[R] how to run R as a daemon

[Marsland, John]

As far as I am aware NuSOAP is pure PHP and not based on Python.
The RSOAP server is based on Python. 
My understanding is that, if you want your R server to have some sort of
longevity and manage lots of competing incoming requests or possibly to keep
a session for one user over time, you will need to embed R into something
capable of doing this. It could be a queue of some description or a database
(there's an example using Postgres on the omegahat site) or a server of some
sort (RSOAP uses python here for the things R doesn't have). You could even
embed R in a PHP or an apache module, but as far as I am aware these don't
yet exist yet and would require a fair bit of programming.
R doesn't have an queue manager, but you could just leave R monitoring a
port or a stdin and just refuse requests while the R session is busy - you
run the risk of failing to satisfy some  of your web requests.

John Marsland

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Laurent Faisnel [mailto:laurent.faisnel at ariase.com]
> Sent: 19 May 2003 13:22
> To: Marsland, John
> Cc: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: Re: [R] how to run R as a daemon
> 
> 
> I  just visited the link you gave me. One of the problems that could 
> occur using NuSOAP is that I do not intend using Python. 
> Thanks anyway. 
> I would also like to ask more precise questions :
> - is it possible to run R as a standalone service, which runs in 
> background indefinitely, waiting for instructions ? This would be a 
> great improvement for me, since each time it is launched R has to 
> re-load a (constant) matrix generated thanks to a database connection 
> (takes a very long while)
> - my R script is object-oriented; I define classes and 
> methods, but I'm 
> not so sure about how methods should be declared; I usually write 
> something like :
> 
> mymethod <- function(.Object) UseMethod("mymethod",.Object);
> 
> setMethod("mymethod","myclass",
>         function(.Object)
>         {
>             # instructions
>             return(.Object);
>         }
>         );
> 
> Perhaps is this not the best way to write methods ? Could 
> this explain 
> the following fact : when I run the script, R spends about 1/3 of its 
> thinking time creating the generic functions linked with my methods. 
> Isn't this wasted time ? The same script may be executed many times 
> consecutively by different users, and each time R has to 
> re-define the 
> generic functions ! (are always the same)
> 
> I use R 1.6.2 on a Linux server (Red Hat - soon Debian)
> 
> Marsland, John wrote:
> 
> >Why not run R as a separate process using the RSOAP package.
> >You can then converse with R as a web service using the 
> NuSOAP PHP class as
> >described in the case of the Amazon example below:
> >http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/PHP/AmazonAPI/AmazonAPI1/page3.html
> >
> >John Marsland
> >
> >  
> >
> >>-----Original Message-----
> >>From: Laurent Faisnel [mailto:laurent.faisnel at ariase.com]
> >>Sent: 19 May 2003 11:43
> >>To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> >>Subject: [R] how to run R as a daemon
> >>
> >>
> >>Hi all,
> >>Using R a as a real-time application called by Php for a website, I 
> >>would like to run one R process only, which would manage user 
> >>connections. For the time each user who asks for an 
> analysis causes a 
> >>new R process to start, which is not suitable in prevision of many 
> >>users. R needs about 30 seconds to run the script which makes the 
> >>analysis. The problem is that this waiting time is n times more 
> >>important when n users ask for an analysis...
> >>Thanks for any help.
> >>
> >>Laurent
> >>
> >>______________________________________________
> >>R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> >>https://www.stat.math.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> >>
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >
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