From: jean.boussier@... Date: 2021-04-17T11:02:56+00:00 Subject: [ruby-core:103499] [Ruby master Feature#17795] Around `Process.fork` callbacks API Issue #17795 has been updated by byroot (Jean Boussier). > some committers agreed with Jeremy's concern (easy to misuse). I must admit I don't understand this argument. There are plenty of advanced Ruby feature that are easy to misuse but extremely useful. So much that I don't think it's even worth listing them. > akr (Akira Tanaka) proposed fork_level (as above). As answered above, in my opinion, any solution akin to checking PID before access is unsatisfactory because: - It delays the cleanup to the next access, which in same case can be problematic. - Even if it's fast it's still needless busywork. Many use cases for this feature are things such as tracing libraries that are called very often in hotspots. > nobu: IO.popen("-") is also a fork As said in the description, `fork + exec` is out of scope. This only aim at catching forks that will continue to execute the Ruby VM. > mame: How about extension libraries? Maybe we don't have to care them? Yes, we don't care about them, because as far as I know an extension calling `fork(2)` would leave the VM in an unusable state (let me know if I'm wrong). I looked at various servers etc, all of them use `Process.fork` or `Kernel.fork`, I couldn't find any example of a C-extension calling `fork(2)`. > mrkn: Python provides C-API to call registered hooks It also provide a Python API. https://docs.python.org/3/library/os.html#os.register_at_fork Could we at least settle on my delegation PR (https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/4361) if a proper API is not acceptable? ---------------------------------------- Feature #17795: Around `Process.fork` callbacks API https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/17795#change-91597 * Author: byroot (Jean Boussier) * Status: Open * Priority: Normal ---------------------------------------- Replaces: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/5446 ### Context Ruby code in production is very often running in a forking setup (puma, unicorn, etc), and it is common some types of libraries to need to know when the Ruby process was forked. For instance: - Most database clients, ORMs or other libraries keeping a connection pool might need to close connections before the fork happens. - Libraries relying on some kind of dispatcher thread might need to restart the thread in the forked children, and clear any internal buffer (e.g. statsd clients, newrelic_rpm). **This need is only for forking the whole ruby process, extensions doing a `fork(2) + exec(2)` combo etc are not a concern, this aim at only catching `kernel.fork`, `Process.fork` and maybe `Process.daemon`.**. The use case is for forks that end up executing Ruby code. ### Current solutions Right now this use case is handled in several ways. #### Rely on the integrating code to call a `before_fork` or `after_fork` callback. Some libraries simply rely on documentation and require the user to use the hooks provided by their forking server. Examples: - Sequel: http://sequel.jeremyevans.net/rdoc/files/doc/fork_safety_rdoc.html - Rails's Active Record: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/concurrency-and-database-connections#multi-process-servers - ScoutAPM (it tries to detect popular forking setup and register itself): https://github.com/scoutapp/scout_apm_ruby/blob/fa83793b9e8d2f9a32c920f59b57d7f198f466b8/lib/scout_apm/environment.rb#L142-L146 - NewRelic RPM (similarly tries to register to popular forking setups): https://www.rubydoc.info/github/newrelic/rpm/NewRelic%2FAgent:after_fork #### Continuously check `Process.pid` Some libraries chose to instead keep the process PID in a variable, and to regularly compare it to `Process.pid` to detect forked children. Unfortunately `Process.pid` is relatively slow on Linux, and these checks tend to be in tight loops, so it's not uncommon when using these libraries to spend `1` or `2%` of runtime in `Process.pid`. Examples: - Rails's Active Record used to check `Process.pid` https://github.com/Shopify/rails/blob/411ccbdab2608c62aabdb320d52cb02d446bb39c/activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb#L946, it still does but a bit less: https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/41850 - the `Typhoeus` HTTP client: https://github.com/typhoeus/typhoeus/blob/a345545e5e4ac0522b883fe0cf19e5e2e807b4b0/lib/typhoeus/pool.rb#L34-L42 - Redis client: https://github.com/redis/redis-rb/blob/6542934f01b9c390ee450bd372209a04bc3a239b/lib/redis/client.rb#L384 - Some older versions of NewRelic RPM: https://github.com/opendna/scoreranking-api/blob/8fba96d23b4d3e6b64f625079c184f3a292bbc12/vendor/gems/ruby/1.9.1/gems/newrelic_rpm-3.7.3.204/lib/new_relic/agent/harvester.rb#L39-L41 #### Continuously check `Thread#alive?` Similar to checking `Process.pid`, but for the background thread use case. `Thread#alive?` is regularly checked, and if the thread is dead, it is assumed that the process was forked. It's much less costly than a `Process.pid`, but also a bit less reliable as the thread could have died for other reasons. It also delays re-creating the thread to the next check rather than immediately upon forking. Examples: - `statsd-instrument`: https://github.com/Shopify/statsd-instrument/blob/0445cca46e29aa48e9f1efec7c72352aff7ec931/lib/statsd/instrument/batched_udp_sink.rb#L63 #### Decorate `Kernel.fork` and `Process.fork` Another solution is to prepend a module in `Process` and `Kernel`, to decorate the fork method and implement your own callback. It works well, but is made difficult by `Kernel.fork`. Examples: - Active Support: https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/9aed3dcdfea6b64c18035f8e2622c474ba499846/activesupport/lib/active_support/fork_tracker.rb - `dd-trace-rb`: https://github.com/DataDog/dd-trace-rb/blob/793946146b4709289cfd459f3b68e8227a9f5fa7/lib/ddtrace/profiling/ext/forking.rb - To some extent, `nakayoshi_fork` decorates the `fork` method: https://github.com/ko1/nakayoshi_fork/blob/19ef5efc51e0ae51d7f5f37a0b785309bf16e97f/lib/nakayoshi_fork.rb ### Proposals I see two possible features to improve this situation: #### Fork callbacks One solution would be for Ruby to expose a callback API for these two events, similar to `Kernel.at_exit`. Most implementations of this functionnality in other languages ([C's `pthread_atfork`](https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/pthread_atfork.3.html), [Python's `os.register_at_fork`](https://docs.python.org/3/library/os.html#os.register_at_fork)) expose 3 callbacks: - `prepare` or `before` executed in the parent process before the `fork(2)` - `parent` or `after_in_parent` executed in the parent process after the `fork(2)` - `child` or `after_in_child` executed in the child process after the `fork(2)` A direct translation of such API in Ruby could look like `Process.at_fork(prepare: Proc, parent: Proc, child: Proc)` if inspired by `pthread_atfork`. Or alternatively each callback could be exposed idependently: `Process.before_fork {}`, `Process.after_fork_parent {}`, `Process.after_fork_child {}`. Also note that similar APIs don't expose any way to unregister callbacks, and expect users to use weak references or to not hold onto objects that should be garbage collected. Pseudo code: ```ruby module Process @prepare = [] @parent = [] @child = [] def self.at_fork(prepare: nil, parent: nil, child: nil) @prepare.unshift(prepare) if prepare # prepare callbacks are executed in reverse registration order @parent << parent if parent @child << child if child end def self.fork @prepare.each(&:call) if pid = Primitive.fork @parent.each(&:call) # We could consider passing the pid here. else @child.each(&:call) end end end ``` #### Make `Kernel.fork` a delegator A simpler change would be to just make `Kernel.fork` a delegator to `Process.fork`. This would make it much easier to prepend a module on `Process` for each library to implement its own callback. Proposed patch: https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/4361 -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/ Unsubscribe: