# \[ANN\] Mongrel Console 0.1 -- script/console meets mongrel **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [March 18, 2006, 10:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-mongrel-console-0-1-script-console-meets-mongrel/55276 "2006-03-18T22:19:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2006, 10:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-mongrel-console-0-1-script-console-meets-mongrel/55276/1 "2006-03-18T22:19:02Z")
This is a super quick announcement for a new Mongrel plugin called mongrel\_console. It was inspired by a request from Tobias Lütke who wanted to tail out logs while Mongrel was running. What mongrel\_console does is combine the Rails script/console with Mongrel so that you can control a mongrel server while using script/console. Sounds weird but it’s quite awesome for development hacking. You get to start, stop, and reload mongrel and rails while also munging with your AR models and running other Rails code. INSTALL You can install it via: gem install mongrel\_console –source=[http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/releases/](http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/releases/) Then you run it with: $ cd myrailsapp $ mongrel\_rails console USAGE You then get an IRB prompt but that you can use like script/console. But, now there’s a bunch of new commands you can use to control Mongrel: - start – Starts up a Mongrel instance and runs your Rails app in the background. Accepts an option hash. See status to find out what’s available. - stop – Stops the currently running Mongrel instance. - restart – Stops then starts using your previous options. If you want to change options then manually start and stop with new options. - status – Tells you if Mongrel is running and then dumps the options Hash. - trace – Tells Mongrel to dump all of the request and response headers to log/mongrel.log. Incredibly useful if you think Mongrel is broken for some reason or if you suspect you’ve got a bad header some place. - tail – Let’s you tail a file out (doesn’t go back to the prompt). By default it tails the log for your environment (log/development.log). Very useful with trace (try tail “log/mongrel.log”). EXAMPLE Here’s me using it during development: Loading development environment. Starting console. Mongrel Commands: start, stop, reload, restart, status, trace, tail irb(main):001:0\> start Mongrel running in development mode on 0.0.0.0:3000. =\> nil irb(main):002:0\> trace Tracing mongrel requests and responses to log/mongrel.log =\> nil irb(main):003:0\> tail “log/mongrel.log” Tailing log/mongrel.log. CTRL-C to stop it. … ^C=\> nil irb(main):004:0\> reload Reloading rails… Done reloading rails. =\> nil irb(main):005:0\> restart Server stopped. Exiting. Shutdown waiting for 20 requests Mongrel running in development mode on 0.0.0.0:3000. =\> nil irb(main):006:0\> status Mongrel running with: - mime: - docroot: public - server: #Mongrel::HttpServer:0x253441c - tracing: true - rails: #RailsHandler:0x25344d0 - host: 0.0.0.0 - port: 3000 =\> nil irb(main):007:0\> stop Server stopped. Exiting. Shutdown waiting for 20 requests =\> nil irb(main):008:0\> status Mongrel not running. =\> nil irb(main):009:0\> start :port =\> 4000 Mongrel running in development mode on 0.0.0.0:4000. =\> nil irb(main):010:0\> status Mongrel running with: - mime: - docroot: public - server: #Mongrel::HttpServer:0x26d4fb0 - tracing: true - rails: #RailsHandler:0x26d5154 - host: 0.0.0.0 - port: 4000 =\> nil Win32 people might find the tail command doesn’t work. Enjoy! Let me know what you think. Zed A. Shaw > **[Zed A. shaw](https://zedshaw.com/)** > > Personal essays and writings by Zed A. Shaw. ---
**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2006, 11:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-mongrel-console-0-1-script-console-meets-mongrel/55276/2 "2006-03-18T23:10:43Z")
Awesome! I love “reload”. No need to CTRL-C; ; ; anymore ---
**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2006, 11:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-mongrel-console-0-1-script-console-meets-mongrel/55276/3 "2006-03-18T23:22:54Z")
A couple of little weird bugs people should know about: 1. I made a mistake in the tracing, so uninstall and then reinstall the mongrel\_console gem to get a fix. 2. When you run it with the console going it is very sloooowwwwwww. For some weird reason you just need to tail a log and it speeds back up. Have fun. Zed A. Shaw > **[Zed A. shaw](https://zedshaw.com/)** > > Personal essays and writings by Zed A. Shaw. ---
**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 7:03am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-mongrel-console-0-1-script-console-meets-mongrel/55276/4 "2006-06-23T07:03:21Z")
Hey Zed – root# mongrel\_rails console Cannot run the console script: uninitialized constant RailsConfigurator Any idea on that error msg? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 9:20am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-mongrel-console-0-1-script-console-meets-mongrel/55276/5 "2006-06-23T09:20:25Z")
Adam R. wrote: > Hey Zed – > > root# mongrel\_rails console > Cannot run the console script: uninitialized constant RailsConfigurator > > Any idea on that error msg? > > Thanks It would be nice for mongrel to have the tailing behavior like script/server does when you run it in non daemon mode. This mongrel console is nice though.