# FCGI hanging w/ lighttpd and RoR 1.0 (need to kill -9) **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [February 17, 2006, 7:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fcgi-hanging-w-lighttpd-and-ror-1-0-need-to-kill-9/69789 "2006-02-17T19:16:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jennyw](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@jennyw](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jennyw)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 7:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fcgi-hanging-w-lighttpd-and-ror-1-0-need-to-kill-9/69789/1 "2006-02-17T19:16:21Z")
Hi, everyone, I’m currently running a Rails 1.0 project using lighttpd-1.4.9 behind Apache 2 on RHEL 3. My fcgi process (I’m only using one right now) always hangs after some time, which is something I haven’t experienced before (e.g., I’ve run this same app. on a TextDrive account and it works fine there). So … any ideas on what could be causing this? Or, better yet, how to fix this problem? I’ve done some searching, and saw that some people have some problems, but either their setups are different from what I’m using, or the info might be outdated (pre-RoR 1.0). I saw that some people are fixing this problem by having the processes killed regularly, but I’m not sure issuing kill -9 every few hours is a good idea. Thanks! Jen ---
**Author:** ![jennyw](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@jennyw](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jennyw)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 9:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fcgi-hanging-w-lighttpd-and-ror-1-0-need-to-kill-9/69789/2 "2006-02-17T21:39:24Z")
On Feb 17, 2006, at 10:16 AM, jennyw jennyw wrote: > I’m currently running a Rails 1.0 project using lighttpd-1.4.9 behind > Apache 2 on RHEL 3. My fcgi process (I’m only using one right now) > always hangs after some time, which is something I haven’t experienced > before (e.g., I’ve run this same app. on a TextDrive account and it > works fine there). I’ve had problems with 1.4.9 that I haven’t had with 1.4.8 and several people I know had rolled back to the prior version because of several problems. Are you having lighttpd spawn the fcgi or are you using the spawner within rails? [http://poocs.net/articles/2006/02/14/killing-me-softly-keeping-](http://poocs.net/articles/2006/02/14/killing-me-softly-keeping-) dispatchers-alive [http://jamis.jamisbuck.org/articles/2006/02/11/tip-textdrive-and-](http://jamis.jamisbuck.org/articles/2006/02/11/tip-textdrive-and-) lighttpd – \_Deirdre [http://deirdre.net](http://deirdre.net) ---
**Author:** ![jennyw](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@jennyw](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jennyw)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 9:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fcgi-hanging-w-lighttpd-and-ror-1-0-need-to-kill-9/69789/3 "2006-02-17T21:54:39Z")
Sorry to ask a question here. I am pretty new to Linux web servers and am in the process of writing my first Rails app. I have seen mention of using Apache in front of lighttpd. My question is why? Can’t lighttpd just be used by itself? Trying to figure out the purpose/advantage of this configuration. If someone has a website link that explains this configuration I would appreciate it. Thank you, Rob B. On 2/17/06, jennyw jennyw [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > fix this problem? > > – > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). > > * * * > > Rails mailing list > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) – Robert B. [http://www.robertbazinet.com](http://www.robertbazinet.com) ---
**Author:** ![jennyw](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@jennyw](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jennyw)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 11:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fcgi-hanging-w-lighttpd-and-ror-1-0-need-to-kill-9/69789/4 "2006-02-17T23:19:57Z")
Deirdre Saoirse M. wrote: > On Feb 17, 2006, at 10:16 AM, jennyw jennyw wrote: > > I’ve had problems with 1.4.9 that I haven’t had with 1.4.8 and > several people I know had rolled back to the prior version because of > several problems. Maybe I’ll try that. > Are you having lighttpd spawn the fcgi or are you using the spawner > within rails? Using Lighttpd to spawn. The weird thing is that restarting lighttpd doesn’t fix the problem … you have to kill -9 the process (you can do this without restarting lighttpd and it works, too). > [http://poocs.net/articles/2006/02/14/killing-me-softly-keeping-](http://poocs.net/articles/2006/02/14/killing-me-softly-keeping-) > dispatchers-alive Unfotunately, this is one of those articles that doesn’t seem to have a definitive answer – just a description of a similar problem. > [http://jamis.jamisbuck.org/articles/2006/02/11/tip-textdrive-and-](http://jamis.jamisbuck.org/articles/2006/02/11/tip-textdrive-and-) > lighttpd I’ll try using this method and seeing what happens. Unfortunately, the hanging doesn’t usually happen until after a day has passed (and I’m not even sure it’s that consistent), so it’ll be a while before I figure out whether this makes a difference. I’d be happy to hear any additional information or ideas! Thanks! Jen ---
**Author:** ![jennyw](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@jennyw](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jennyw)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 11:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fcgi-hanging-w-lighttpd-and-ror-1-0-need-to-kill-9/69789/5 "2006-02-17T23:22:23Z")
Robert B. wrote: > My question is why? Can’t lighttpd just be used by itself? Trying to > figure out the purpose/advantage of this configuration. In this case, there are a bunch of Web sites running in Apache right. On one of the sites, we want to replace a certain path with a Rails application. The easiest thing is to setup lighttpd and use mod\_rewrite so that when someone goes to [http://example.com/rails-app/](http://example.com/rails-app/) Apache proxies the lighttpd application. The alternative would be to convert everything over to lighttpd, which would be no small task. If the only thing we were running were the RoR app., then we might just run lighttpd without Apache. Jen ---
**Author:** ![jennyw](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@jennyw](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jennyw)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 5:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fcgi-hanging-w-lighttpd-and-ror-1-0-need-to-kill-9/69789/6 "2006-02-18T05:55:08Z")
jennyw jennyw wrote: > I’ve done some searching, and saw that some people have some problems, > but either their setups are different from what I’m using, or the info > might be outdated (pre-RoR 1.0). I saw that some people are fixing this > problem by having the processes killed regularly, but I’m not sure > issuing kill -9 every few hours is a good idea. Given that you didn’t see this before, I’d guess it is something OS specific. I would look a 1) automatic restarts of Apache and 2) automatic log rotation. How much traffic do you get on this site? If it is a low traffic site, you might be able to narrow the time or frequency down by regularly pinging a dynamic page on your site at regular intervals. Ray ---
**Author:** ![jennyw](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@jennyw](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jennyw)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 8:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fcgi-hanging-w-lighttpd-and-ror-1-0-need-to-kill-9/69789/7 "2006-02-18T08:04:02Z")
Ray B. wrote: > jennyw jennyw wrote: > > Given that you didn’t see this before, I’d guess it is something OS > specific. I would look a 1) automatic restarts of Apache and 2) > automatic log rotation. It’s something I haven’t seen before on other machines, but it’s been this way since the beginning (which was recent) on this machine. I don’t manage it, I’m just trying to install RoR on it. Apache isn’t automatically being restarted, and since Apache is only proxying lighttpd, I don’t think anything that Apache does should affect things. Or is there some sort of indirect effect on the system that you’re thinking of? Also, I’m not sure what you mean by log rotation. Actually, I know what log rotation is, but I’m not sure how that would affect an fcgi process. > How much traffic do you get on this site? If it is a low traffic site, > you might be able to narrow the time or frequency down by regularly > pinging a dynamic page on your site at regular intervals. The site is being staged – no public access, so the volume is super low. And it still hangs. Jen ---
**Author:** ![jennyw](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@jennyw](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jennyw)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 6:01am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fcgi-hanging-w-lighttpd-and-ror-1-0-need-to-kill-9/69789/8 "2006-02-18T06:01:11Z")
Thank you for the reply. I understand now. I am a .NET (no rock throwing please) and am used to IIS. I am just getting into RoR and trying to pick up all this new/old technology. -Rob On 2/17/06, jennyw jennyw [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > everything over to lighttpd, which would be no small task. > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) – Robert B. [http://www.robertbazinet.com](http://www.robertbazinet.com)