Hello,
I'm a newbie to this, so I appreciate you patience and help. I'm trying to start mongrel running and not getting anywhere real fast.

I type the command to start:

mongrel_rails start -a IPAddress -e production -c /home/path -l log/mongrel.log -p 80 -d

The log shows it started fine:

from /home/path/config/../vendor/rails/railties/lib/initializer.rb:49:in `
send'
from /home/path/config/../vendor/rails/railties/lib/initializer.rb:49:in `
run'
from /home/path/config/environment.rb:64
from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `gem_original_require'
from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `require'
... 9 levels...
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5/bin/../lib/mongrel/command.rb:212:in `run'
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5/bin/mongrel_rails:281
from /usr/bin/mongrel_rails:19:in `load'
from /usr/bin/mongrel_rails:19

However, netstat doesn't show it running:

Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State PID/Program name
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:3306 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 4362/mysqld
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:22 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 4182/sshd
tcp6 0 0 :::11211 :::* LISTEN 4389/memcached
tcp6 0 0 :::22 :::* LISTEN 4182/sshd

But if I type ps aux | grep mongrel it does show it running, but I don't think on port 80:

root 4611 0.0 0.0 1848 236 hvc0 S+ 21:10 0:00 grep --colour=auto mongrel

Of course the website isn't reachable. I sure would appreciate some detailed pointers to figuring this out! Thanks

No, this only shows that the grep mongrel process (which you started as part of the ps command pipeline) is running. Either your mongrel server has exited or something has killed it off. Does it produce any log files? Those might have useful details.

Are you running mongrel as root? (You must be root to bind port numbers below 1024.)

Do you have anything else running on port 80, like Apache or nginx?

This is all the mongrel logs show:

from /home/path/config/../vendor/rails/railties/lib/initializer.rb:49:in `
send'
from /home/path/config/../vendor/rails/railties/lib/initializer.rb:49:in `
run'
from /home/path/config/environment.rb:64
from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `gem_original_require'
from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `require'
... 9 levels...
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5/bin/../lib/mongrel/command.rb:212:in `run'
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5/bin/mongrel_rails:281
from /usr/bin/mongrel_rails:19:in `load'
from /usr/bin/mongrel_rails:19

Is there a different log file I should look at?

It is running as root, or at least I'm logged in as root when I type the command to start it.

I'm not sure how to tell what else might be running on port 80. Is there a command I can type that will show everything running on port 80?

netstat -lpntu

will show you what's listening on your server, it'll output something like

netstat -lpntu
Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State       PID/Program name
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:80              0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      20394/nginx: worker

It's the local address you want to look at

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That's a ruby traceback. That means it did not start successfully; rather, it crashed on line 19 of /usr/bin/mongrel_rails.

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Here is the contents of mongrel_rails, but it doesn't have 19 lines:

li86-249 bin # tail mongrel_rails

version = ">= 0"

if ARGV.first =~ /^_(.*)_$/ and Gem::Version.correct? $1 then
version = $1
ARGV.shift
end

gem 'mongrel', version
load 'mongrel_rails'

mongrel certainly isn't listed here.

li86-249 bin # netstat -lpntu
Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State PID/Program name
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:3306 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 4362/mysqld
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:22 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 4182/sshd
tcp6 0 0 :::11211 :::* LISTEN 4389/memcached
tcp6 0 0 :::22 :::* LISTEN 4182/sshd
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:11211 0.0.0.0:* 4389/memcached

How many lines does it have? Which line number is that "load 'mongrel_rails'" on? Something tells me that's probably the culprit.

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Assuming that the initial blank line should be counted as line 1, then the load mongrel_rails command is line 10.

li86-249 bin # tail mongrel_rails
1)
2) version = ">= 0"
3)
4) if ARGV.first =~ /^_(.*)_$/ and Gem::Version.correct? $1 then
5) version = $1
6) ARGV.shift
7)end
8)
9)gem 'mongrel', version
10) load 'mongrel_rails'

'tail' only shows the last 10 lines of the file... try 'cat' or (for longer files) 'less'.

Sorry about that:

li84-37 bin # cat mongrel_rails
#!/usr/bin/ruby18
#
# This file was generated by RubyGems.
#
# The application 'mongrel' is installed as part of a gem, and
# this file is here to facilitate running it.
#

require 'rubygems'

version = ">= 0"

if ARGV.first =~ /^_(.*)_$/ and Gem::Version.correct? $1 then
version = $1
ARGV.shift
end

gem 'mongrel', version
load 'mongrel_rails'

Ah, so it is the load command that's failing. Based on the name of the file, is it trying to load itself? (I know almost nothing about Ruby.)

BTW, you can use cat -n file or nl -ba file to number lines on a printout, or less -N file for interactive viewing.

I've started mongrel_rails in the foreground and am able to see different messages than from reviewing the log:

** Starting Rails with production environment...
/home/cbws/relaystrategy_cbw/vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstrac
t/connection_specification.rb:217:in `establish_connection': production database is not configured (
ActiveRecord::AdapterNotSpecified)
from /home/cbws/relaystrategy_cbw/vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_ada
pters/abstract/connection_specification.rb:208:in `establish_connection'
from /home/cbws/relaystrategy_cbw/config/../vendor/rails/railties/lib/initializer.rb:234:in
`initialize_database'
from /home/cbws/relaystrategy_cbw/config/../vendor/rails/railties/lib/initializer.rb:94:in `
process'
from /home/cbws/relaystrategy_cbw/config/../vendor/rails/railties/lib/initializer.rb:49:in `
send'
from /home/cbws/relaystrategy_cbw/config/../vendor/rails/railties/lib/initializer.rb:49:in `
run'
from /home/cbws/relaystrategy_cbw/config/environment.rb:64
from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `gem_original_require'
from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `require'
... 9 levels...
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5/bin/../lib/mongrel/command.rb:212:in `run'
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.5/bin/mongrel_rails:281
from /usr/bin/mongrel_rails:19:in `load'
from /usr/bin/mongrel_rails:19


Does this help anybody?