1 = Tips for using unicorn with Sandbox installation tools
3 Since unicorn includes executables and is usually used to start a Ruby
4 process, there are certain caveats to using it with tools that sandbox
5 RubyGems installations such as
6 {Bundler}[https://bundler.io/] or
7 {Isolate}[https://github.com/jbarnette/isolate].
11 If you're sandboxing your unicorn installation and using Capistrano (or
12 similar), it's required that you sandbox your RubyGems in a per-application
13 shared directory that can be used between different revisions.
15 unicorn will stash its original command-line at startup for the USR2
16 upgrades, and cleaning up old revisions will cause revision-specific
17 installations of unicorn to go missing and upgrades to fail. If you
18 find yourself in this situation and can't afford downtime, you can
19 override the existing unicorn executable path in the config file like
22 Unicorn::HttpServer::START_CTX[0] = "/some/path/to/bin/unicorn"
24 Then use HUP to reload, and then continue with the USR2+QUIT upgrade
27 Environment variable pollution when exec-ing a new process (with USR2)
28 is the primary issue with sandboxing tools such as Bundler and Isolate.
34 If you're bundling unicorn, use "bundle exec unicorn" (or "bundle exec
35 unicorn_rails") to start unicorn with the correct environment variables
37 ref: https://yhbt.net/unicorn-public/9ECF07C4-5216-47BE-961D-AFC0F0C82060@internetfamo.us/
39 Otherwise (if you choose to not sandbox your unicorn installation), we
40 expect the tips for Isolate (below) apply, too.
42 === RUBYOPT pollution from SIGUSR2 upgrades
44 This is no longer be an issue as of bundler 0.9.17
47 https://yhbt.net/unicorn-public/8FC34B23-5994-41CC-B5AF-7198EF06909E@tramchase.com/
49 === BUNDLE_GEMFILE for Capistrano users
51 You may need to set or reset the BUNDLE_GEMFILE environment variable in
54 before_exec do |server|
55 ENV["BUNDLE_GEMFILE"] = "/path/to/app/current/Gemfile"
58 === Other ENV pollution issues
60 If you're using an older Bundler version (0.9.x), you may need to set or
61 reset GEM_HOME, GEM_PATH and PATH environment variables in the
62 before_exec hook as illustrated by https://gist.github.com/534668
64 === Ruby 2.0.0 close-on-exec and SIGUSR2 incompatibility
66 Ruby 2.0.0 enforces FD_CLOEXEC on file descriptors by default. unicorn
67 has been prepared for this behavior since unicorn 4.1.0, and bundler
68 needs the "--keep-file-descriptors" option for "bundle exec":
69 https://bundler.io/man/bundle-exec.1.html
75 Installing "unicorn" as a system-wide Rubygem and using the
76 isolate gem may cause issues if you're using any of the bundled
77 application-level libraries in unicorn/app/* (for compatibility
78 with CGI-based applications, Rails <= 2.2.2, or ExecCgi).
79 For now workarounds include doing one of the following:
81 1. Isolating unicorn, setting GEM_HOME to your Isolate path,
82 and running the isolated version of unicorn. You *must* set
83 GEM_HOME before running your isolated unicorn install in this way.
85 2. Installing the same version of unicorn as a system-wide Rubygem
86 *and* isolating unicorn as well.
88 3. Explicitly setting RUBYLIB or $LOAD_PATH to include any gem path
89 where the unicorn gem is installed
90 (e.g. /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.3/gems/unicorn-VERSION/lib)
92 === RUBYOPT pollution from SIGUSR2 upgrades
94 If you are using Isolate, using Isolate 2.x is strongly recommended as
95 environment modifications are idempotent.
97 If you are stuck with 1.x versions of Isolate, it is recommended that
98 you disable it with the <tt>before_exec</tt> hook prevent the PATH and
99 RUBYOPT environment variable modifications from propagating between
100 upgrades in your Unicorn config file:
102 before_exec do |server|