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Add further clarification about how concurrency controls work
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As brought up by @hms in #336.
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rosa committed Sep 11, 2024
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7 changes: 5 additions & 2 deletions README.md
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Expand Up @@ -256,6 +256,9 @@ class MyJob < ApplicationJob

When a job includes these controls, we'll ensure that, at most, the number of jobs (indicated as `to`) that yield the same `key` will be performed concurrently, and this guarantee will last for `duration` for each job enqueued. Note that there's no guarantee about _the order of execution_, only about jobs being performed at the same time (overlapping).

The concurrency limits use the concept of semaphores when enqueuing, and work as follows: when a job is enqueued, we check if it specifies concurrency controls. If it does, we check the semaphore for the computed concurrency key. If the semaphore is open, we claim it and we set the job as _ready_. Ready means it can be picked up by workers for execution. When the job finishes executing (be it successfully or unsuccesfully, resulting in a failed execution), we signal the semaphore and try to unblock the next job with the same key, if any. Unblocking the next job doesn't mean running that job right away, but moving it from _blocked_ to _ready_. Since something can happen that prevents the first job from releasing the semaphore and unblocking the next job (for example, someone pulling a plug in the machine where the worker is running), we have the `duration` as a failsafe. Jobs that have been blocked for more than duration are candidates to be released, but only as many of them as the concurrency rules allow, as each one would need to go through the semaphore dance check. This means that the `duration` is not really about the job that's enqueued or being run, it's about the jobs that are blocked waiting.


For example:
```ruby
class DeliverAnnouncementToContactJob < ApplicationJob
Expand All @@ -264,7 +267,7 @@ class DeliverAnnouncementToContactJob < ApplicationJob
def perform(contact)
# ...
```
Where `contact` and `account` are `ActiveRecord` records. In this case, we'll ensure that at most two jobs of the kind `DeliverAnnouncementToContact` for the same account will run concurrently. If, for any reason, one of those jobs takes longer than 5 minutes or doesn't release its concurrency lock within 5 minutes of acquiring it, a new job with the same key might gain the lock.
Where `contact` and `account` are `ActiveRecord` records. In this case, we'll ensure that at most two jobs of the kind `DeliverAnnouncementToContact` for the same account will run concurrently. If, for any reason, one of those jobs takes longer than 5 minutes or doesn't release its concurrency lock (signals the semaphore) within 5 minutes of acquiring it, a new job with the same key might gain the lock.

Let's see another example using `group`:

Expand All @@ -290,7 +293,7 @@ Note that the `duration` setting depends indirectly on the value for `concurrenc

Jobs are unblocked in order of priority but queue order is not taken into account for unblocking jobs. That means that if you have a group of jobs that share a concurrency group but are in different queues, or jobs of the same class that you enqueue in different queues, the queue order you set for a worker is not taken into account when unblocking blocked ones. The reason is that a job that runs unblocks the next one, and the job itself doesn't know about a particular worker's queue order (you could even have different workers with different queue orders), it can only know about priority. Once blocked jobs are unblocked and available for polling, they'll be picked up by a worker following its queue order.

Finally, failed jobs that are automatically or manually retried work in the same way as new jobs that get enqueued: they get in the queue for gaining the lock, and whenever they get it, they'll be run. It doesn't matter if they had gained the lock already in the past.
Finally, failed jobs that are automatically or manually retried work in the same way as new jobs that get enqueued: they get in the queue for getting an open semaphore, and whenever they get it, they'll be run. It doesn't matter if they had already gotten an open semaphore in the past.

## Failed jobs and retries

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