Running Rails apps with thin as a service

Question

I am trying to run thin as a service on my web server. After running "sudo thin install", thin created the following file in /etc/init.d/thin

#!/bin/sh
DAEMON=/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/bin/thin
SCRIPT_NAME=/etc/init.d/thin
CONFIG_PATH=/etc/thin

# Exit if the package is not installed
[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0

case "$1" in
  start)
        $DAEMON start --all $CONFIG_PATH
        ;;
  stop)
        $DAEMON stop --all $CONFIG_PATH
        ;;
  restart)
        $DAEMON restart --all $CONFIG_PATH
        ;;
  *)
        echo "Usage: $SCRIPT_NAME {start|stop|restart}" >&2
        exit 3
        ;;
esac

When the thin service is started, the following is ran

thin start --all /etc/thin

This will scan all of yaml config files defining how to run thin for each app defined. This does not work.

I see in my logs:

/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/bundler-1.0.0/lib/bundler/runtime.rb:27:in `block in setup': You have already activated eventmachine 0.12.6, but your Gemfile requires eventmachine 0.12.11. Consider using bundle exec. (Gem::LoadError)
  from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/bundler-1.0.0/lib/bundler/spec_set.rb:12:in `block in each'
  from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/bundler-1.0.0/lib/bundler/spec_set.rb:12:in `each'
  from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/bundler-1.0.0/lib/bundler/spec_set.rb:12:in `each'
  from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/bundler-1.0.0/lib/bundler/runtime.rb:17:in `setup'
  from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/bundler-1.0.0/lib/bundler.rb:100:in `setup'
  from /srv/app/current/config/boot.rb:8:in `<top (required)>'
  from <internal:lib/rubygems/custom_require>:29:in `require'
  from <internal:lib/rubygems/custom_require>:29:in `require'
  from /srv/app/current/config/application.rb:1:in `<top (required)>'
  from <internal:lib/rubygems/custom_require>:29:in `require'
  from <internal:lib/rubygems/custom_require>:29:in `require'
  from /srv/app/current/config/environment.rb:2:in `<top (required)>'
  from <internal:lib/rubygems/custom_require>:29:in `require'
  from <internal:lib/rubygems/custom_require>:29:in `require'
  from /srv/app/current/config.ru:3:in `block in <main>'
  from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rack-1.2.1/lib/rack/builder.rb:46:in `instance_eval'
  from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rack-1.2.1/lib/rack/builder.rb:46:in `initialize'
  from /srv/app/current/config.ru:1:in `new'
  from /srv/app/current/config.ru:1:in `<main>'
  from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/thin-1.2.7/lib/rack/adapter/loader.rb:36:in `eval'
  from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/thin-1.2.7/lib/rack/adapter/loader.rb:36:in `load'
  from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/thin-1.2.7/lib/rack/adapter/loader.rb:45:in `for'
  from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/thin-1.2.7/lib/thin/controllers/controller.rb:163:in `load_adapter'
  from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/thin-1.2.7/lib/thin/controllers/controller.rb:67:in `start'
  from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/thin-1.2.7/lib/thin/runner.rb:177:in `run_command'
  from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/thin-1.2.7/lib/thin/runner.rb:143:in `run!'
  from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/thin-1.2.7/bin/thin:6:in `<top (required)>'
  from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/bin/thin:19:in `load'
  from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/bin/thin:19:in `<main>'

When capistrano deploys, I am caching my bundle in in the $APP_PATH/shared/bundle directory; so, this explains why thin complains about gems not being installed as the thin service does not look in the $APP_PATH/shared/bundle

This does work:

cd $APP_PATH/current; bundle exec thin start -d -C /etc/thin/app_x.yml

but that is not the way the thin service file in /etc/init.d/thin works. I guess I could write my own. I just don't want to solve a problem that has already been solved.

Answer 1

I came up with this, but I don't feel like it is the best solution as it does not take advantage of thin's "--all" option where it reads the config files from a directory. Instead I modified the file that starts/stops/restarts the thin service so for each app I give it a specific command for starting/stopping/restarting. I'm certain this command could be improved, but for now it works for my needs.

#!/bin/sh

# This is a pretty bad, but effective workaround for starting thin as a service per application.

DAEMON=/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/bin/thin
# DAEMON=/usr/local/bin/bundler thin
SCRIPT_NAME=/etc/init.d/thin
CONFIG_PATH=/etc/thin

# Exit if the package is not installed
[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0

case "$1" in
  start)
  cd /srv/hub/current && bundle exec thin start -d -C /etc/thin/hub.yml
  ;;
  stop)
  cd /srv/hub/current && bundle exec thin stop -d -C /etc/thin/hub.yml
  ;;
  restart)
  cd /srv/hub/current && bundle exec thin restart -d -C /etc/thin/hub.yml
  ;;
  *)
  echo "Usage: $SCRIPT_NAME {start|stop|restart}" >&2
  exit 3
  ;;
esac