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.)
Contents
Starting and stopping workers
Individually
When developing, you can start and debug individual workers from the shell prompt, by typing:
$LJHOME/bin/worker/(worker-name) --verbose
The --verbose or -v flag makes sure that the worker stays in the foreground and provides extra debugging text. To stop the worker when you're done, use ^C.
If you run the worker without --verbose flag, it will continue running in the background even after you're done and have logged out. You probably don't want to do this! If you want run multiple workers at the same time, or have them keep running, use the worker-manager described below.
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.
If you find that you do not want to use some workers (for testing, temporarily, or long-term), you may turn them off in the configuration. In /etc/workers.conf, setting the count to 0 will not start any of that worker. Commenting out the line on which that worker appears (with a #) will not start any of that worker. These are best for temporary changes. For a permanent change, you may also entirely remove the line on which that worker appears .
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
Below is a list of all the workers in the $LJHOME/bin/worker directory.
Note: I probably got some of that wrong. Any corrections welcome, especially where I say "not sure".
| Filename | Type | Category | Function and notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| birthday-notify | Manual | ESN | Fire LJ::Event::Birthday ESN events for users whose birthdays are soon |
| content-importer | TheSchwartz | Importer | Import all content |
| content-importer-lite | TheSchwartz | Importer | Import some content (everything except entries and comments) |
| content-importer-verify | TheSchwartz | Importer | Verify import password |
| directory-meta | Manual | Directory/user search | Update data used in searching for users |
| 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) |
| expunge-users | Manual | Account deletion | Expunge (permanently) accounts deleted more than 60 days ago |
| import-scheduler | Manual | Importer | Queue importing jobs in the right order - oneshot as of 20110925, but see bug 1491 |
| incoming-email | TheSchwartz | Incoming email | Handles email posting, email support requests, email support follow-up |
| latest-feed | TheSchwartz | Latest things | Heavy lifting for the Latest Things page |
| lazy-cleanup | TheSchwartz | Journal management | Postpone some of the work of entry deletion |
| load-friends-gm | Gearman | Old (LJ) friends system | Not used anymore, see bug 3971 |
| paidstatus | Manual | Payments | Process paid carts, expired paid accounts, and paid accounts expiring soon |
| 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) |
| process-eventlogrecord | TheSchwartz | Disabled | Not used currently, see bug 3963 |
| process-privacy | TheSchwartz | Entry privacy | Process mass entry privacy changes |
| resolve-extacct | Gearman | External accounts | Determine the account type (personal/community/syndicated) |
| schedule-synsuck | Manual | Syndication | Queue TheSchwartz jobs for updating syndicated accounts |
| search-constraints | Gearman | Directory/user search | Something to do with partial search results? Not sure |
| search-lookup | Gearman | Directory/user search | Initiate search? Not sure |
| search-updater | Manual | Directory/user search | Not sure what it does, still used but has some bitrot. See bug 3968 |
| send-email | TheSchwartz | Sending email | Send email to users |
| send-email-mass | TheSchwartz | Sending email | Send email to users (mass) |
| shop-creditcard-charge | Gearman | Payments | Charge a user's credit card |
| sphinx-copier | TheSchwartz | Full-text search | Keep the full-text search database in sync with actual entries (see bug 3966) |
| sphinx-search-gm | Gearman | Full-text search | Interface to the core sphinx search |
| stats-collection | Manual | Site stats | Collect/compile statistics |
| subscribe-hubbub | Manual | Syndication | Subscribe to hubbub for syndicated accounts so DW is notified of updates to feed sources |
| support-notify | TheSchwartz | Support board | Email users about support answers they received or support actions they subscribed to |
| synsuck | TheSchwartz | Syndication | Updates syndicated account from feed source, started by bin/worker/schedule-synsuck or through the hubbub system |
| sysban-gm | Gearman | Site administration | Retrieve sysban entries by type |
| t-memlimit | Manual | Testing | Memory stress test |
| taglib-gm | Gearman | Journal content | Retrieve user's tags |
| talklib-gm | Gearman | Journal content | Update entry comment count, needed... not sure |
| userpic-resize-gm | Gearman | Userpics | Resize userpics larger than maximum height or width |
| xpost | TheSchwartz | Crossposting | Crossposts new or edited entries |
