Example of how to handle "ThinkingSphinx::SphinxError: index item_core: index not preread" type errors from Thinking Sphinx. As mentioned in http://groups.google.com/group/thinking-sphinx/browse_thread/thread/4854326d6c388da2

searcher.rb

class Searcher

  def search(query)
    with_retries do
      Item.search(query, populate: true)
    end
  end

  private

  MAX_ATTEMPTS = 5

  def with_retries
    attempt = 0
    begin
      yield
    rescue ThinkingSphinx::SphinxError
      # We over-eagerly rescue all Sphinx errors. But since we re-raise them
      # if they still fail after a few attempts, we don't hide anything.
      attempt += 1
      if attempt > MAX_ATTEMPTS
        raise
      else
        retry
      end
    end
  end

end

searcher_spec.rb

# encoding: utf-8
require 'spec_helper'

describe Searcher do

  # http://groups.google.com/group/thinking-sphinx/browse_thread/thread/4854326d6c388da2
  context 'handling "index not preread" errors gracefully', :sphinx do

    it "should populate early so failures can be handled by this class" do
      Searcher.new.search("Foo").should be_populated
    end

    it "should retry a number of times on failure" do
      attempt = 1
      ThinkingSphinx::Search.any_instance.stub(:error) {
        if attempt > 4
          nil  # No errors.
        else
          attempt += 1
          "index item_core: index not preread"
        end
      }

      item = Item.create!(description: "Foo Barson")
      index_sphinx  # Or however you do it.
      Searcher.new.search("Foo").map(&:id).should == [ item.id ]
    end

    it "should re-raise if the retries run out" do
      ThinkingSphinx::Search.any_instance.stub(:error).and_return("index item_core: index not preread")
      -> {
        Searcher.new.search("Foo").map(&:id)
      }.should raise_error(ThinkingSphinx::SphinxError)
    end
  end

end