# FCGI Scripts: spawner/reaper **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [December 5, 2005, 11:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fcgi-scripts-spawner-reaper/61669 "2005-12-05T23:49:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lists](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lists](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lists)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 11:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fcgi-scripts-spawner-reaper/61669/1 "2005-12-05T23:49:48Z")
We are doing performance testing for Rails site that will be going live soon and probably see a fair amount of traffic. We are currently using FCGI for deployment (though we may switch to SCGI down the line as it matures). I noticed the addition of a few FCGI related scripts to Rails, such as reaper and spawner. Has anyone used these? Any experiences to share? Should I consider them mandatory if I am using FCGI for deployment? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![lists](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lists](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lists)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 12:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fcgi-scripts-spawner-reaper/61669/2 "2005-12-06T00:58:48Z")
On Dec 5, 2005, at 2:49 PM, Hunter H. wrote: > Has anyone used these? Any experiences to share? > > Should I consider them mandatory if I am using FCGI for deployment? > > Thanks. Hunter- ``` I have a write up from August about the development and deployment ``` of a fairly large rails site for the Yakima Herald newspaper. Maybe this helps give you a little perspective? [http://brainspl.at/](http://brainspl.at/) articles/2005/11/03/from-start-to-launch-http-yakimaherald-com Cheers- -Ezra Z. Yakima Herald-Republic WebMaster [http://yakimaherald.com](http://yakimaherald.com) 509-577-7732 removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![lists](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lists](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lists)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 1:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fcgi-scripts-spawner-reaper/61669/3 "2005-12-06T01:51:32Z")
Thanks very much for sharing your story. Interesting stuff. Still, if anyone has used either of these scripts, I am interested in your experience: script/process/reaper script/process/spawner script/process/spinner Thx. ---
**Author:** ![lists](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lists](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lists)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 2:11am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fcgi-scripts-spawner-reaper/61669/4 "2005-12-06T02:11:48Z")
Hunter H. wrote: > Thanks very much for sharing your story. Interesting stuff. > > Still, if anyone has used either of these scripts, I am interested in your > experience: > > script/process/reaper > script/process/spawner > script/process/spinner I use reaper all the time. It’s the most efficient way to reload a production Rails app after a code change. I haven’t had any need to use spawner or spinner as of yet, so I really can’t comment on them. But reaper works great. -Brian ---
**Author:** ![lists](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lists](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lists)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 6:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fcgi-scripts-spawner-reaper/61669/5 "2005-12-06T06:39:48Z")
On 12/6/05, Hunter H. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Still, if anyone has used either of these scripts, I am interested in your > experience: > > script/process/reaper > script/process/spawner > script/process/spinner 1. spawner - it’s a very thin wrapper around spawn-fcgi (which is comming with lighttpd installation, used for creating standalone (not managed by the web server) listeners). It’s just one line command with several lines for environment setting: OPTIONS[:instances].times { |i| spawn(OPTIONS[:port] + i) } starting ‘times’ instances of spawn-fcgi , starting from :port . spawn-fcgi can be used also directly - see [ [http://rubyists.com/articles/2005/05/03/spawn-fcgi-in-the-foreground](http://rubyists.com/articles/2005/05/03/spawn-fcgi-in-the-foreground) ] 1. spinner - “It’s a brute-force attempt that’ll just try to run the spawner every X number of seconds”. 2. reaper - keeping track of the spawned fcgi listeners for managing them - restart etc. spinner + reaper can be replaced with runit - [ [runit - a UNIX init scheme with service supervision](http://smarden.org/runit/) ] or supervise - [ [http://cr.yp.to/daemontools/supervise.html](http://cr.yp.to/daemontools/supervise.html) ] from the DJB daemontools package [[http://cr.yp.to/daemontools.html](http://cr.yp.to/daemontools.html) ] ---
**Author:** ![lists](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lists](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lists)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 2:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fcgi-scripts-spawner-reaper/61669/6 "2005-12-06T02:44:16Z")
Hunter H. wrote: > Thanks very much for sharing your story. Interesting stuff. > > Still, if anyone has used either of these scripts, I am interested in your > experience: > > script/process/reaper > script/process/spawner > script/process/spinner > > Thx. Hi. In case you hadn’t found it, there is some documentation here, in the SwitchTower manual: http:manuals.rubyonrails.com/read/chapter/100#page268 regards ``` Justin ```