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User1
Asked: 2010-01-06 15:38:36 +0800 CST

Installing a ruby app as a Linux service

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There's a very highly rated application for defect management called Redmine. It's written in Ruby. I was able to get it working following their instructions. However, I would like to run the application as a service that starts automatically every time the server reboots. How do you go about adding a Ruby website as a Linux service?

linux

4 Answers

  1. There's no such thing as a "Ruby website"; a Rails site needs an application server process running to serve requests for the app, this is typically one of mongrel, thin, or unicorn (if you're using webrick, you're on a loser already).

    Your options are, broadly:

    1. Write an init script for it, invoke that init script on boot as per the procedure for your particular distribution
    2. Use an @reboot rule in cron (uuuuugly)
    3. Use something like daemontools to manage the server process

    I do (3), because it is awesome. I expect a lot of people to recommend monit in place of daemontools; I've done that, and I hated every second of it.

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  2. You may be interested in this:

    http://rubyworks.rubyforge.org/

    Once having your system set up properly to run as a real server for Ruby stuff, you can then insert your Redmine application into it's environment.

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  3. If you have apache or some other web server already running, you don't need to run Redmine as a separate service - just have it run under your web server. For Apache Just follow the instructions for installing Passenger here:

    http://www.modrails.com/install.html

    And then add an entry in Apache that points to the path to that site, like so:

    <VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.mycook.com
    DocumentRoot /webapps/mycook/public
    <Directory /webapps/mycook/public>
        Allow from all
        Options -MultiViews
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

    http://www.modrails.com/documentation/Users%20guide%20Apache.html#_deploying_a_ruby_on_rails_application

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  4. Best Answer

    If you're on a recent version of Ubuntu, you'll want to write an Upstart script - as well as that introduction, /etc/init is full of examples.

    If you're on anything else, you'll want to create an init script - the redmine wiki has an example, specifically tailored for redmine.

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