varnishctl?

[Tollef Fog Heen]

]] Dridi Boukelmoune

> Hi,
> 
> On Mon, Jan 27, 2014 at 2:57 PM, Tollef Fog Heen
> <tfheen at varnish-software.com> wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > This got triggered by bug #1415 which asks for init scripts to be able
> > to verify you're not just breaking your cache on a restart.  I can see
> > the need for such a tool, but I think it should have a bit wider scope.
> >
> > Problems:
> >
> > - you don't want to restart Varnish when the configuration is
> >   obviously broken.
> >
> > - it should be possible to reload configurations without having to
> >   fiddle with vcl.load, vcl.use.  Coming up with new names is
> >   surprisingly annoying.
> >
> > - Duplication of logic between RH and Debian init scripts. Varnish
> >   should probably be able to read a parameter file in some reasonable
> >   format, which will also make the transition to non-sysvinit inits
> >   easier.
> >
> > Suggestion 1:
> >
> > Write something like to apachectl.  It knows how to run a config test,
> > start and stop the management process.  It makes it easy to run
> > multiple instances (something that's more important to apache than
> > us).  It's a bit like a distro-independent init script, but has custom
> > functions (configtest for instance)
> 
> I find the idea compelling, but I've had issues with apachectl.

Your problems seem to be "apachectl has bugs", and I wrote "something
like apachectl", meaning that we'll implement a different set of bugs.
:-)

> I really like the idea of a varnishctl that could be used downstream
> to build services on top of systemd, upstart etc. But I'd go for a
> simple pass-through command with simple sub-commands such as
> start/stop/restart/reload/configtest that would just add sugar such as
> "configtest on restart" and nothing more.

In the stack, I'd want to have the init scripts call varnishctl, not the
other way around.

> > Suggestion 2:
> >
> > Extend varnishadm to not only be able to talk to varnishd, but also
> > start and stop the management process, do a config test and so on.
> 
> Would that mean 3 processes in varnishd ?

No, that wasn't my intention.  What would the third one be?

-- 
Tollef Fog Heen
Technical lead | Varnish Software AS
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