[Zope] Threading, dtml and performance?!

[Oliver Bleutgen]

> Sorry the Script might not do what it should. But that's not the important
> thing. Just select a script, that occupies Zope quite some time (e.g. long
> running <dtml-in>). The try to call another page on the site. Does ist
> appear?

> Below I've changed the script a little. It might work (sorry can't test
> because my home implementation of Zope isn't up & running yet).  Please
> start
> it in a Folder with manny Subfloders (big site).

Well, you also could use

<dtml-in "_.range(999)">
<dtml-in "_.range(999)">
<dtml-in "_.range(999)">
<dtml-in "_.range(999)">
X
</dtml-in>
</dtml-in>
</dtml-in>
</dtml-in>

Just for fun I tested this on a linux machine, with a result
which confuses me, here's what I did (Zope 2.3.3):

Lets call the above method "stopper", for brevity.
(-1.) Restart zope
0. Create stopper
1. Start top on a console.
2. start one stopper-thread by "view"ing it in a new window.
3. top shows one python thread at 99% CPU
4. try some "innocent" pages on this server, they work seamlessly
5. start another stopper-thread by "view"ing it again in a new window
6. top shows two python threads at 50% CPU

7. zope ceases answering any other request

8. stop the "downloading" of stopper created in step 2
9. zope works again, but top shows 2 CPU-consuming threads as before
10. press reload in the browser you stopped in step 8.
11. zope ceases to answer any requests, top shows 3 CPU-consuming threads
12. repeat 8, zope works again, the 3 threads remain
13. repeat 8 again, we now see 4 threads in zope, zope reaches the default
thread limit and won't answer until restarted or the threads stop.

Obvious questions:
What happens at 7.?
Why isn't it possible for zope to stop the processing when it looses
the connection?

I tested the same with a perl cpu-hogging cgi:

#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
for ($i;$i<10000;++$i){
    for($j;$j<10000000;++$j){$a=$a+sin $j}
        $b = sin $i*$a;
        print "$b <BR>";
};

This script runs plenty enough on the command line, but stops
after around 5s when I hit the stop button on the browser
when it's run as a cgi.
Heck I even pulled the network cable on the client after
zope ignored me closing all browsers - no effect, the
4 threads still run on (12min CPU per thread).

Bonus question: Why is there a limit on range? ;-)

cheers,
oliver