gem install forkpool
A library for managing forks
The mother process spawns a fork and opens an io from the child to the parent and vice versa.
If the mother process dies, the children commit suicide. They also accept HUP and INT calls and die then as well.
Used like so,
forkpool = Forkpool.start(num_of_childs, Logger)
forkpool.start do
sleep 10
puts "hey!!!"
end
The above code will continuously print "hey!!!". Once the child process has slept 10 seconds and printed "hey!!!" it will die and the mother process will start another to replace it.
You can start this in a thread if you'd like to have control back after spawning the children.
Thread.new do
forkpool.start do
...
end
end
If you have to change the number of max forks forkpool should spawn, it can be done
forkpool = Forkpool.start(num_of_childs, Logger)
forkpool.start do
forkpool.max_forks = new_num_of_childs
sleep 10
...do something...
end
You can also change the process name by doing the following:
f = Forkpool.new(20)
f.start do
$0 = "child process #{Time.now.to_i}"
...
end