<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV>Hi Kevin:</DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On Jul 13, 2006, at 3:27 PM, Kevin Williams wrote:</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I'm curious what this means for mongrel_cluster. They appear to</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">overlap in features quite a bit. I don't think the spawner uses a</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">config, so that's one difference. Will they be different enough?</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>Great question. To be honest, spawner will be fine for many people. <DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Here are the main differences:<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>1. With spawner you can specify starting port, environment, and number of mongrels. That's it. If you need control over any of Mongrel's other billion start options, then you'll need mongrel_cluster. Of the options that don't overlap with fcgi options, "address", "script", "chdir" and "user" are really handy.<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>2. mongrel_cluster provides an init.d script for start on boot and the ability to start/stop/restart all applications with mongrel_cluster_ctl. Roll your own with spawner.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>3. mongrel_cluster provides Capistrano tasks for configuring your cluster and supporting #2 above. Roll your own with spawner (example in Cap manual).</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>4. mongrel_cluster views itself as one part of an entire application stack and thus tries to "blend in". It defaults to storing configuration files in '/etc' , using an init.d script, and providing control over the all the clusters on the server. It leans towards the "unix way" rather than the "rails way".</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>5. mongrel_cluster was born out of the need to easily configure and manage multiple rails applications on on a single server. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>These differences reflect the different needs of the authors. The extras that mongrel_cluster provides are not mandatory for using Mongrel in clustered way, but are useful in many deployments. For myself and most of my customers, mongrel_cluster won't be obsolete, because it does work for us that we would have to do ourselves if we switched spawner. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Thanks,</DIV><DIV>Bradley Taylor</DIV></DIV><BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); ">------</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); ">Rails Optimized Hosting ~ VPS and Dedicated Servers</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); ">Simplified Deployment ~ Services and Software</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); "><A href="http://railsmachine.com">http://railsmachine.com</A></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>