Re: Question about long-running web scripts
On Thu, 25 Oct 2012 08:53:11 -0400, David Hutto dwightdhu...@gmail.com wrote: OTOH, Python web scripts can be written as long-running scripts: In this case, what is the added-value of using FastCGI? Why can't the web server simply call the Python script directly, just like CGI? The server should call a the script, or script.sleep() There are also server options to setup when a script is run, other than a cron jo for php. Thanks. Does it mean that Python scripts that rely on either fcgi.py or WSGI really have some endless loop somewhere and will keep running once they're launched by FastCGI? -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Question about long-running web scripts
On Thu, 25 Oct 2012 14:24:16 +0100, Tim Golden m...@timgolden.me.uk wrote: But actually, I didn't mean one-shot scripts, where the Python interpreter + script must be loaded each time, but rather: If I leave a Python running in an endless loop, why not just use either CGI or some other basic way to call the script instead of FastCGI? In essence, you're describing FastCGI. A Python program (or, indeed, any program) which uses FastCGI runs continuously and waits for the incoming request on a TCP socket (instead of as a sys.stdin stream + env vars immediately after process startup). Thanks for the clarification. Since, unlike PHP, the Python interpreter is not available in a FastCGI-capable version, this explains why the www server must be told which specific Python script to run through FastCGI. The reason I ask for all this, is that I want to understand how things work under the hood before relying on a Python framework to handle the nitty-gritty. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Question about long-running web scripts
On 26/10/2012 10:58, Gilles wrote: On Thu, 25 Oct 2012 14:24:16 +0100, Tim Golden m...@timgolden.me.uk wrote: But actually, I didn't mean one-shot scripts, where the Python interpreter + script must be loaded each time, but rather: If I leave a Python running in an endless loop, why not just use either CGI or some other basic way to call the script instead of FastCGI? In essence, you're describing FastCGI. A Python program (or, indeed, any program) which uses FastCGI runs continuously and waits for the incoming request on a TCP socket (instead of as a sys.stdin stream + env vars immediately after process startup). Thanks for the clarification. Since, unlike PHP, the Python interpreter is not available in a FastCGI-capable version, this explains why the www server must be told which specific Python script to run through FastCGI. I think that this is the distinction you're making: PHP: mod_php (fastcgi mode) runs myscript.php Python: some python fcgi frontend.py runs myscript.py which is, essentially, true, not least because PHP and web apps are pretty much synonymous in many people's minds. Both ways: the only thing PHP does is web; the simplest route to a web app is PHP. Certainly there are Python equivalents (mod_python, mod_wsgi, etc.) which can run in effectively the same way as mod_php, and they could be configured to run an fcgi frontend script, I presume. There's always a certain confusion here because you can often one mechanisms (say, mod_wsgi) to act as another (say legacy one-shot CGI) and because some things are both mechanism and protocol and it's not always easy to tease the two apart. The reason I ask for all this, is that I want to understand how things work under the hood before relying on a Python framework to handle the nitty-gritty. Good scheme. TJG -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Question about long-running web scripts
On Fri, 26 Oct 2012 12:00:17 +0100, Tim Golden m...@timgolden.me.uk wrote: Certainly there are Python equivalents (mod_python, mod_wsgi, etc.) which can run in effectively the same way as mod_php, and they could be configured to run an fcgi frontend script, I presume. There's always a certain confusion here because you can often one mechanisms (say, mod_wsgi) to act as another (say legacy one-shot CGI) and because some things are both mechanism and protocol and it's not always easy to tease the two apart. Thanks again. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Question about long-running web scripts
Hello I'd like to check something about running Python web applications. Generally speaking, the reason scripts run faster when called through FastCGI or the mod_* modules, is because the interpreter is already up and running. But when running PHP scripts, this does nothing about fetching the file from disk, recompiling, rerunning it, and usually reconnecting to the database. OTOH, Python web scripts can be written as long-running scripts: In this case, what is the added-value of using FastCGI? Why can't the web server simply call the Python script directly, just like CGI? Thank you. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Question about long-running web scripts
On 25/10/2012 12:45, Gilles wrote: I'd like to check something about running Python web applications. Generally speaking, the reason scripts run faster when called through FastCGI or the mod_* modules, is because the interpreter is already up and running. But when running PHP scripts, this does nothing about fetching the file from disk, recompiling, rerunning it, and usually reconnecting to the database. OTOH, Python web scripts can be written as long-running scripts: In this case, what is the added-value of using FastCGI? Why can't the web server simply call the Python script directly, just like CGI? (Your question is a little confused at the end. I'm choosing to understand: why can't we just run Python one-shot, like CGI? The likely alternative meaning is: why can't the incoming request be routed to an already-running Python program -- which is not, of course, what CGI generally does. Hence my confusion). The answer is: it can. CGI is a protocol rather than anything else. In front of a CGI exchange is the browser (or some other web client). Behind it is some program which is capable of producing a valid HTTP response, including a Python program. It's perfectly possible to run a usable website against Python running one-shot. You won't get terrific performance out of it, but for a website which doesn't expect humungous amounts of traffic, it'll work fine. The amount of time it takes a half-decent, even shared, server to start up a Python process, connect to a database, pull stuff together, and send a response will likely not impact on an average user's experience. As long as too many of them don't try to do that at the same time. Exactly where the line is drawn will depend on your particular hosting solution, your assumed traffic, and your users' expectations as to responsiveness. TJG -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Question about long-running web scripts
On Thu, 25 Oct 2012 13:03:14 +0100, Tim Golden m...@timgolden.me.uk wrote: (Your question is a little confused at the end. I'm choosing to understand: why can't we just run Python one-shot, like CGI? The likely alternative meaning is: why can't the incoming request be routed to an already-running Python program -- which is not, of course, what CGI generally does. Hence my confusion). Yes indeed. Sorry about the confusion. But actually, I didn't mean one-shot scripts, where the Python interpreter + script must be loaded each time, but rather: If I leave a Python running in an endless loop, why not just use either CGI or some other basic way to call the script instead of FastCGI? In the case of PHP, FastCGI makes sense, but I don't see the benefit for long-running Python scripts. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Question about long-running web scripts
On Thu, Oct 25, 2012 at 8:03 AM, Tim Golden m...@timgolden.me.uk wrote: On 25/10/2012 12:45, Gilles wrote: I'd like to check something about running Python web applications. Generally speaking, the reason scripts run faster when called through FastCGI or the mod_* modules, is because the interpreter is already up and running. But when running PHP scripts, this does nothing about fetching the file from disk, recompiling, rerunning it, and usually reconnecting to the database. I'd say that is the same as py, unless it's a cron job to limit script iterations OTOH, Python web scripts can be written as long-running scripts: In this case, what is the added-value of using FastCGI? Why can't the web server simply call the Python script directly, just like CGI? The server should call a the script, or script.sleep() There are also server options to setup when a script is run, other than a cron jo for php. (Your question is a little confused at the end. I'm choosing to understand: why can't we just run Python one-shot, like CGI? The likely alternative meaning is: why can't the incoming request be routed to an already-running Python program -- which is not, of course, what CGI generally does. Hence my confusion). The answer is: it can. CGI is a protocol rather than anything else. In front of a CGI exchange is the browser (or some other web client). Behind it is some program which is capable of producing a valid HTTP response, including a Python program. It's perfectly possible to run a usable website against Python running one-shot. You won't get terrific performance out of it, but for a website which doesn't expect humungous amounts of traffic, it'll work fine. The amount of time it takes a half-decent, even shared, server to start up a Python process, connect to a database, pull stuff together, and send a response will likely not impact on an average user's experience. As long as too many of them don't try to do that at the same time. Exactly where the line is drawn will depend on your particular hosting solution, your assumed traffic, and your users' expectations as to responsiveness. TJG -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list -- Best Regards, David Hutto CEO: http://www.hitwebdevelopment.com -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Question about long-running web scripts
On 25/10/2012 13:40, Gilles wrote: On Thu, 25 Oct 2012 13:03:14 +0100, Tim Golden m...@timgolden.me.uk wrote: (Your question is a little confused at the end. I'm choosing to understand: why can't we just run Python one-shot, like CGI? The likely alternative meaning is: why can't the incoming request be routed to an already-running Python program -- which is not, of course, what CGI generally does. Hence my confusion). Yes indeed. Sorry about the confusion. But actually, I didn't mean one-shot scripts, where the Python interpreter + script must be loaded each time, but rather: If I leave a Python running in an endless loop, why not just use either CGI or some other basic way to call the script instead of FastCGI? In essence, you're describing FastCGI. A Python program (or, indeed, any program) which uses FastCGI runs continuously and waits for the incoming request on a TCP socket (instead of as a sys.stdin stream + env vars immediately after process startup). The key description is here: http://www.fastcgi.com/drupal/node/6?q=node/15 (The sections have no anchors; you're looking for the section titled 2. FastCGI Interface) TJG -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
