Start and Stop tasks for resque workers, with capistrano deploy hook (without God)

deploy.rb

after "deploy:symlink", "deploy:restart_workers"

##
# Rake helper task.
# http://pastie.org/255489
# http://geminstallthat.wordpress.com/2008/01/27/rake-tasks-through-capistrano/
# http://ananelson.com/said/on/2007/12/30/remote-rake-tasks-with-capistrano/
def run_remote_rake(rake_cmd)
  rake_args = ENV['RAKE_ARGS'].to_s.split(',')
  cmd = "cd #{fetch(:latest_release)} && #{fetch(:rake, "rake")} RAILS_ENV=#{fetch(:rails_env, "production")} #{rake_cmd}"
  cmd += "['#{rake_args.join("','")}']" unless rake_args.empty?
  run cmd
  set :rakefile, nil if exists?(:rakefile)
end

namespace :deploy do
  desc "Restart Resque Workers"
  task :restart_workers, :roles => :db do
    run_remote_rake "resque:restart_workers"
  end
end

resque.rake

# Start a worker with proper env vars and output redirection
def run_worker(queue, count = 1)
  puts "Starting #{count} worker(s) with QUEUE: #{queue}"
  ops = {:pgroup => true, :err => [(Rails.root + "log/resque_err").to_s, "a"], 
                          :out => [(Rails.root + "log/resque_stdout").to_s, "a"]}
  env_vars = {"QUEUE" => queue.to_s}
  count.times {
    ## Using Kernel.spawn and Process.detach because regular system() call would
    ## cause the processes to quit when capistrano finishes
    pid = spawn(env_vars, "rake resque:work", ops)
    Process.detach(pid)
  }
end

namespace :resque do
  task :setup => :environment

  desc "Restart running workers"
  task :restart_workers => :environment do
    Rake::Task['resque:stop_workers'].invoke
    Rake::Task['resque:start_workers'].invoke
  end
  
  desc "Quit running workers"
  task :stop_workers => :environment do
    pids = Array.new
    Resque.workers.each do |worker|
      pids.concat(worker.worker_pids)
    end
    if pids.empty?
      puts "No workers to kill"
    else
      syscmd = "kill -s QUIT #{pids.join(' ')}"
      puts "Running syscmd: #{syscmd}"
      system(syscmd)
    end
  end
  
  desc "Start workers"
  task :start_workers => :environment do
    run_worker("*", 2)
    run_worker("high", 1)
  end
end

Dude. Thank you.

We are running Resque-workers (long-running rake tasks).

We want to start them inside a Capistrano hook.

This means:

1. We want to type "cap production deploy".
2. When the Capistrano script ends, we are disconnected from our remote machines.
3. When the Capistrano script ends, the Resque-workers started by the Capistrano script are still running on our remote machines.

We've gotten Capistrano to execute rake tasks on a remote machine. We are also able to fork the tasks, using a variety of methods, including &, BACKGROUND=yes, ssh-ing a command, screen -d -m -X, etc.

Each of the above "worked" in varying capacities, but ultimately, when the Capistrano script ends, the connection to the remote machine is severed, and the rake tasks running on the remote machine are terminated.

From your gist, we applied the bare minimum:

Process.detach(spawn({'QUEUE'=>'*'}, 'rake resque:work', {pgroup: true}))

We put the above into a "standard Rails-rake task", inside lib/tasks/application.rake. We ask Capistrano to run our task inside application.rake, and ... and then it works.

Brilliant. Beautiful. Better still, it works. It works. It works. Thank you.

    Resque.workers.each do |worker|
      pids = pids | worker.worker_pids[0...-1]
    end

Like to point out that this can be accomplished with a gem now. Checkout: https://github.com/sshingler/capistrano-resque