From: Keith Fahlgren <keith@...>
Date: 2006-08-04T02:12:02+09:00
Subject: DRb on Windows Wants to Be Touched

Hey,

We all appreciate the special joy that human contact can bring, but this 
is driving me crazy....

Warning: I'll admit upfront that I only do occasionally Ruby programming 
on Windows, so this could be a simple issue.

Here's the problem:
1. I run a DRb server on a Windows box to provide access to a 
Windows-only program (using system())
2. I hit it from a DRb client
3. The command prompt (DOS) on the server side waits/hangs at 
(seemingly) random times until I hit some keyboard keys (like, say 
CTRL+B) and then it continues

Why in the world should the server wait for human (keyboard) 
intervention?

Notes: It does this if I start it from the DOS command line or by 
double-clicking the script.
I can start it and run it properly (without keyboard input) when I run 
the system() string in DOS directly

The (simplified) DRB server looks like this:

class FooBar
  def to_pdf(fo, pdf)
   #security stuff here...
    system("#{FO2PDF} #{AH_OPTIONS} -pea -d #{fo.untaint} -o 
#{pdf.untaint}")
  end  
end 

require 'drb'
require 'drb/acl'
require 'thread'
PORT = 2775
HOSTNAME = 'some.ip.here'

# Security
acl = ACL.new(%w(deny all
                allow localhost
                allow some.other.ip
                ))
$SAFE = 1 
DRb.install_acl(acl)
puts "SAFE level at #{$SAFE}"
DRb.start_service("druby://#{HOSTNAME}:#{PORT}", FooBar.new)
# Keep running...
puts "Service up and running..."
DRb.thread.join


Any ideas?


Thanks,
Keith