# FTP hangs Rails! **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [March 22, 2006, 8:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ftp-hangs-rails/55659 "2006-03-22T20:37:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bigbrother2](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@bigbrother2](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bigbrother2)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 8:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ftp-hangs-rails/55659/1 "2006-03-22T20:37:31Z")
Hi! I’m running a Rails app on Apache/FCGI, with a single handler process on the server. At one point my application needs to FTP a bunch of files to a remote server. When it starts doing this, the server apparently freezes and doesn’t allow anyone else to do anything. Plus, after about twenty seconds, my nice status page vanishes from the browser, even though the FTP’ing is continuing on the server! Is there an easy fix for this, or have I run into a bigger problem here? Thanks, Raymond ---
**Author:** ![bigbrother2](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@bigbrother2](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bigbrother2)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 2:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ftp-hangs-rails/55659/2 "2006-03-24T14:55:04Z")
On 22/03/06 11:36 -0800, Raymond B. wrote: > Thanks, > Raymond Hi Raymond, That doesn’t seem like a rails problem. More of an OS or FTP daemon problem. What do the resource stats on your machine look like when you’re FTP’ing the files? Regards, Jason ---
**Author:** ![bigbrother2](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@bigbrother2](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bigbrother2)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 4:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ftp-hangs-rails/55659/3 "2006-03-24T16:52:35Z")
On Wed, 2006-03-22 at 11:36 -0800, Raymond B. wrote: > There could be a memory leak somewhere that causes this. It’s hard to say without some more specific information about the tasks being performed and the logs that are being generated. -Robby – /\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* - Robby R., Founder & Executive Director \* - PLANET ARGON, LLC | [www.planetargon.com](http://www.planetargon.com) \* - Ruby on Rails Development, Consulting, and Hosting \* - Portland, Oregon | p: 503.351.4730 | f: 815.642.4068 \* - blog: [www.robbyonrails.com](http://www.robbyonrails.com) | book: [www.programmingrails.com](http://www.programmingrails.com) \* \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*/ ---
**Author:** ![bigbrother2](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@bigbrother2](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bigbrother2)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 7:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ftp-hangs-rails/55659/4 "2006-03-24T19:59:18Z")
On Fri, Mar 24, 2006, Raymond B. wrote: > Thanks Jason and Robby for your responses! > > What was happening was this. Using Apache and apparently a single FCGI > process. Which seems weird in and of itself. This is on a shared host > which already had some glitches to be ironed out before Rails would > even work. Running a shared host serving Rails apps must be one of the > hardest jobs in the world, for real! I think you can tune the number of processes it starts, but I’m not sure how. > Anyhow, there’s this ftp routine that copies a bunch of files, and the > HTML page that’s rendered beforehand just shows a spinner kinda thing. > After all the files get copied, you’re redirected to the home page. > This works fine for me on Lighttpd, Webrick, and Apache also on my OSX > box. But on the server, everything freezes while FTP is taking place. > Literally, no-one else can use the system. Plus, the web browser > decides to crap out after about 15 seconds or less, throwing a blank > page or a network error! Were you spinning off a new thread (in ruby-land) to do the FTP? If not, perhaps you should try that and see if it fixes your problem. Ben ---
**Author:** ![bigbrother2](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@bigbrother2](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bigbrother2)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 11:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ftp-hangs-rails/55659/5 "2006-03-24T23:41:58Z")
On 3/24/06, Ben B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I think you can tune the number of processes it starts, but I’m not sure > > Were you spinning off a new thread (in ruby-land) to do the FTP? If > not, perhaps you should try that and see if it fixes your problem. Don’t waste your time spinning a new thread. Ruby has green threads, so they are per interpreter instance only. You’re best bet is to fork the call to FTP so that it is it’s own process, this way you don’t have to worry about it aborting mid way, or hanging up an FCGI process. Ben ---
**Author:** ![bigbrother2](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@bigbrother2](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bigbrother2)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 7:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ftp-hangs-rails/55659/6 "2006-03-24T19:51:26Z")
Thanks Jason and Robby for your responses! What was happening was this. Using Apache and apparently a single FCGI process. Which seems weird in and of itself. This is on a shared host which already had some glitches to be ironed out before Rails would even work. Running a shared host serving Rails apps must be one of the hardest jobs in the world, for real! Anyhow, there’s this ftp routine that copies a bunch of files, and the HTML page that’s rendered beforehand just shows a spinner kinda thing. After all the files get copied, you’re redirected to the home page. This works fine for me on Lighttpd, Webrick, and Apache also on my OSX box. But on the server, everything freezes while FTP is taking place. Literally, no-one else can use the system. Plus, the web browser decides to crap out after about 15 seconds or less, throwing a blank page or a network error! For now I just moved the app back to TextDrive, since the problem was not exhibited there. However, TextDrive is running lighttpd with four fcgi processes, so I’m not sure if the fifth user to try this FTP thing would be locked out or what. It’s weird. Moving to TextDrive has spawned other problems however, such as a memory ceiling that nearly every RMagick call hits. Oops! So this is just to clear it up… If you’re running an app with any kind of serious needs, Apache/FCGI is really inadequate. This has surely been said many times before! Furthermore, shared hosts have their own host of problems, no matter what. Lighttpd solves most of them, in my experience, but some remain. For example, the RMagick problem I may be able to solve by moving to MiniMagick but haven’t gotten there yet. We shall see. In conclusion, I would _love_ to see someone come up with a real dedicated Rails hosting system. It will be tough but I think you could charge a bit more for it, provided many of these kinks were ironed out. I know TextDrive is trying to do this, but whoever does it first deserves to make a good living! As an aside, I hear the brilliant Pragmatic Programmers are coming out with a book specific to Rails deployment. Is this true? Or is it just a rumor? If it’s true, I’m the first in line! Cheers and thanks again, Raymond