From: eregontp@... Date: 2021-04-23T16:26:09+00:00 Subject: [ruby-core:103575] [Ruby master Feature#17795] Around `Process.fork` callbacks API Issue #17795 has been updated by Eregon (Benoit Daloze). I very much agree with @Dan0042's point about `exit!`, finalizers, `at_exit` and subtleties. This can be easily be handled with fork hooks, and it's a total nightmare otherwise, to the point many apps/libraries probably get it wrong (e.g., exit a different way than `exit!` in the child, which e.g. an exception reaching the top-level is already an issue, `ruby -e 'at_exit { p "hi" }; fork { raise "foo" }'` prints twice) or needlessly restrict what child processes can do with `at_exit`. I also heavily agree with encapsulation, requiring the app to know about every library which might have some IO/Socket/resourced opened that's not naturally fork-safe and what to call on each of these libraries with a sever-specific hook is a terrible programming model. It invites invalid sharing and data corruption, so I'd go as far as saying libraries not handling are basically guaranteeing troubles for their users every now and then if they use `fork`. The `redis-rb` approach above makes a lot of sense: safe by default and can be tuned if desired for more dangerous cases where sharing is wanted. ---------------------------------------- Feature #17795: Around `Process.fork` callbacks API https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/17795#change-91675 * 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: