# Looking for a method to kill all children for my Timeout::Error contingency **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [March 24, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/looking-for-a-method-to-kill-all-children-for-my-timeout-error-contingency/163784 "2009-03-24T21:00:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Xeno\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/x/958977/32.png) [@Xeno\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Xeno_C)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/looking-for-a-method-to-kill-all-children-for-my-timeout-error-contingency/163784/1 "2009-03-24T21:00:58Z")
Do I really need to collect all the pids from fork to kill them in that case, or is there a method I’m not finding in pickaxe that just does it??? xc ---
**Author:** ![Xeno\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/x/958977/32.png) [@Xeno\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Xeno_C)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 9:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/looking-for-a-method-to-kill-all-children-for-my-timeout-error-contingency/163784/2 "2009-03-24T21:15:03Z")
On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 04:57:03AM +0900, Xeno C. wrote: > Do I really need to collect all the pids from fork to kill them in that case, or > is there a method I’m not finding in pickaxe that just does it??? Here’s a trick I use, maybe it is useful. Note that even if push-to-slaves creates children, those too will be killed because they reside in the same process group. require ‘timeout’ signal = ‘-TERM’ timeout = 30 pid = Process.fork do Process.setsid exec %{push-to-slaves -v} end begin Timeout::timeout(timeout) { Process.waitpid(pid) } rescue Timeout::Error =\> exc puts “#{exc.message}, killing pid #{pid}” Process.kill(signal, pid) res = Process.waitpid(pid) puts “pid #{pid.inspect} != res #{res.inspect}” if res != pid end ---
**Author:** ![Xeno\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/x/958977/32.png) [@Xeno\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Xeno_C)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 9:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/looking-for-a-method-to-kill-all-children-for-my-timeout-error-contingency/163784/3 "2009-03-24T21:27:58Z")
Jos B. wrote: > On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 04:57:03AM +0900, Xeno C. wrote: > > > Do I really need to collect all the pids from fork to kill them in that case, or > > is there a method I’m not finding in pickaxe that just does it??? > > Here’s a trick I use, maybe it is useful. Note that even if push-to-slaves > creates children, those too will be killed because they reside in the same > process group. The problem with that is I have many processes, so I would be doing this with arrays and loops, which suddenly becomes problematic. If I could just call something that automatically kills the entire tree of children on down that would be much nicer…?? ---
**Author:** ![Xeno\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/x/958977/32.png) [@Xeno\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Xeno_C)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 6:20am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/looking-for-a-method-to-kill-all-children-for-my-timeout-error-contingency/163784/4 "2009-03-25T06:20:42Z")
On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 09:56:53AM +0900, Mike B wrote: > > The problem with that is I have many processes, so I would be doing this with > > arrays and loops, which suddenly becomes problematic. If I could just call > > something that automatically kills the entire tree of children on down that > > would be much nicer…?? If those many processes were being started by the push-to-slaves script as in the example I posted, unless that script did something to create new process groups for its children, the code I posted would terminate all those processes because they all belong to the same process group which is targeted by the Process.kill(-TERM, pid) invocation. Iow, if you want to kill all the children at once the easiest way is to make sure they all belong to the same pgrp. ---
**Author:** ![Xeno\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/x/958977/32.png) [@Xeno\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Xeno_C)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 2:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/looking-for-a-method-to-kill-all-children-for-my-timeout-error-contingency/163784/5 "2009-03-25T02:00:53Z")
On Mar 24, 12:23 pm, Xeno C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > arrays and loops, which suddenly becomes problematic. If I could just call > > > ``` > > puts "pid #{pid.inspect} != res #{res.inspect}" if res != pid > > > > ``` > > > > end > > – > “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored” - Aldous Huxley > “…Or I might add, because they are denied” - Dr. Albert A. Bartletthttp://www.eskimo.com/~xeno Maybe this could help? [http://markmail.org/message/3nl2idghbekgbahb](http://markmail.org/message/3nl2idghbekgbahb) It’s a link to Ara Howards announcement for terminator. Mike B. ---
**Author:** ![Xeno\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/x/958977/32.png) [@Xeno\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Xeno_C)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 6:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/looking-for-a-method-to-kill-all-children-for-my-timeout-error-contingency/163784/6 "2009-03-25T18:50:40Z")
Jos B. wrote: > On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 09:56:53AM +0900, Mike B wrote: > > > On Mar 24, 12:23 pm, Xeno C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > > > Jos B. wrote: Yes thank you. Part of my problem is I wasn’t feeling sure about how I would use processes or threads, and why. With the advent of the new Chrome Philosophy, I was thinking perhaps processes might be the way to go, as I was doing curl executions, but it turns out I need to do a surrounding sequence of things in parallel for initializations and closures, so I am leaning back to threads now, which I think solves the problems. I would sure like to find a book just on use of threads and processes in Ruby. I would think a knowledgeable person could probably write at least 12 chapters on it for the layman alone, and not having done some of this for over ten years, that’s where I’m feeling I’m at. Thank you again for the feedback. Sincerely, Xeno xc