Understanding delayed_job status

Question

I've implemented long-running tasks in my Rails app using delayed_job along with delayed_job_web. My delayed_job configuration instructs jobs to be attempted once, and for failures to be retained:

config/initializers/delayed_job.rb:

Delayed::Worker.max_attempts = 1
Delayed::Worker.destroy_failed_jobs = false

I tried 2 test jobs that automatically raised errors, in order to see how failures behave. What I get is the following:

My expectation was that Failed jobs would have a count of 2, but that Enqueued / Working / Pending would all be 0. I can't find any documentation on what determines whether a job is Enqueued / Working / Pending, or even what the difference between Working and Pending is (the web interface describes both lists as "contains jobs currently being processed".)

Can anyone provide some clarity?

Answer 1

If you check https://github.com/ejschmitt/delayed_job_web/blob/master/lib/delayed_job_web/application/app.rb , you see the following (starting line 114):

when :working
  'locked_at is not null'
when :failed
  'last_error is not null'
when :pending
  'attempts = 0'
end

1. Enqueued would be the total number of delayed jobs, i.e. Delayed::Job.count

2. Working jobs are those that have been locked by the delayed_job process and are currently being worked.

3. Failed are those that have a last_error

4. Pending are those jobs that have never been attempted.