the Slave class forks a process and starts a drb server in the child using any object as the server. the process is detached so it is not required (nor possible) to wait on the child pid. a Heartbeat is set up between the parent and child processes so that the child will exit of the parent exits for any reason - preventing orphaned slaves from running indefinitely. the purpose of Slaves is to be able to easily set up a collection of objects communicating via drb protocols instead of having to use IPC.
typical usage:
obj = AnyClass::new slave = Slave::new obj p slave.object # handle on drb object p slave.uri # uri of the drb object p slave.socket # unix domain socket path for drb object p slave.psname # title shown in ps/top
other usage:
set the pulse_rate used for the Heartbeat
slave = Slave::new MyClass::new, 'pulse_rate' => 10
same
Slave::pulse_rate = 10 slave = Slave::new MyClass::new
same
ENV['SLAVE_PULSE_RATE'] = 10 slave = Slave::new MyClass::new
slaves may be configured via the environment, the Slave class, or via the ctor for object itself. attributes which may be configured include
- socket_creation_attempts
- pulse_rate
- psname
- debug