Cron jobs and Daemons

Alaveteli runs some processes as operating system daemons. This guide explains how to generate the daemon files and get them running.

From Alaveteli version 0.39 the crontab and init scripts use the erb file format, which is a standard templating format used by many Ruby applications.

Previously scripts use the ugly file format, which is a strange templating format used by mySociety.

The ugly format uses simple variable substitution. A variable looks like !!(*= $this *)!!.

Generate crontab

config/crontab-example contains the cron jobs that run on Alaveteli. Rewrite the example file to replace the variables, and then drop it in /etc/cron.d/ on the server.

Template Variables:

  • vhost_dir: the full path to the directory where Alaveteli is checked out. e.g. If your checkout is at /var/www/alaveteli then set this to /var/www
  • vcspath: the name of the directory that contains the Alaveteli code. e.g. alaveteli
  • user: the user that the software runs as
  • site: a string to identify your Alaveteli instance
  • mailto: The email address or local account that cron output will be sent to - setting an email address depends on your MTA having been configured for remote delivery.
  • ruby_version: The version of ruby that was used to install bundler as a gem, if that was neccessary. This will be used to add the deployment user’s local gem directory to the PATH used in the cron file

There is a rake task that will help to rewrite this file into one that is useful to you. This example sends cron output to the local alaveteli user. Change the variables to suit your installation.

pushd /var/www/alaveteli
bundle exec rake config_files:convert_crontab \
  DEPLOY_USER=alaveteli \
  VHOST_DIR=/var/www \
  VCSPATH=alaveteli \
  SITE=alaveteli \
  MAILTO=alaveteli \
  CRONTAB=/var/www/alaveteli/config/crontab-example > /etc/cron.d/alaveteli
popd

chown root:alaveteli /etc/cron.d/alaveteli
chmod 754 /etc/cron.d/alaveteli

Note: If you are generating the crontab manually, rather than with this rake task, you will need to add a line to periodically check on each daemon you install following the instructions below, as follows, making sure to replace DAEMON_NAME with the name of the daemon file:

5,15,25,35,45,55 * * * * alaveteli /etc/init.d/DAEMON_NAME check

Generate application daemon

Generate a daemon based on the application server you installed. This allows you to use the native service command to stop, start and restart the application.

Passenger

Template Variables:

  • vhost_dir: the full path to the directory where Alaveteli is checked out. e.g. If your checkout is at /var/www/alaveteli then set this to /var/www
  • vcspath: the name of the directory that contains the Alaveteli code. e.g. alaveteli
  • site: a string to identify your Alaveteli instance
  • user: the user that the software runs as

There is a rake task that will help to rewrite this file into one that is useful to you. Change the variables to suit your installation.

pushd /var/www/alaveteli
bundle exec rake config_files:convert_init_script \
  DEPLOY_USER=alaveteli \
  VHOST_DIR=/var/www \
  VCSPATH=alaveteli \
  SITE=alaveteli \
  SCRIPT_FILE=/var/www/alaveteli/config/sysvinit-passenger.example > /etc/init.d/alaveteli
popd

chown root:alaveteli /etc/init.d/alaveteli
chmod 754 /etc/init.d/alaveteli

Start the application:

service alaveteli start

Thin

Template Variables:

  • vhost_dir: the full path to the directory where Alaveteli is checked out. e.g. If your checkout is at /var/www/alaveteli then set this to /var/www
  • vcspath: the name of the directory that contains the Alaveteli code. e.g. alaveteli
  • site: a string to identify your Alaveteli instance
  • user: the user that the software runs as
  • cpus: the number of CPU cores your server has - run nproc to find what this number should be. This controls how many thin servers the daemon starts.

There is a rake task that will help to rewrite this file into one that is useful to you. Change the variables to suit your installation.

pushd /var/www/alaveteli
bundle exec rake config_files:convert_init_script \
  DEPLOY_USER=alaveteli \
  VHOST_DIR=/var/www \
  VCSPATH=alaveteli \
  CPUS=1 \
  SITE=alaveteli \
  SCRIPT_FILE=/var/www/alaveteli/config/sysvinit-thin.example > /etc/init.d/alaveteli
popd

chown root:alaveteli /etc/init.d/alaveteli
chmod 754 /etc/init.d/alaveteli

Start the application:

service alaveteli start

Generate alert daemon

One of the cron jobs refers to a script at /etc/init.d/alaveteli-alert-tracks. This is an init script, which can be generated from the config/alert-tracks-debian.example template. This script sends out emails to users subscribed to updates from the site – known as tracks – when there is something new matching their interests

Template Variables:

  • daemon_name: The name of the daemon. This is set by the rake task.
  • vhost_dir: the full path to the directory where Alaveteli is checked out. e.g. If your checkout is at /var/www/alaveteli then set this to /var/www
  • vcspath: the name of the directory that contains the Alaveteli code. e.g. alaveteli
  • site: a string to identify your Alaveteli instance
  • user: the user that the software runs as
  • ruby_version: The version of ruby that was used to install bundler as a gem, if that was neccessary. This will be used to add the user’s local gem directory to the PATH used in the daemon file

There is a rake task that will help to rewrite this file into one that is useful to you. Change the variables to suit your installation.

pushd /var/www/alaveteli
bundle exec rake RAILS_ENV=production config_files:convert_init_script \
  DEPLOY_USER=alaveteli \
  VHOST_DIR=/var/www \
  VCSPATH=alaveteli \
  SITE=alaveteli \
  SCRIPT_FILE=/var/www/alaveteli/config/alert-tracks-debian.example > /etc/init.d/alaveteli-alert-tracks
popd

chown root:alaveteli /etc/init.d/alaveteli-alert-tracks
chmod 754 /etc/init.d/alaveteli-alert-tracks

Start the alert tracks daemon:

service alaveteli-alert-tracks start

Generate mail poller daemon (optional)

config/poll-for-incoming-debian.example is another init script, which is optional and not required unless you want to have Alaveteli poll a POP3 mailbox for incoming mail rather than passively accepting it via the mailin script. The setup for polling is described in the documentation for PRODUCTION_MAILER_RETRIEVER_METHOD, the config setting that switches it on. If you are using polling, this daemon will check the POP3 mailbox for new incoming emails. If you want to use polling, you should setup your install to deliver incoming mail for requests to the mailbox, rather than into the application.

Template Variables:

  • daemon_name: The name of the daemon. This is set by the rake task.
  • vhost_dir: the full path to the directory where Alaveteli is checked out. e.g. If your checkout is at /var/www/alaveteli then set this to /var/www
  • vcspath: the name of the directory that contains the Alaveteli code. e.g. alaveteli
  • site: a string to identify your Alaveteli instance
  • user: the user that the software runs as
  • ruby_version: The version of ruby that was used to install bundler as a gem, if that was neccessary. This will be used to add the user’s local gem directory to the PATH used in the daemon file

There is a rake task that will help to rewrite this file into one that is useful to you. Change the variables to suit your installation.

pushd /var/www/alaveteli
bundle exec rake RAILS_ENV=production config_files:convert_init_script \
  DEPLOY_USER=alaveteli \
  VHOST_DIR=/var/www \
  VCSPATH=alaveteli \
  SITE=alaveteli \
  SCRIPT_FILE=/var/www/alaveteli/config/poll-for-incoming-debian.example > /etc/init.d/alaveteli-poll-for-incoming
popd

chown root:alaveteli /etc/init.d/alaveteli-poll-for-incoming
chmod 754 /etc/init.d/alaveteli-poll-for-incoming

Start the polling daemon:

service alaveteli-poll-for-incoming start

Generate notifications daemon (optional)

config/send-notifications-debian.example is the mechanism for sending digest notifications to Pro users. You should only enable this if you have enabled Alaveteli Pro.

Template Variables:

  • daemon_name: The name of the daemon. This is set by the rake task.
  • vhost_dir: the full path to the directory where Alaveteli is checked out. e.g. If your checkout is at /var/www/alaveteli then set this to /var/www
  • vcspath: the name of the directory that contains the Alaveteli code. e.g. alaveteli
  • site: a string to identify your Alaveteli instance
  • user: the user that the software runs as
  • ruby_version: The version of ruby that was used to install bundler as a gem, if that was neccessary. This will be used to add the user’s local gem directory to the PATH used in the daemon file

There is a rake task that will help to rewrite this file into one that is useful to you. Change the variables to suit your installation.

pushd /var/www/alaveteli
bundle exec rake RAILS_ENV=production config_files:convert_init_script \
  DEPLOY_USER=alaveteli \
  VHOST_DIR=/var/www \
  VCSPATH=alaveteli \
  SITE=alaveteli \
  SCRIPT_FILE=/var/www/alaveteli/config/send-notifications-debian.example > /etc/init.d/alaveteli-send-notifications
popd

chown root:alaveteli /etc/init.d/alaveteli-send-notifications
chmod 754 /etc/init.d/alaveteli-send-notifications

Start the notifications daemon:

service alaveteli-send-notifications start