Rails - Aug 2006 - Bug or feature: WEBrick threading (vs script/console thread)

I don''t know whether this is a bug or feature, and I don''t
know whether
this belongs to Gmailer (http://rubyforge.org/projects/gmailutils) in 
specific or Rails/Ruby in general.

 I have an instance method in an ActiveRecord model, that upon a web 
request using WEBrick, spawns off a thread, in which it invokes Gmailer 
to perform some processing.  What fails is that simply after the call:

 GMailer.connect(username, password)

(that is, even without performing any connection-related task yet), one 
of the model''s method (as well as the model member objects''
methods)
strangely disappears (become undefined) and the code cannot proceed as 
ERROR is reported when trying to invoke that missing method right after.

When invoking this ActiveRecord model''s method directly inside 
script/console, everything proceeds beautifully...!  Anyone knows what 
may be going on here?  This is too tricky....

What''s interesting is that if the method doesn''t spawn off a
thread and
instead directly invokes Gmailer and the subsequent code, everything 
works under WEBrick....  Does this have anything to do with how 
threading works under WEBrick as well?

Thanks for sharing any thoughts, suggestions or workarounds,
Philip

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

A correction:  Actually, GMailer.connect() already makes a NET::HTTP 
connection.

 I know in http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowTosWorkerThreads 
there are some discussions about threading in Rails and WEBrick (and 
about sockets at the bottom of the post), but the post didn''t touch on 
the issue of methods'' disappearing all together....



Philip T wrote:
> 
>  I don''t know whether this is a bug or feature, and I
don''t know whether
> this belongs to Gmailer (http://rubyforge.org/projects/gmailutils) in 
> specific or Rails/Ruby in general.
> 
>  I have an instance method in an ActiveRecord model, that upon a web 
> request using WEBrick, spawns off a thread, in which it invokes Gmailer 
> to perform some processing.  What fails is that simply after the call:
> 
>  GMailer.connect(username, password)
> 
> (that is, even without performing any connection-related task yet), one 
> of the model''s method (as well as the model member
objects'' methods)
> strangely disappears (become undefined) and the code cannot proceed as 
> ERROR is reported when trying to invoke that missing method right after.
> 
> When invoking this ActiveRecord model''s method directly inside 
> script/console, everything proceeds beautifully...!  Anyone knows what 
> may be going on here?  This is too tricky....
> 
> What''s interesting is that if the method doesn''t spawn
off a thread and
> instead directly invokes Gmailer and the subsequent code, everything 
> works under WEBrick....  Does this have anything to do with how 
> threading works under WEBrick as well?
> 
> Thanks for sharing any thoughts, suggestions or workarounds,
> Philip

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

i heard that rails isnt too good when it comes to threading (blame me if
thats wrong). you could try BackgrounDRb plugin who does exactly that, but a
different (and great) way. you can find it on rubyforge, a ML is also there.

2006/8/6, Philip Tsai <tsailipu@gmail.com>:
>
>
> A correction:  Actually, GMailer.connect() already makes a NET::HTTP
> connection.
>
> I know in http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowTosWorkerThreads
> there are some discussions about threading in Rails and WEBrick (and
> about sockets at the bottom of the post), but the post didn''t
touch on
> the issue of methods'' disappearing all together....
>
>
>
> Philip T wrote:
> >
> >  I don''t know whether this is a bug or feature, and I
don''t know whether
> > this belongs to Gmailer (http://rubyforge.org/projects/gmailutils) in
> > specific or Rails/Ruby in general.
> >
> >  I have an instance method in an ActiveRecord model, that upon a web
> > request using WEBrick, spawns off a thread, in which it invokes
Gmailer
> > to perform some processing.  What fails is that simply after the call:
> >
> >  GMailer.connect(username, password)
> >
> > (that is, even without performing any connection-related task yet),
one
> > of the model''s method (as well as the model member
objects'' methods)
> > strangely disappears (become undefined) and the code cannot proceed as
> > ERROR is reported when trying to invoke that missing method right
after.
> >
> > When invoking this ActiveRecord model''s method directly
inside
> > script/console, everything proceeds beautifully...!  Anyone knows what
> > may be going on here?  This is too tricky....
> >
> > What''s interesting is that if the method doesn''t
spawn off a thread and
> > instead directly invokes Gmailer and the subsequent code, everything
> > works under WEBrick....  Does this have anything to do with how
> > threading works under WEBrick as well?
> >
> > Thanks for sharing any thoughts, suggestions or workarounds,
> > Philip
>
>
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>


-- 
Michael Siebert <info@siebert-wd.de>

www.stellar-legends.de - Weltraum-Browsergame im Alpha-Stadium
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Thanks much, Michael!

 I have been brave enough (or dogmatic enough) this past 24 hours:  I am 
trying to prove to myself whether this thread problem is unique to 
WEBrick or Rails in general.

 Whew, what a day I have (it''s such a adventure to try to get lighttpd 
up on cygwin, in the process discovering that lighty+fcgi on cygwin 
simply fails to work right now):

 This problem occurs when running on lighttpd+scgi.

 I then even got Mongrel.

 This problem also occurs when running on Mongrel
(well, Mongrel is more like WEBrick than it is to lighttpd+scgi when it 
comes to handling requests).

 Yes, threading on Rails has problems!  The thread I spawn was issuing a 
remote-connection that is reachable (I read somewhere thread would run 
into some problem when making a connection to a remote resource that 
isn?t there) but the behavior now simply looks like a bug.

 Thanks for the pointer to BackgroundDRb!  I will try it out and see how 
it goes.



Michael Siebert wrote:
> i heard that rails isnt too good when it comes to threading (blame me if
> thats wrong). you could try BackgrounDRb plugin who does exactly that, 
> but a
> different (and great) way. you can find it on rubyforge, a ML is also 
> there.
> 
> 2006/8/6, Philip Tsai <tsailipu@gmail.com>:
>>
>> >
>> >
>> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>> _______________________________________________
>> Rails mailing list
>> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
>> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>>
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Michael Siebert <info@siebert-wd.de>
> 
> www.stellar-legends.de - Weltraum-Browsergame im Alpha-Stadium

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