Nginx on Unikernels; implications of running with "master_process off"

[Martin Lucina]

[Apologies for my previous completely unrelated message to this list, this
message originally got rejected by the list despite my being subscribed and
I must have pressed the 'b' key on the wrong message in my attempt to
re-send.]

Hi,

With the help of Samuel Martin's patches for cross-compiling [1], I have
managed to get Nginx running on Rump Kernel powered Unikernels on the Xen
hypervisor [2] [3].

Given that we don't have fork() or exec() I have to run Nginx with
"master_process off". The documentation states it should NEVER be be run in
this mode in production, however basic load tests (ab, siege) appear to run
fine.

Are there any non-obvious implications to running with "master_process
off"? Reading through the different ngx_..._process_cycle() functions
nothing obvious jumps out at me.

Thanks,

Martin

[1] http://git.buildroot.net/buildroot/tree/package/nginx
[2] http://repo.rumpkernel.org/rumprun-xen
[3] https://github.com/mato/rump-php