NAME

SYNOPSIS

    use base qw(Net::Server::PreFork);

    sub process_request {
        #...code...
    }

    __PACKAGE__->run();

DESCRIPTION

This personality binds to one or more ports and then forks "min_servers" child process. The server will make sure that at any given time there are "min_spare_servers" available to receive a client request, up to "max_servers". Each of these children will process up to "max_requests" client connections. This type is good for a heavily hit site, and should scale well for most applications. (Multi port accept is accomplished using flock to serialize the children).

At this time, it does not appear that this module will pass tests on Win32 systems. Any ideas or patches for making the tests pass would be welcome.

SAMPLE CODE

COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS

    Key                 Value                   Default
    min_servers         \d+                     5
    min_spare_servers   \d+                     2
    max_spare_servers   \d+                     10
    max_servers         \d+                     50
    max_requests        \d+                     1000

    serialize           (flock|semaphore
                         |pipe|none)            undef
    # serialize defaults to flock on multi_port or on Solaris
    lock_file           "filename"              File::Temp->new

    check_for_dead      \d+                     30
    check_for_waiting   \d+                     10

    max_dequeue         \d+                     undef
    check_for_dequeue   \d+                     undef

    child_communication 1                       undef

min_servers

The minimum number of servers to keep running.

min_spare_servers

The minimum number of servers to have waiting for requests. Minimum and maximum numbers should not be set to close to each other or the server will fork and kill children too often.

max_spare_servers

The maximum number of servers to have waiting for requests. See min_spare_servers.

max_servers

The maximum number of child servers to start. This does not apply to dequeue processes.

check_for_waiting

Seconds to wait before checking to see if we can kill off some waiting servers.

check_for_spawn

Seconds between checking to see if we need to spawn more children

min_child_ttl

Minimum number of seconds between starting children and killing a child process

child_communication

Enable child communication to parent via unix sockets. If set to true, will let children write to the socket contained in $self->{'server'}->{'parent_sock'}. The parent will be notified through child_is_talking_hook where the first argument is the socket to the child. The child's socket is stored in $self->{'server'}->{'children'}->{$child_pid}->{'sock'}.

serialize

See the documentation under Net::Server::PreForkSimple.

CONFIGURATION FILE

    #-------------- file test.conf --------------

    ### server information
    min_servers   20
    max_servers   80
    min_spare_servers 10
    min_spare_servers 15

    max_requests  1000

    ### user and group to become
    user        somebody
    group       everybody

    ### logging ?
    log_file    /var/log/server.log
    log_level   3
    pid_file    /tmp/server.pid

    ### access control
    allow       .+\.(net|com)
    allow       domain\.com
    deny        a.+

    ### background the process?
    background  1

    ### ports to bind
    host        127.0.0.1
    port        localhost:20204
    port        20205

    ### reverse lookups ?
    # reverse_lookups on

    ### enable child communication ?
    # child_communication

    #-------------- file test.conf --------------

PROCESS FLOW

HOOKS

"$self->run_n_children_hook()"

This hook occurs at the top of run_n_children which is called each time the server goes to start more child processes. This gives the parent to do a little of its own accountting (as desired). Idea for this hook came from James FitzGibbon.

"$self->parent_read_hook()"

This hook occurs any time that the parent reads information from the child. The line from the child is sent as an argument.

"$self->child_is_talking_hook()"

This hook occurs if child_communication is true and the child has written to $self->{'server'}->{'parent_sock'}. The first argument will be the open socket to the child.

"$self->idle_loop_hook()"

This hook is called in every pass through the main process wait loop, every "check_for_waiting" seconds. The first argument is a reference to an array of file descriptors that can be read at the moment.

"$self->cleanup_dead_child_hook( $child )"

This hook is called when a dead child is detected. A child is considered dead when the pid does no longer exist. This hook could be used to cleanup possible temporary files or locks left over by a dead child.

HOT DEPLOY

BUGS

TO DO

AUTHOR

THANKS

SEE ALSO