How to setup messages in Perl to be processed?

Question

What is the best way for a server to process messages in Perl?

I'm trying

while ( 1 ) {
  # Get Queue Messages
  # Do Work
  sleep( 10 );
}

My mysql schema is of the sort

create table message (
  id int auto_increment primary key,
  processed int,
  message varchar(100)
)

and in my "#Get Queue Messages", I do a request like

select * from message where processed = 0

and then flip the flag when it's done.

Is there a better way to do this?

Answer 1

Well, it depends on what these 'messages' are and how far you want to go. For a lot of circumstances, what you're doing is probably just fine.

If you're using this mechanism for a high volume of interprocess communication traffic between your server and its clients, though, you may be committing an instance of the 'database-as-IPC anti-pattern'. What's basically meant by that is that it's not a good thing to use a database for routine, high-volume message passing between processes.

If this message table is being used that way, you might want to look into doing a 'proper' IPC implementation. The Perl IPC man page has plenty of useful information for this.

Answer 2

It sounds to me like what you really want is a job queue, like Gearman or TheSchwartz.