[DISPATCH-5] Execute a program when a message arrives addressed to a specific address

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Won't Fix
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Sean Gallagher
• Created: 30/Jan/14 18:19
• Updated: 22/May/14 20:39
• Resolved: 22/May/14 20:39

Description

Start a server (if not already running) when a message arrives at a pre-configured address.
Broadly similar in intent to xinetd or http CGI scripts.

My application has some large jobs that execute infrequently. It would be good if these could be run on demand rather than keeping a large process in memory that does nothing most of the time. Having the server restart when needed is also a good guard against resource leaks / selfish garbage collectors.

There doesn't seem to be a convenient way to do this at present but I'm thinking it might be added relatively easily to Dispatch Router and I suspect many would find it useful.

Working out locks / race conditions would be tricky but one simple idea I had would be to execute a user-supplied command line when a message arrives and then lockout further invocations for a configurable time period. This would give the new server time to startup and connect to Dispatch. Dispatch would not invoke the command if a link was available to deliver the message.

A section could be added to qpid-dispatch.conf to configure this. e.g.

on-demand

{ ## ## deliveries to this address will trigger the command if link does not already exist ## to: myserver/myservice ## ## command line to run ## run: myprogram ## ## delay after triggering the command before it may be retried (in response to a new delivery) ## lockout-interval: 60 }

This idea could be further developed in many directions, what I've put here is the basics.

Issue Links

• is cloned by: DISPATCH-698 Execute a program when a message arrives addressed to a specific adress