# Alternatives to script/runner? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [October 3, 2006, 12:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/alternatives-to-script-runner/70839 "2006-10-03T12:28:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Martin\_DeMello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/f17d59/32.png) [@Martin\_DeMello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Martin_DeMello)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2006, 12:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/alternatives-to-script-runner/70839/1 "2006-10-03T12:28:58Z")
I’ve been using script/runner to add and delete files from the database in response to inotify events. This works in theory, but is too slow to keep up with a large number of events in succession; I’m suspecting that the bottleneck is that script/runner has a huge startup cost. One thing I thought of was to queue inotify events, and call script/runner once a minute to clear the queue, but that seems a bit inelegant - ideally, what I’d like to do is have a persistent process that is aware of my rails models, and which I can just keep sending events to and have it process them as they come in. Any thoughts on strategies to accomplish this? martin ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_DeMello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/f17d59/32.png) [@Martin\_DeMello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Martin_DeMello)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2006, 1:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/alternatives-to-script-runner/70839/2 "2006-10-03T13:03:05Z")
On 3 October 2006 14:20, Martin DeMello wrote: > One thing I thought of was to queue inotify events, and call > script/runner once a minute to clear the queue, but that seems a bit > inelegant - ideally, what I’d like to do is have a persistent process > that is aware of my rails models, and which I can just keep sending > events to and have it process them as they come in. Any thoughts on > strategies to accomplish this? You can set up a separate process with DRB server on a well known address/port. Then, you can manage it through DRB. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_DeMello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/f17d59/32.png) [@Martin\_DeMello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Martin_DeMello)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2006, 2:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/alternatives-to-script-runner/70839/3 "2006-10-03T14:44:08Z")
An simpler solution might be to use an obfuscated url and a wget cronjob. crontab: - - - - - wget [http://localhost/inotify/delete\_events/AS4LINAW4](http://localhost/inotify/delete_events/AS4LINAW4) > /dev/null 2\>&1 ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_DeMello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/f17d59/32.png) [@Martin\_DeMello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Martin_DeMello)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2006, 8:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/alternatives-to-script-runner/70839/4 "2006-10-05T08:58:04Z")
On 10/3/06, Jon C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > An simpler solution might be to use an obfuscated url and a wget > cronjob. > > crontab: > > - > - > - > - > - wget [http://localhost/inotify/delete\_events/AS4LINAW4](http://localhost/inotify/delete_events/AS4LINAW4) > > > /dev/null 2\>&1 Won’t that incur the extra overhead of a controller call? All I really need is activerecord and access to the models. I’m trying to do this in realtime (i.e. insert a file into the db as soon as inotify detects it) rather than via a cron job, and I have a feeling that if I can get rid of the script/runner startup time, the rest of the process will be able to keep up nicely. martin ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_DeMello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/f17d59/32.png) [@Martin\_DeMello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Martin_DeMello)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2006, 9:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/alternatives-to-script-runner/70839/5 "2006-10-05T09:00:05Z")
On 10/3/06, Maxim K. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > address/port. Then, you can manage it through DRB. > Can you point me to some resources on running a DRB server from within > my rails app? Everything I’ve seen works the other way, with rails > acting as the DRB client. martin ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_DeMello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/f17d59/32.png) [@Martin\_DeMello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Martin_DeMello)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2006, 10:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/alternatives-to-script-runner/70839/6 "2006-10-05T10:53:04Z")
Martin DeMello wrote: > Won’t that incur the extra overhead of a controller call? All I really > need is activerecord and access to the models. I’m trying to do this > in realtime (i.e. insert a file into the db as soon as inotify detects > it) rather than via a cron job, and I have a feeling that if I can get > rid of the script/runner startup time, the rest of the process will be > able to keep up nicely. While backgroundrb is certainly the most elegant way to go, if you just want access to your model in a script without the whole Rails framework, just write a ruby script and require ActiveRecord and your model. Something like: #!/usr/bin/ruby # require AR and gems require ‘rubygems’ require ‘active\_record’ require ‘…/app/models/event’ db\_config = YAML::load(File.open("…/config/database.yml")) ActiveRecord::Base.establish\_connection(db\_config[‘production’]) You can then acccess the Event model as normal. Hope it helps. Alan ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_DeMello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/f17d59/32.png) [@Martin\_DeMello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Martin_DeMello)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2006, 12:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/alternatives-to-script-runner/70839/7 "2006-10-05T12:50:29Z")
On 10/5/06, Alan B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > want access to your model in a script without the whole Rails framework, > just write a ruby script and require ActiveRecord and your model. > Something like: […] Thanks - that worked beautifully. I did have a look at backgroundrb, but I had the same problem with it as with regular drb - as far as I could make out, all the documentation assumed that Rails was running the client, not the server. martin ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_DeMello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/f17d59/32.png) [@Martin\_DeMello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Martin_DeMello)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2006, 10:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/alternatives-to-script-runner/70839/8 "2006-10-05T10:44:13Z")
On Thu, Oct 05, 2006 at 12:27:06PM +0530, Martin DeMello wrote: > > You can set up a separate process with DRB server on a well known > > address/port. Then, you can manage it through DRB. > > Can you point me to some resources on running a DRB server from within > my rails app? Everything I’ve seen works the other way, with rails > acting as the DRB client. google for the nice backgroundrb plugin. Jens – Jens Krämer removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid