Reading / Writing from a Unix Socket in Ruby

Question

I'm trying to connect, read and write from a UNIX socket in Ruby. It is a stats socket used by haproxy.

My code is the following:

require 'socket'
socket = UNIXSocket.new("/tmp/haproxy.stats.socket")

# First attempt: works

socket.puts("show stat")

while(line = socket.gets) do
  puts line
end

# Second attemp: fails

socket.puts("show stat")

while(line = socket.gets) do
  puts line
end

It succeeds the first time, but on the second attempt fails. I'm not sure why.

# pxname,svname,qcur,qmax,scur,smax,slim,stot,bin,bout,dreq,dresp,ereq,econ,eresp,wretr,wredis,status,weight,act,bck,chkfail,chkdown,lastchg,downtime,qlimit,pid,iid,sid,throttle,lbtot,tracked,type,rate,rate_lim,rate_max,check_status,check_code,check_duration,hrsp_1xx,hrsp_2xx,hrsp_3xx,hrsp_4xx,hrsp_5xx,hrsp_other,hanafail,req_rate,req_rate_max,req_tot,cli_abrt,srv_abrt,
stats,FRONTEND,,,0,0,2000,0,0,0,0,0,0,,,,,OPEN,,,,,,,,,1,1,0,,,,0,0,0,0,,,,0,0,0,0,0,0,,0,0,0,,,
stats,BACKEND,0,0,0,0,2000,0,0,0,0,0,,0,0,0,0,UP,0,0,0,,0,22,0,,1,1,0,,0,,1,0,,0,,,,0,0,0,0,0,0,,,,,0,0,
legacy_socket,FRONTEND,,,0,0,1000,0,0,0,0,0,0,,,,,OPEN,,,,,,,,,1,2,0,,,,0,0,0,0,,,,0,0,0,0,0,0,,0,0,0,,,
all,FRONTEND,,,0,0,10000,0,0,0,0,0,0,,,,,OPEN,,,,,,,,,1,3,0,,,,0,0,0,0,,,,0,0,0,0,0,0,,0,0,0,,,
socket_backend,socket,0,0,0,0,200,0,0,0,,0,,0,0,0,0,DOWN,1,1,0,0,1,22,22,,1,4,1,,0,,2,0,,0,L4CON,,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,,,,0,0,
socket_backend,socket,0,0,0,0,200,0,0,0,,0,,0,0,0,0,DOWN,1,1,0,0,1,22,22,,1,4,2,,0,,2,0,,0,L4CON,,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,,,,0,0,
socket_backend,socket,0,0,0,0,200,0,0,0,,0,,0,0,0,0,DOWN,1,1,0,0,1,22,22,,1,4,3,,0,,2,0,,0,L4CON,,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,,,,0,0,
socket_backend,socket,0,0,0,0,200,0,0,0,,0,,0,0,0,0,DOWN,1,1,0,0,1,22,22,,1,4,4,,0,,2,0,,0,L4CON,,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,,,,0,0,
socket_backend,socket,0,0,0,0,200,0,0,0,,0,,0,0,0,0,DOWN,1,1,0,0,1,22,22,,1,4,5,,0,,2,0,,0,L4CON,,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,,,,0,0,
socket_backend,socket,0,0,0,0,200,0,0,0,,0,,0,0,0,0,DOWN,1,1,0,0,1,22,22,,1,4,6,,0,,2,0,,0,L4CON,,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,,,,0,0,
socket_backend,socket,0,0,0,0,200,0,0,0,,0,,0,0,0,0,DOWN,1,1,0,0,1,22,22,,1,4,7,,0,,2,0,,0,L4CON,,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,,,,0,0,
socket_backend,socket,0,0,0,0,200,0,0,0,,0,,0,0,0,0,DOWN,1,1,0,0,1,21,21,,1,4,8,,0,,2,0,,0,L4CON,,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,,,,0,0,
socket_backend,socket,0,0,0,0,200,0,0,0,,0,,0,0,0,0,DOWN,1,1,0,0,1,21,21,,1,4,9,,0,,2,0,,0,L4CON,,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,,,,0,0,
socket_backend,socket,0,0,0,0,200,0,0,0,,0,,0,0,0,0,DOWN,1,1,0,0,1,21,21,,1,4,10,,0,,2,0,,0,L4CON,,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,,,,0,0,
socket_backend,BACKEND,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,,0,0,0,0,DOWN,0,0,0,,1,21,21,,1,4,0,,0,,1,0,,0,,,,0,0,0,0,0,0,,,,,0,0,
api_backend,api,0,0,0,0,200,0,0,0,,0,,0,0,0,0,UP,1,1,0,0,0,22,0,,1,5,1,,0,,2,0,,0,L4OK,,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,,,,0,0,
api_backend,api,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,,0,,0,0,0,0,UP,1,1,0,0,0,22,0,,1,5,2,,0,,2,0,,0,L4OK,,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,,,,0,0,
api_backend,api,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,,0,,0,0,0,0,DOWN,1,1,0,0,1,21,21,,1,5,3,,0,,2,0,,0,L4CON,,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,,,,0,0,
api_backend,BACKEND,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,,0,0,0,0,UP,2,2,0,,0,22,0,,1,5,0,,0,,1,0,,0,,,,0,0,0,0,0,0,,,,,0,0,
www_backend,ruby-www,0,0,0,0,10000,0,0,0,,0,,0,0,0,0,UP,1,1,0,0,0,22,0,,1,6,1,,0,,2,0,,0,L4OK,,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,,,,0,0,
www_backend,BACKEND,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,,0,0,0,0,UP,1,1,0,,0,22,0,,1,6,0,,0,,1,0,,0,,,,0,0,0,0,0,0,,,,,0,0,

/Users/Olly/Desktop/haproxy_stats.rb:14:in `write': Broken pipe (Errno::EPIPE)
    from /Users/Olly/Desktop/haproxy_stats.rb:14:in `puts'
    from /Users/Olly/Desktop/haproxy_stats.rb:14

What is the problem? Is there a good reference to using UNIX sockets and Ruby?

score 14 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 19 '12 at 07:02

Olly,

HAproxy closes connection after the first request unless you use the "prompt" command (see http://haproxy.1wt.eu/download/1.4/doc/configuration.txt section 9.2) :

#!/usr/bin/env ruby                                                                                                                         

require 'socket'                                                                                                                            

socket = UNIXSocket.new("/tmp/haproxy.stats.socket")                                                                                            

# Goes interactive mode
socket.puts("prompt")                                                                                                                       

# Ask statistics every second                                                                                                                             
while true                                                                                                                                  
  socket.puts("show stat")                                                                                                                  
  socket.each_char do |c|
    # We had the prompt, break out                                                                                                   
    break if c == '>'                                                                                                                       
    print c                                                                                                                                 
  end                                                                                                                                       

  sleep 1                                                                                                                                   
end

mikej · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-02T18:32:28.353

6

Looks like the connection has been closed after the first request. I don't think you are doing anything wrong. The HAProxy stats socket is probably designed so that it responds to a single command and then closes the connection.

I think you need to reconnect for each request.

If you look at this blog post which is about using HAProxy stats socket with socat then this makes sense because you pipe the show stat command into socat and socat reads from the socket until it closes.

edited Jun 02 '10 at 18:32

answered Jun 02 '10 at 18:24

mikej

65,295
17
152
131

Thanks. Looks like I need to read up on how UNIX sockets work. I was expecting it to work like a TCPSocket that stayed open. – Olly Jun 03 '10 at 08:36
One of the things I don't get is when I use socat, then I ALWAYS get the results returned from the socket, however when I do this via the ruby code above, every now and then I don't get ANY data returned from HAproxy...so I have to run several times...some dodgy stuff in Ruby's socket implementation I guess. – milosgajdos Jan 20 '13 at 15:30

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 27 '15 at 02:00

I also encountered the same problem when use socket.puts, you can use socket.write instead of socket.puts to fix it.

#!/usr/bin/evn ruby
# -*- coding: UTF-8 -*-

require 'rubygems'
require 'uri'
require 'socket'
require 'yaml'

SOCKET = URI.parse("/var/run/haproxy/haproxy.sock")

def get_info
  UNIXSocket.open(SOCKET.path) do |socket|
    socket.write("show info;")
    info = YAML::load socket
    #info.each {|key, value| puts "#{key} ➤ #{value}"}
  end
end

puts get_info["Uptime_sec"]

Look this gem for more information, source code is here.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 01 '10 at 10:11

0

You can use man socket. You can use the socket-class just like you would if it was a C-function.

I found man-pages to be very useful.

answered Nov 01 '10 at 10:11

Dave

11

Reading / Writing from a Unix Socket in Ruby

4 Answers4