Forum OpenACS Development: Re: Is it time for NaviServ Again?

Jon,

An AOL guy added a quick fix, a new file to handle the default threadpool. I have modified this which allows you to specify pools for url patterns. I'm posting my file here, which should be placed in the shared tcl library directory (usually in [ns_info home]/modules/tcl). Below this is an example taken from the server.log file on startup.

# [ns_info home]/modules/tcl/pools.tcl

set cfgsection "ns/server/[ns_info server]"

set minthreads [ns_config $cfgsection minthreads 0]
set maxthreads [ns_config $cfgsection maxthreads 10]
set maxconns [ns_config $cfgsection maxconnections 0]
set timeout [ns_config $cfgsection threadtimeout 0]

ns_pools set default -minthreads $minthreads -maxthreads $maxthreads -maxconns $maxconns -timeout $timeout

ns_log Notice "Default Pool: [ns_pools get default]"

# Setup optional threadpools

set poolSection $cfgsection/pools

set poolSet [ns_configsection $poolSection]

if {"$poolSet" ne ""} {

    set poolSize [ns_set size $poolSet]
    for {set i 0} {$i < $poolSize} {incr i} {
        set poolName [ns_set key $poolSet $i]
        set poolDescription [ns_set value $poolSet $i]
        set poolConfigSection "ns/server/[ns_info server]/pool/$poolName"
        set poolConfigSet [ns_configsection $poolConfigSection]
        if {"$poolConfigSet" eq ""} {
            continue
        }
        set poolMinthreads [ns_config $poolConfigSection minthreads $minthreads]
        set poolMaxthreads [ns_config $poolConfigSection maxthreads $maxthreads]
        set poolMaxconns   [ns_config $poolConfigSection maxconnections $maxconns]
        set poolTimeout    [ns_config $poolConfigSection threadtimeout $timeout]
        
        ns_pools set $poolName -minthreads $poolMinthreads -maxthreads $poolMaxthreads -maxconns $poolMaxconns -timeout $poolTimeout
        ns_log Notice  "$poolName Pool: [ns_pools get $poolName]"
        set poolConfigSize [ns_set size $poolConfigSet]
        for {set j 0} {$j < $poolConfigSize} {incr j} {
            if {[string tolower [ns_set key $poolConfigSet $j]] eq "map"} {
                set mapList [split [ns_set value $poolConfigSet $j]]
                set poolMethod [lindex $mapList 0]
                set poolPattern [lindex $mapList 1]
                ns_pools register $poolName [ns_info server] $poolMethod $poolPattern
                ns_log Notice "ns_pools registered $poolName [ns_info server] $poolMethod $poolPattern"
            }
        }
    }
}

ns_section ns/server/jnm
        ns_param maxconnections 5
        ns_param maxdropped 0
        ns_param maxthreads 5
        ns_param minthreads 5
        ns_param threadtimeout 120

ns_section ns/server/jnm/pool/fast
        ns_param maxconnections 100
        ns_param minthreads 2
        ns_param maxthreads 10
        ns_param threadtimeout 120
        ns_param map {GET /*-thumb.jpg}
        ns_param map {GET /images/*-thumb.jpg}

ns_section ns/server/jnm/pools
        ns_param fast {fast pool}

ns_section ns/server/tutos
        ns_param maxconnections 6
        ns_param maxdropped 0
        ns_param maxthreads 6
        ns_param minthreads 6
        ns_param threadtimeout 126

ns_section ns/server/tutos/pool/default
        ns_param maxconnections 99
        ns_param minthreads 4
        ns_param maxthreads 11
        ns_param threadtimeout 123
        ns_param map {GET /}
        ns_param map {POST /}

ns_section ns/server/tutos/pool/fast
        ns_param maxconnections 101
        ns_param minthreads 3
        ns_param maxthreads 11
        ns_param threadtimeout 125
        ns_param map {GET /*-thumb.jpg}
        ns_param map {GET /*-thumb.gif}

ns_section ns/server/tutos/pools
        ns_param default {default pool}
        ns_param fast {fast pool}

------------

During startup, the following is printed to the error.log file:


[-main-] Notice: Default Pool: minthreads 5 maxthreads 5 idle 0 current 0 maxconns 5 queued 0 timeout 120
[-main-] Notice: fast Pool: minthreads 2 maxthreads 10 idle 0 current 0 maxconns 100 queued 0 timeout 120
[-main-] Notice: ns_pools registered fast jnm GET /*-thumb.jpg
[-main-] Notice: ns_pools registered fast jnm GET /images/*-thumb.jpg

[-main-] Notice: Default Pool: minthreads 6 maxthreads 6 idle 0 current 0 maxconns 6 queued 0 timeout 126
[-main-] Notice: default Pool: minthreads 4 maxthreads 11 idle 0 current 0 maxconns 99 queued 0 timeout 123
[-main-] Notice: ns_pools registered default tutos GET /
[-main-] Notice: ns_pools registered default tutos POST /
[-main-] Notice: fast Pool: minthreads 3 maxthreads 11 idle 0 current 0 maxconns 101 queued 0 timeout 125
[-main-] Notice: ns_pools registered fast tutos GET /*-thumb.jpg
[-main-] Notice: ns_pools registered fast tutos GET /*-thumb.gif

It is hard to imagine why this happened, the attitude is a little difficult to digest: don't upgrade. Maybe the important point is that it took a year for anyone to notice, so the default behavior must be pretty good.

I hope you realize the one you're using for 4.5 doesn't actually work as you expect?

That's the bad news Jon's referring to (4.5 ignores the min/maxconnections parameters).

If 4.5 ignores that setting completely, even more reason to make this a) Known within OpenACS and b) provide the patch along with it. I did not run in this problem so far as I never checked these parameters and therefore have no expectations about them whatsoever.

Tom et al., although I can't really disagree with your complaints about the AOLserver 4.5 development, communication, etc., I think you may be overreacting a bit. So, they committed some likely ill-thought out code, and then eventually released it before it was ready, all without nearly enough communication and review. Bad, yes, but it does happen, and shouldn't be an insurmountable problem - just an obnoxious one.

Also, it's not like us other folks in the AOLserver community jumped all over the problem first thing! E.g., I'm still using 4.0.10, haven't touched it in ages, and have barely looked at the 4.5 code, even though it was released back in June 2006, more than a year ago!

Btw, Tom, thanks for discovering and really digging into these 4.5 problems.

I also wonder how much of the premature 4.5 release was driven or abetted by internal turmoil at AOL, which the AOL guys never talk about publically on the AOLserver list. It sounds to me as if most of the AOLserver developers - including Jim Davidson - are now employed at other companies doing other things, and the few that remain at AOL are probably no longer working directly on AOLserver related projects at all. I think an AOL employee alluded to this recently on the list by saying something like, "If it wasn't for the [open source] community, AOLserver would have been dead two years ago."

Also, Tom, re. your "I'm sure there is nothing we can do about it." comment - that seems too negative to me! There is certainly something we could do about it - we could "simply" invest the time to figure out and commit changes to the code! (We could; I'm not saying we should have to, and the wasted effort in straightening out someone else's broken new code when the old was perfectly good is always annoying.) There are many non-AOL folks who have CVS commit access to AOLserver on SourceForege, note, even if hardly any of them ever use it.