[Backgroundrb-devel] Intermittent "can't convert Float into Hash" and results.rb

[Bob Hutchison]

Hi,

This sounds a bit like the trouble in OS X where you'd get a Fixednum  
to String error. This was caused by a bug in the gcc 4.0 compiler.  
The solution on OS X is to re-compile Ruby with -O1 optimisation  
level or switch to the gcc 3.x compiler). As I understand it, with  
linux you have the additional option of installing a newer version of  
gcc 4.x and recompiling (I'm using 4.0.2 on one of my linux boxes and  
have never seen the problem).

Cheers,
Bob

On 4-Jan-07, at 11:44 AM, Robert Bjarnason wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'm using backgroundrb 0.2.1 in a production environment and for most
> parts I'm very happy.  We are using it to do some heavy video  
> editing on
> the server side and it works great except that under, what seems heavy
> load the below problem happens intermittently.
>
> The problem has only happened 5 times out of over 500 runs by our
> backgroundrb worker.
>
> This is the code in our worker:
>               logger.debug("info : progress: #{progress}")
>               progress_percent = progress * 100
>               if progress_percent >= 100
>                 results[:progress] = 99.99
>               else
>                 results[:progress] = progress_percent <-- Line of  
> the crash
>               end
>
> Here is the error:
> can't convert Float into Hash
>
> And the beginning of the stack trace:
> /.../ContentStore/vendor/plugins/backgroundrb/server/lib/ 
> backgroundrb/results.rb:40
> :in
> `merge!'/.../ContentStore/vendor/plugins/backgroundrb/server/lib/ 
> backgroundrb/results.rb:40
> :in `[]='/.../ContentStore/lib/workers/content_worker.rb:40
> :in `execute_mp4box'/.../ContentStore/lib/workers/content_worker.rb: 
> 22:
> in `execute_mp4box'/.../ContentStore/lib/workers/content_worker.rb:21
> :in `execute_mp4box'/.../ContentStore/lib/workers/content_worker.rb: 
> 181
> :in
> `do_work'/.../ContentStore/vendor/plugins/backgroundrb/server/lib/ 
> backgroundrb/worker.rb:55:
> ...
>
> The problem seems to happen only under heavy load where more than 1
> worker process is active at the same time.
>
> Any ideas or leads?
>
> Thanks,
> Robert Bjarnason
>
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