ptns-common — All about Perl TetriNET Server

Re: [ptns-common] Zombie processes

[Kenji I. <ke...@oc...>]

Dieter D'Hoker wrote:
> On 9/5/06, Kenji Inoue <ke...@oc...> wrote:
> 
>> By the way, are you going to use cvs/subversion repository or just upload the
>> archive file of updated version?
> 
> I use SVN for most projects now, but don't know yet if I'll use the
> sourceforge servers, cause I'm not convinced yet about the stability
> and speed of it.

I think Subversion is as stable as cvs on sf.net (at least it is quite sure
for smallest projects such as PTS). I recommend Subversion if you use
version control system.

-- 
Kenji Inoue <ke...@oc...>,
Osaka Institute of Technology

Re: [ptns-common] Zombie processes

[Dieter D'H. <di...@dh...>]

On 9/5/06, Kenji Inoue <ke...@oc...> wrote:

> By the way, are you going to use cvs/subversion repository or just upload the
> archive file of updated version?

I use SVN for most projects now, but don't know yet if I'll use the
sourceforge servers, cause I'm not convinced yet about the stability
and speed of it.


Dieter D'Hoker

Re: [ptns-common] Zombie processes

[Kenji I. <ke...@oc...>]

# I'm resending this because I forgot to reply to the mailing list

Dieter D'Hoker wrote:
> On 9/2/06, Kenji Inoue <ke...@oc...> wrote:
>> I don't know whether FreeBSD and perl or signal handling on FreeBSD improved or
>> not, but as of 2006, I think it is better to use the commented-out code for the
>> default one. Linux is one that is majoring.
>>
>> Do you have any idea?
> 
> I was thinking of maybe moving the async DNS lookup to a worker
> thread(s) in a queueing system:
> 
> use threads;
> use threads::shared;
> use Thread::Queue;
> use Thread::Use;
> 
> when the server start u create x worker threads (the number of threads
> can be changed in the config so you can adjust it for the load you get
> on your server). We don't create a new thread with every request cause
> the overhead of creating ithreads in the mainloop is way to big. We
> use queues to request something to be done by the thread and shared
> vars to communicate.

It would be better. Maybe good to check which version of perl is required and
the modules used are standard modules or not.

> It's hard to find a good and solid system for nonlagging operations in
> a perl server that is crossplatform windows,linux,bsd. forking is
> efficient on linux, but on windows it uses the ithreads emulating
> anyhow, and ithreads makes a copy of all data to the new thread when
> they are being created resulting in a lot of overhead. And with a
> tetrinetserver it is very important IMHO that the server doesn't lag,
> not only the DNS lookups can cause that, but also the autosaving of
> the database (all reading/writing from/to disk).
> BTW, maybe switching to DBI for the database in stead of plain text
> would be a good idea to.

Have you checked how much time is consumed to write the files to the disk?
Adding to the lag, a lot of memory is used to store the profile data and so on
which most of it is not used for most time. These things may need further
consideration.

By the way, are you going to use cvs/subversion repository or just upload the
archive file of updated version?

-- 
Kenji Inoue <ke...@oc...>,
Osaka Institute of Technology

Re: [ptns-common] Zombie processes

[Dieter D'H. <di...@dh...>]

On 9/2/06, Kenji Inoue <ke...@oc...> wrote:
> I don't know whether FreeBSD and perl or signal handling on FreeBSD improved or
> not, but as of 2006, I think it is better to use the commented-out code for the
> default one. Linux is one that is majoring.
>
> Do you have any idea?

I was thinking of maybe moving the async DNS lookup to a worker
thread(s) in a queueing system:

use threads;
use threads::shared;
use Thread::Queue;
use Thread::Use;

when the server start u create x worker threads (the number of threads
can be changed in the config so you can adjust it for the load you get
on your server). We don't create a new thread with every request cause
the overhead of creating ithreads in the mainloop is way to big. We
use queues to request something to be done by the thread and shared
vars to communicate.

It's hard to find a good and solid system for nonlagging operations in
a perl server that is crossplatform windows,linux,bsd. forking is
efficient on linux, but on windows it uses the ithreads emulating
anyhow, and ithreads makes a copy of all data to the new thread when
they are being created resulting in a lot of overhead. And with a
tetrinetserver it is very important IMHO that the server doesn't lag,
not only the DNS lookups can cause that, but also the autosaving of
the database (all reading/writing from/to disk).
BTW, maybe switching to DBI for the database in stead of plain text
would be a good idea to.


Dieter D'Hoker

[ptns-common] Zombie processes

[Kenji I. <ke...@oc...>]

Hi,

Thank you for your introduction, Dieter. I'm pleased about it.

If you are going to update pts, I have one thing to say. The SigChld
function.

It is used to catch the dying signal of child process, which is invoked
to deal with the asynchronous DNS lookup. The default SigChld code is as
follows:

sub SigChld {
  waitpid(-1, &POSIX::WNOHANG);

  # The following code seems to output "Server v0.20 in malloc(): warning:
  # recursive call." and "Out of memory!" errors and immediately die on FreeBSD.
  # According to some web site, the FreeBSD malloc() does not support SIG
  # handlers. So we don't use this commnly used code.

  # 1 while waitpid(-1, &POSIX::WNOHANG) > 0;
}

I once used to use FreeBSD to host pts, but no more. It turned out that the code
above (not commented out one) produces zombie processes on a Linux. The
commented-out code does work thus I was using that one without any problem on
Linux.

I don't know whether FreeBSD and perl or signal handling on FreeBSD improved or
not, but as of 2006, I think it is better to use the commented-out code for the
default one. Linux is one that is majoring.

Do you have any idea?

Best regards,
Kenji

-- 
Kenji Inoue <ke...@oc...>,
Osaka Institute of Technology

[ptns-common] new developper for perl tetrinet server

[Dieter D'H. <web...@ne...>]

Hi,

As you all noticed development of the perl tetrinet server had stopped
over the past years. So i asked Kenji Inoue if i could take over the
project on sourceforge and do some updates, what he was happy do.
I've used the perl tetrinet server here and other perl tetrinet
programms Kenji made in the past to make some custom software:
server (tsrv.com), client and tetrinet bot. So i think ik can port
some of the improvements i made to this server, and release the other
software on sourceforge to. Offcourse all depends on what the users
want, so drop me a line if you want some special feature.

Dieter D'Hoker

[ptns-common] pts-0.20c has been released

[Kenji I. <de...@oc...>]

Released pts-0.20c today.

Fixed a bug related to security.
You should update if you use registered nick function.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=46493&release_id=94897

0.21  CURRENTLY WORKING
    - Fixed bug where users could have gained high authority level and
      got report messages when they had not done certifying yet.
    - Fixed bug where the time the game lasted, displayed on the game
      statistics, was incorrect when the game was stopped.
    - The ppm value during the game is now almost accurate, as same as
      the value after the game. Earlier version was inaccurate when it
      is during the game and there is UD value for the player.

---   Kenji Inoue / DEQ <de...@oc...>
http://www.necoware.com/~deq/

[ptns-common] pts-0.20 released

[INOUE K. <de...@oc...>]

Released pts-0.20.

Added imperfect detecting of cheat clients.
And some small changes.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=46493&release_id=91799

0.20  Tue May 28 23:13:03 JST 2002
    - Added ability to detect cheat programs such as TClone. If you
      turn on VerifyClient, there will be a verification test for every
      client on connecting. I have not tested GTetrinet client yet,
      so if that client cannot connect this server, please let me know.
    - The shebang line is now set to #!/usr/local/bin/perl as opposed
      to #!/usr/bin/perl.
    - Japanese system message file is no longer loaded in default.
    - Added or changed some error messages on connecting.
    - Banning of nickname now bans his/her profile nickname, not
      his/her real nickname which is visible for players.
    - Added /find command that searchs players on the server.
    - Some minor changes/bugfix.

---   INOUE Kenji / DEQ <de...@oc...>
http://www.necoware.com/~deq/

[ptns-common] pts-0.19 released

[DEQ <de...@oc...>]

Released pts-0.19.

Added Report system which consists of two part.
The one is existing logging system, and the other one is reporting online
players with a certain authority. 

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=46493

0.19  Sun Mar 17 06:15:47 JST 2002
    - Enhanced /help command. /helpop is now an alias for `help -o'.
    - Changed form of Format* messages and added SendCommandFormat().
    - /lmsg now leaves messages to specified nick's profile (nothing
      effects if you don't have an alias).
    - Added ability to unregister alias for /alias. Also it now reports.
    - Users cannot use a same profile at the same time. They'll get a
      `Nickname already exists on server!' error.
    - Added [Main] ReservedName to config file. Users cannot use the
      names for their nickname.
    - Added report system which is enhanced old logging system. Renamed
      [Log] section to [Report], also added/changed things related to
      the new feature. Some messages has been changed.
    - Fixed some bugs on the logging system, such as the server logged
      that a user gained authority when he/she had failed to get it.
    - Added ability to show average of ping time for /ping and /info.
    - Some minor changes/bugfix.

---   DEQ / INOUE Kenji <de...@oc...>
http://www.necoware.com/~deq/

[ptns-common] pts-0.18 released

[DEQ <de...@oc...>]

Released pts-0.18.
This is a more stable version of pts.

https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=46493&release_id=75653

0.18 Sat Feb 23 16:33:28 JST 2002
    - Includes some documents in the new directory `docs'.
    - Added [Main] AntiFlood, MessagePenalty and PenaltyPerSecond
      options to config file. Removed ANTIFLOOD, MESSAGEPENALTY and
      PENALTYPERSECOND options from pts.pl file.
    - Fixed bug where MAXMESSAGELENGTH did not work.
    - Changed code Time() to PTime(), and time() to Time().
    - Added /shutdown -c option that cancels shutdown request.
    - Enhanced /info command to show user's current session information
      by default. Old profile information is available by /info2.
    - Renamed [Command] WhoDisplayIP option to DisplayIP.
    - Added /lang command that changes language of server messages for
      each users. English (en) and Japanese (ja) are now supplied.
    - Added [Locale] section to config file. Removed MSGFILE option
      from pts.pl file.
    - Code related to Send() and Msg() has been changed.
    - Added directory `locale' which includes server message files.
      Moved msg.en there with renaming to en.msg. Also added ja.msg.
    - Added directory `util' which includes some extra programs. Moved
      encrypt.pl there, also some new scripts have been added.
    - Some minor changes/bugfix.

---   DEQ / INOUE Kenji <de...@oc...>
http://www.necoware.com/~deq/

[ptns-common] pts-0.17 released

[DEQ <de...@oc...>]

Released pts-0.17.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=46493&release_id=74827

0.17 Tue Feb 12 05:52:41 JST 2002
    - Added /alias command that registers a real nickname for an alias
      name.
    - Added /dstats command that displays current daily statistics.
    - Added a section name to secure and message files.
    - Fixed bug where /unban didn't work at all.
    - Fixed bug where /passwd didn't work at all.
    - Fixed bug where players were sometimes treated as who cleared no
      lines even if they had cleared some lines (not completely).
    - Includes v2.27 of Config::IniFiles module as opposed to v2.19.
    - Some minor changes/bugfix.

Also this is a test mail. :-)

---   DEQ / INOUE Kenji <de...@oc...>
http://www.necoware.com/~deq/