Workers

Workers

Workers are programs that don't run under control of Apache, because they handle tasks that don't need to happen synchronously to a user's request (whether triggered by one or not), or because running them under Apache would consume excessive resources.

Some workers process TheSchwartz or Gearman requests. Those normally run under control of worker-manager (see below). Some workers are manual, and depending on their purpose, can run either under control of worker-manager or be started by cron, or even just once when {re)starting the server. (Manual workers are a mixed lot, and there's no "one size fits all" option for them.)

Starting and stopping workers

Using worker-manager and workers.conf

bin/worker-manager takes care of starting, stopping, and restarting workers to maintain the numbers of workers set in etc/workers.conf for each host it runs on. The etc/workers.conf syntax is pretty straightforward and described in the file itself. To start bin/worker-manager for normal use (daemonized), use:

$LJHOME/bin/worker-manager

Or, if you want it to stay in the foreground and display progress/debug messages, use:

$LJHOME/bin/worker-manager --debug

In both cases, killing it will also kill the workers it started.

Individually

You can also start individual workers from the shell prompt, by typing:

$LJHOME/bin/worker/(worker-name)

Most workers accept the -v or --verbose flag to request extra debugging output and stay in the foreground when started from the shell prompt, so ^C should work to kill them.

Using cron or at server boot time

Please refer to your OS documentation. The crontab(1) and init(8) manpages are probably most relevant.

List of workers

Note: I probably got some of that wrong. Any corrections welcome, especially where I say "not sure".

Workers in alphabetical order of filename

Filename	Type	Category	Function and notes
worker/birthday-notify	Manual	Fire LJ::Event::Birthday ESN events for users whose birthdays are soon
bin/worker/content-importer	TheSchwartz	Importer	Import all content
bin/worker/content-importer-lite	TheSchwartz	Importer	Import some content (everything except entries and comments)
bin/worker/content-importer-verify	TheSchwartz	Importer	Verify import password
bin/worker/directory-meta	Manual	Directory/user search	Update data used in searching for users
bin/worker/distribute-invites	TheSchwartz	Invite codes	Email distributed invite codes
esn-cluster-subs	TheSchwartz	ESN	Notification delivery stage 2
esn-cluster-subs-mass	TheSchwartz	ESN	Notification delivery stage 2 (mass)
esn-filter-subs	TheSchwartz	ESN	Notification delivery stage 3
esn-filter-subs-mass	TheSchwartz	ESN	Notification delivery stage 3 (mass)
esn-fired-event	TheSchwartz	ESN	Notification delivery stage 1
esn-fired-event-mass	TheSchwartz	ESN	Notification delivery stage 1 (mass)
esn-process-sub	TheSchwartz	ESN	Notification delivery stage 4
esn-process-sub-mass	TheSchwartz	ESN	Notification delivery stage 4 (mass)
bin/worker/expunge-users	Manual	Account deletion	Expunge (permanently) accounts deleted more than 60 days ago
bin/worker/import-scheduler	Manual	Importer	Queue importing jobs in the right order - oneshot as of 20110925, but see bug 1491
bin/worker/incoming-email	TheSchwartz	Incoming email	Handles email posting, email support requests, email support follow-up
bin/worker/latest-feed	TheSchwartz	Latest things	Heavy lifting for the Latest Things page
bin/worker/lazy-cleanup	TheSchwartz	Journal management	Postpone some of the work of entry deletion
bin/worker/load-friends-gm	Gearman	Old (LJ) friends system	Not used anymore, see bug 3971
bin/worker/paidstatus	Manual	Payments	Process paid carts, expired paid accounts, and paid accounts expiring soon
bin/worker/ping-hubbub	TheSchwartz	Outbound syndication	Notify PubSubHubbub of DW journal updates
process-esn	TheSchwartz	ESN	Notification delivery stages 1-4 combined
process-esn-mass	TheSchwartz	ESN	Notification delivery stage 1-4 combined (mass)
bin/worker/process-eventlogrecord	TheSchwartz	Disabled	Not used currently, see bug 3963
bin/worker/process-privacy	TheSchwartz	Entry privacy	Process mass entry privacy changes
bin/worker/resolve-extacct	Gearman	External accounts	Determine the account type (personal/community/syndicated)
bin/worker/schedule-synsuck	Manual	Syndication	Queue TheSchwartz jobs for updating syndicated accounts
bin/worker/search-constraints	Gearman	Directory/user search	Something to do with partial search results? Not sure
[1]	Gearman	Directory/user search	Initiate search? Not sure
bin/worker/search-updater	Manual	Directory/user search	Not sure what it does, still used but has some bitrot. See bug 3968
bin/worker/send-email	TheSchwartz	Sending email	Send email to users
bin/worker/send-email-mass	TheSchwartz	Sending email	Send email to users (mass)
shop-creditcard-charge	Gearman	Payments	Charge a user's credit card
bin/worker/sphinx-copier	TheSchwartz	Full-text search	Keep the full-text search database in sync with actual entries (see bug 3966)
bin/worker/sphinx-search-gm	Gearman	Full-text search	Interface to the core sphinx search	-	bin/worker/stats-collection	Manual	Site stats	Collect/compile statistics	-	bin/worker/subscribe-hubbub	Manual	Syndication	Subscribe to hubbub for syndicated accounts so DW is notified of updates to feed sources
bin/worker/support-notify	TheSchwartz	Support board	Email users about support answers they received or support actions they subscribed to
bin/worker/synsuck	TheSchwartz	Syndication	Updates syndicated account from feed source, started by bin/worker/schedule-synsuck or through the hubbub system
bin/worker/sysban-gm	Gearman	Site administration	Retrieve sysban entries by type
bin/worker/t-memlimit	Manual	Testing	Memory stress test
bin/worker/taglib-gm	Gearman	Journal content	Retrieve user's tags
bin/worker/talklib-gm	Gearman	Journal content	Update entry comment count, needed... not sure
bin/worker/userpic-resize-gm	Gearman	Userpics	Resize userpics larger than maximum height or width
bin/worker/xpost	TheSchwartz	Crossposting	Crossposts new or edited entries