Apache SkyWalking – Ruby

Blog: SkyWalking Ruby Quick Start and Principle Introduction

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Background

Ruby is a dynamic, object-oriented programming language with concise and elegant syntax, supporting multiple programming paradigms, including object-oriented, functional, and metaprogramming. Leveraging its powerful metaprogramming capabilities, Ruby allows modifying the behavior of classes and objects at runtime. SkyWalking provides a Ruby gem to facilitate integration with Ruby projects, and this gem supports many out-of-the-box frameworks and gems.

This article is based on skywalking-ruby-v0.1. We will guide you on how to quickly integrate the skywalking-ruby project into Ruby projects and briefly introduce the implementation principle of SkyWalking Ruby’s auto-instrumentation plugins using redis-rb as an example.

The demonstration includes the following steps:

Deploy SkyWalking: This involves setting up the SkyWalking backend and UI programs to enable you to see the final results.
Integrate SkyWalking into Different Ruby Projects: This section explains how to integrate SkyWalking into different Ruby projects.
Application Deployment: You will export environment variables and deploy the application to facilitate communication between your service and the SkyWalking backend.
Visualization on SkyWalking UI: Finally, you will send requests and observe the results in the SkyWalking UI.

Deploy SkyWalking

Please download the SkyWalking APM program from the official SkyWalking website, and then you can start all the required services using the quick start script.

Next, you can access the address http://localhost:8080/. At this point, since no applications have been deployed, you will not see any data.

Integrate SkyWalking into Different Ruby Projects It is recommended to use Bundler to install and manage SkyWalking dependencies. Simply declare it in the Gemfile and run bundle install to complete the installation.

# Gemfile
source "https://rubygems.org"

gem "skywalking"

Integration in Rails Projects

For Rails projects, it is recommended to use the following command to automatically generate the configuration file:

bundle exec rails generate skywalking:start

This command will automatically generate a skywalking.rb file in the config/initializers directory, where you can configure the startup parameters.

Integration in Sinatra Projects

For Sinatra projects, you need to manually call Skywalking.start when the application starts. For example:

require 'sinatra'
require 'skywalking'

Skywalking.start

get '/sw' do
  "Hello SkyWalking!"
end

In the Gemfile, place skywalking after sinatra and use Bundler.require during initialization, or call require 'skywalking' after the sinatra gem is loaded. Note that the skywalking gem needs to be placed after other gems (such as redis, elasticsearch).

Application Deployment

Before starting the application deployment, you can change the service name of the current application in SkyWalking through environment variables. You can also modify its configuration, such as the server-side address. For more details, please refer to the documentation.

Here, we will change the current service name to sw-ruby.

Next, you can start the application. Here is an example using sinatra:

export SW_AGENT_SERVICE_NAME=sw-ruby

ruby sinatra.rb

Visualization on SkyWalking UI

Now, send requests to the application and observe the results in the SkyWalking UI.

After a few seconds, revisit the SkyWalking UI at http://localhost:8080. You will be able to see the deployed demo service on the homepage.

Additionally, on the tracing page, you can see the request you just sent.

Plugin Implementation Mechanism

To understand the implementation mechanism of Ruby Agent’s auto-instrumentation plugins, it is essential to understand the concept of the ancestor chain in Ruby. The ancestor chain is an ordered list, and in Ruby, each class or module has an ancestor chain that includes all its parent classes and mixin modules (modules mixed in via include, prepend, or extend). When Ruby looks up a method, it searches in the order of the ancestor chain until it finds the target method or throws a NoMethodError.

class User
end

We have defined a User class, and its ancestor chain is as shown in the following figure:

Next, mix in a module using the prepend method:

module Dapper
  def brave
    "Hello from brave"
  end
end

class User
  prepend Dapper
end

p User.new.brave # => "Hello from brave"

prepend will insert at position 1 in the above figure. Ruby first looks for the brave method in the Dapper module, finds it, and calls it. If the brave method is not found in Dapper, Ruby continues to search in the User class. If it is not found in the User class, Ruby continues to search in Object, and so on.

Based on this mechanism, let’s briefly introduce how we instrument the redis-rb method. The following code is the target method to be instrumented:

# lib/redis/client.rb
class Redis
  class Client < ::RedisClient
    def call_v(command, &block)
      super(command, &block)
    rescue ::RedisClient::Error => error
      Client.translate_error!(error)
    end
  end
end

Below is the core code for instrumentation:

module Skywalking
  module Plugins
    class Redis5 < PluginsManager::SWPlugin
      module Redis5Intercept
        def call_v(args, &block)
          operation = args[0] rescue "UNKNOWN"
          return super if operation == :auth

          Tracing::ContextManager.new_exit_span(
            operation: "Redis/#{operation.upcase}"
          ) do |span|
            # Omitted handling of span 
            super(args, &block) # Call the original method
          end
        end
      end

      def install
        ::Redis::Client.prepend Redis5Intercept
      end
    end
  end
end

Here, we define a Redis5Intercept module and prepend it to ::Redis::Client. According to Ruby’s method lookup mechanism, when the call_v method of Redis::Client is called, Ruby will first execute the call_v method in Redis5Intercept. The order of the ancestor chain is as follows:

Redis5Intercept -> Redis::Client -> ... (other parent classes and modules)

At the same time, in the call_v method of Redis5Intercept, super(args, &block) will find the next method with the same name along the ancestor chain, which in this case is the original call_v method in Redis::Client, while passing the original arguments and block.

Conclusion

This article explained the integration methods of SkyWalking Ruby in Ruby projects and briefly introduced the implementation mechanism of SkyWalking Ruby’s auto-instrumentation plugins.

Currently, the Ruby auto-instrumentation is in the early stages of development. In the future, we will continue to expand the functionality of SkyWalking Ruby and add support for more plugins. So, stay tuned!

Zh: SkyWalking Ruby 快速开始与原理介绍

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

背景

Ruby 是一种动态、面向对象的编程语言，它的语法简洁优雅，支持多种编程范式，包括面向对象、函数式和元编程。其中依靠强大的元编程能力，Ruby 允许在运行时修改类和对象的行为。 SkyWalking 提供了 Ruby gem，方便 Ruby 项目集成, 该 gem 支持许多开箱即用的框架和 gem。

本文基于 skywalking-ruby-v0.1，我们将指导你如何快速将 skywalking-ruby 项目集成到 Ruby 项目中，并以 redis-rb 为例，简要地介绍 SkyWalking Ruby 对插件自动探针的实现原理。

演示部分包括以下步骤：

部署 SkyWalking：这涉及设置 SkyWalking 后端和 UI 程序，使你能够看到最终效果。
为不同 Ruby 项目集成 skywalking：这里介绍了不同的 Ruby 项目如何集成 skywalking。
应用部署：你将导出环境变量并部署应用程序，以促进你的服务与 SkyWalking 后端之间的通信。
在 SkyWalking UI 上可视化：最后，你将发送请求并在 SkyWalking UI 中观察效果。

部署 SkyWalking

请从官方 SkyWalking 网站下载 SkyWalking APM 程序，然后可以根据快速启动脚本启动所有所需服务。

接下来，你可以访问地址 http://localhost:8080/ 。此时，由于尚未部署任何应用程序，因此你将看不到任何数据。

为不同 Ruby 项目集成 SkyWalking

推荐使用 Bundler 来安装和管理 skywalking 的依赖。只需在 Gemfile 中声明，然后运行 bundle install 即可完成安装。

# Gemfile
source "https://rubygems.org"

gem "skywalking"

在 Rails 项目中集成

对于 Rails 项目，推荐使用以下命令自动生成配置文件：

bundle exec rails generate skywalking:start

该命令会在 config/initializers 目录下自动生成 skywalking.rb 文件，你可以在其中配置启动参数。

在 Sinatra 项目中集成

对于 Sinatra 项目，你需要手动在应用启动时调用 Skywalking.start。例如：

require 'sinatra'
require 'skywalking'

Skywalking.start

get '/sw' do
  "Hello SkyWalking!"
end

在 Gemfile 中，将 skywalking 放在 sinatra 之后，并在初始化时使用 Bundler.require，或者在 sinatra gem 加载后调用 require ‘skywalking’。注意，skywalking gem 需要位于其他 gem（如 redis、elasticsearch）之后。

应用部署

在开始部署应用程序之前，你可以通过环境变量更改 SkyWalking 中当前应用程序的服务名称。你还可以更改其配置，例如服务器端的地址。有关详细信息，请参阅文档。

在这里，我们将当前服务的名称更改为 sw-ruby。

接下来，你可以启动应用程序，这里以 sinatra 作为示例：

export SW_AGENT_SERVICE_NAME=sw-ruby

ruby sinatra.rb

在 SkyWalking UI 上可视化

现在，向应用程序发送请求并在 SkyWalking UI 中观察结果。

几秒钟后，重新访问 http://localhost:8080 的 SkyWalking UI。能够在主页上看到部署的 demo 服务。

此外，在追踪页面上，可以看到刚刚发送的请求。

插件实现机制

要了解 Ruby Agent 对插件自动探针的实现机制，首先要了解 Ruby 中祖先链的概念。祖先链是一个有序的列表，在 Ruby 中，每个类或模块都有一个祖先链，它包含了一个类或模块的所有父类以及 mixin 模块（通过 include、prepend 或 extend 混入的模块）。 Ruby 在查找方法时，会按照祖先链的顺序依次查找，直到找到目标方法或抛出 NoMethodError。

class User
end

我们定义了一个 User 类，那么它的祖先链是如下图：

接下来用 prepend 方法混入一个模块：

module Dapper
  def brave
    "Hello from brave"
  end
end

class User
  prepend Dapper
end

p User.new.brave # => "Hello from brave"

prepend 会在上图 1 处进行插入，Ruby 首先在 Dapper 模块中查找 brave 方法，找到并调用，如果 Dapper 中没有 brave 方法， Ruby 会继续查找 User 类。如果 User 类中也没有，Ruby 会继续查找 Object，依此类推。

根据这样的机制，简单介绍下我们如何对 redis-rb 进行方法插桩，下面代码是要进行插桩的目标方法：

# lib/redis/client.rb
class Redis
  class Client < ::RedisClient
    def call_v(command, &block)
     super(command, &block)
    rescue ::RedisClient::Error => error
     Client.translate_error!(error)
    end
  end
end

下面是进行插桩的核心代码：

module Skywalking
  module Plugins
    class Redis5 < PluginsManager::SWPlugin
      module Redis5Intercept
        def call_v(args, &block)
          operation = args[0] rescue "UNKNOWN"
          return super if operation == :auth

          Tracing::ContextManager.new_exit_span(
            operation: "Redis/#{operation.upcase}"
          ) do |span|
            # 省略对 span 的处理 
            super(args, &block) # 调用原方法
          end
        end
      end

      def install
        ::Redis::Client.prepend Redis5Intercept
      end
    end
  end
end

这里我们定义了一个 Redis5Intercept 模块，并将其作为 ::Redis::Client 的前置模块，根据 Ruby 方法查找机制，当 Redis::Client 的 call_v 方法被调用时，Ruby 会首先会执行 Redis5Intercept 中的 call_v 方法，这里祖先链的顺序如下：

Redis5Intercept -> Redis::Client -> ...（其他父类和模块）

同时在 Redis5Intercept 中的 call_v 方法中，super(args, &block) 会沿着祖先链找到下一个同名方法，在这里也就是 Redis::Client 中的原始 call_v 方法，同时传递原始的参数和代码块。

总结

本文讲述了 Skywalking Ruby 在 Ruby 项目中的集成方法，并简要介绍了 SkyWalking Ruby 对插件自动探针的实现机制。

目前 Ruby 探针处于早期的开发阶段，未来我们将继续扩展 SkyWalking Ruby 的功能，添加更多插件支持。所以，请继续关注！