How to auto-restart cPanel Python app upon code changes?

[christopher.scott]

Hello,

I have installed a Python application using cPanels "Setup Python App" feature on a CloudLinux server.

Id like to have the app automatically reload whenever I make changes to the .py files in the application root folder. Of course, clicking the RESTART button always updates the .py files, but it would be better if I could skip this step and have it done automatically.

It seems that the app may in fact restart automatically on its own after some time period... maybe every hour? I say this because sometimes the .py files are reloaded even though I never restarted the application.

I have tried various solutions with no success.

For instance, I have added three new variables to the "Environment variables" section of the Python application editor:
Name: FLASK_APP Value: app.py
Name: FLASK_DEBUG Value: true
Name: FLASK_ENV Value: development

But, they have no effect. I also tried adding these environmental variables into the bin/activate file (eg: export FLASK_ENV="development" ) .

I did a search and only found this:

https://How to restart Passenger WSG... command line?

Is what I want to accomplish possible?

[egrechishkina]

Hello Chris,
Thank you for your question. There is no ready solution that would allow you to achieve what you want out of the box. I am not aware of any way you could make Passenger reload its workers when a code change is detected. It would involve one more component that would have been doing the actual detection.
However, there is a way to make Passenger reload workers much faster based on its configuration:

<IfModule mod_passenger.c>

PassengerMinInstances 0

PassengerPoolIdleTime 10

</IfModule>

So, if you create a file /etc/apache2/conf.d/passenger_custom.conf -> add the code above there -> restart httpd, it should make your changes pop up in production much faster.

[chrismeyers]

Hello Kate,

Unfortunately I am not allowed to modify the Passenger configuration because I am on a shared server.

[skhristich]

Hello Chris,
In this case, PassengerMinInstances can protect in .htaccess and it should work. Unfortunately, the second option is only available in server config
Thank you for contacting us.

[chrismeyers]

Hi Sergey,

Can you please tell me exactly what to put inside the .htaccess file and where this file should be located?

I tried appending Kates code block to the .htaccess file located inside my Application URL folder that cPanel generated (ie, the PassengerBaseURI directory). But now I receive an Error 500 Internal Server Error.

Thanks

[egrechishkina]

Hello Chris,
Unless you have root access, you will not be able to use this solution because PassengerPoolIdleTime can ONLY be added to server config, it cant go inside .htaccess.