Question

I’m attempting to run echoprint-codegen in a background process for analysing audio files as they’re uploaded to a web service.

The desired functionality exists with a simple system call to the tmp file that gets uploaded via paperclip:


result = `echoprint-codegen #{path} 0 20` # works!


Unfortunately, this is not the case when the delayed workers fire off a new job; the echoprint-codegen process appears to hang indefinitely.

Per the echoprint README, I’ve double checked that ffmpeg is also within the path (Paperclip.options[:command_path] is pointing to the correct path).

I’ve also attempted to encapsulate the echoprint-codegen command line in a Paperclip.run() call, but that also results in a hanging process.

Any pointers?

Answer 1

I have obtained desired functionality by placing the echoprint-codegen system call in a Ruby Thread:

thread = Thread.new { Thread.current[:result] = `echoprint-codegen #{path} 0 20` }
thread.join
result = thread[:result]