.  It is already heavily
rails leaning, since that is the primary market, but from where I sit,
it would be a shame to move more in that direction while sacraficing
capability, as that starts to cut some of the other Mongrel users out
of the picture.
> What does the dog want to grow up to be?
Good question.


Kirk Haines

The latest mysql code is version 2.7.1, but the only change from 2.7.0
is win32-related. Unfortunately, the win32 and ruby gems are separate
projects, and the ruby gem has not been updated (likely because the
only change is for win32).

There is no need for mongrel to have different version numbers for win32, IMHO.

On 9/18/06, Joey Geiger <jgeiger at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Re: different version numbers for unix/win32.
>
> I think this has been done with the mysql ruby module, and it''s
> actually causing me problems. Every time I do a gem update, it thinks
> that the 2.7.1 is new on unix and tries to rebuild it, even though
> it''s already at 2.7.0, which is the newest unix version.
>
> On 9/18/06, Alexander Lazic <al-mongrelusers at none.at> wrote:
> > On Mon 18.09.2006 02:26, Zed Shaw wrote:
> > [snipped]
> >
> > >* Nginx module?  Why nginx?  Because I can read nginx code.  Sad
that I
> > >can read a Russian''s code better than the Apache code and
that his
> > >configuration file format is way better.
> >
> > ;-))
> >
> > What do you mean with a ''nginx module'' such as the
''perl module''?!
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Aleks
> > _______________________________________________
> > Mongrel-users mailing list
> > Mongrel-users at rubyforge.org
> > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/mongrel-users
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Mongrel-users mailing list
> Mongrel-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/mongrel-users
>

-- 
Cheers,

Kevin

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from
Magic." - Arthur C. Clarke

Great work Zed, thanks for releasing this!

on separate versioning:
The flip-side to separate versioning is that you can write a script to
automagically install everything for a new rails setup and not be
prompted for the version of mongrel in the middle of your massive,
long-running install script....  I believe.

As for where to see mongrel go (at least on the rails side), I concur
with simplicity.  I''m thinking

RAILS_ROOT/script/server mongrel

starts mongrel on port 3000

and depdending on changing your own RAILS_ROOT/conf/mongrel.conf,
starts up 1 or 5, prefixes, and all that other jazz, but is defaulted
to start one on 3000 -- and you handle the load-balancing with
whatever you want externally be it apache2 or nginx or pound or pen or
lighttpd (mod_proxy_core).

Of course this doesn''t really help the other cool uses of mongrel and
is a ruby/rails-centric view, but that''s just me.

cheers!

On 9/18/06, Joey Geiger <jgeiger at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Re: different version numbers for unix/win32.
>
> I think this has been done with the mysql ruby module, and it''s
> actually causing me problems. Every time I do a gem update, it thinks
> that the 2.7.1 is new on unix and tries to rebuild it, even though
> it''s already at 2.7.0, which is the newest unix version.
>
> On 9/18/06, Alexander Lazic <al-mongrelusers at none.at> wrote:
> > On Mon 18.09.2006 02:26, Zed Shaw wrote:
> > [snipped]
> >
> > >* Nginx module?  Why nginx?  Because I can read nginx code.  Sad
that I
> > >can read a Russian''s code better than the Apache code and
that his
> > >configuration file format is way better.
> >
> > ;-))
> >
> > What do you mean with a ''nginx module'' such as the
''perl module''?!
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Aleks
> > _______________________________________________
> > Mongrel-users mailing list
> > Mongrel-users at rubyforge.org
> > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/mongrel-users
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Mongrel-users mailing list
> Mongrel-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/mongrel-users
>

-- 
Charles Brian Quinn
self-promotion: www.seebq.com
highgroove studios: www.highgroove.com
slingshot hosting: www.slingshothosting.com

On 18/09/06, Charles Brian Quinn <me at seebq.com>
wrote:
>
> on separate versioning:
> The flip-side to separate versioning is that you can write a script to
> automagically install everything for a new rails setup and not be
> prompted for the version of mongrel in the middle of your massive,
> long-running install script....  I believe.


You can already do this with a bit of Unix magic. See

http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/mongrel-users/2006-June/000325.html

-- 
> Neil Wilson (neil at aldur.co.uk)
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On 18/09/06, Charles Brian Quinn <me at seebq.com>
wrote:
>
> on separate versioning:
> The flip-side to separate versioning is that you can write a script to
> automagically install everything for a new rails setup and not be
> prompted for the version of mongrel in the middle of your massive,
> long-running install script....  I believe.

Or alternatively via Capistrano. (This is a def that is part of a Gem
plugin).

  # Auto selects a gem from a list and installs it.
  #
  # *gem* has no mechanism on the command line of disambiguating builds for
  # different platforms, and instead asks the user. This method has the
necessary
  # conversation to select the +version+ relevant to +platform+ (or the one
nearest
  # the top of the list if you don''t specify +version+).
  def select(package, version=nil, platform=''ruby'')
    selections={}
    cmd="#{GEM_INSTALL} #{if version then ''-v
''+version.to_s end}
#{package}"
    sudo cmd do |channel, stream, data|
      data.each_line do | line |
        case line
        when /\s(\d+).*\(#{platform}\)/
          if selections[channel[:host]].nil?
            selections[channel[:host]]=$1.dup+"\n"
            logger.info "Selecting #$&", "#{stream} ::
#{channel[:host]}"
          end
        when /\s\d+\./
          # Discard other selections from data stream
        when /^>/
          channel.send_data selections[channel[:host]]
          logger.debug line, "#{stream} :: #{channel[:host]}"
        else
          logger.info line, "#{stream} :: #{channel[:host]}"
        end
      end
    end
  end

-- 
Neil Wilson (neil at aldur.co.uk)
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Under what circumstances (if any) will Mongrel use chunked transfer coding
in responses?

--
paul.butcher->msgCount++

Snetterton, Castle Combe, Cadwell Park...
Who says I have a one track mind?

MSN: paul at paulbutcher.com
AIM: paulrabutcher
Skype: paulrabutcher
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulbutcher

On Tue, 2006-09-19 at 01:55 +0100, Paul Butcher wrote:
> Under what circumstances (if any) will Mongrel use chunked transfer coding
> in responses?
It won''t unless you write a handler that does it for you.  Rails will
never do it since the response from rails has to be completely buffered
in case they change their mind and want to send out a different status
or something else just as dumb.


-- 
Zed A. Shaw, MUDCRAP-CE Master Black Belt Sifu
http://www.zedshaw.com/
http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/
http://www.lingr.com/room/3yXhqKbfPy8 -- Come get help.

> On Tue, 2006-09-19 at 01:55 +0100, Paul Butcher wrote:
> > Under what circumstances (if any) will Mongrel use chunked transfer
> coding
> > in responses?
> 
> It won''t unless you write a handler that does it for you.  Rails
will
> never do it since the response from rails has to be completely buffered
> in case they change their mind and want to send out a different status
> or something else just as dumb.
Thanks for the quick reply, Zed!

--
paul.butcher->msgCount++

Snetterton, Castle Combe, Cadwell Park...
Who says I have a one track mind?

MSN: paul at paulbutcher.com
AIM: paulrabutcher
Skype: paulrabutcher
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulbutcher