From: Jon Smirl <jonsmirl@...>
Date: 2006-01-21T03:00:24+09:00
Subject: Re: [ANN] Mongrel 0.1.0 -- A Fast As Hell Mostly Ruby Web Server

On 1/20/06, Zed Shaw <zedshaw@zedshaw.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> This is an announce for Mongrel, a mostly Ruby webserver.  I just
> started it as I was trying to work on solutions for people deploying
> Ruby web applications, and already it's pretty damn fast.    We're
> talking really really damn fast.  I mean like people won't believe me
> that it's this fast and I don't really believe it.

WEBrick does not implement application roles which are implemented on
both Lighttpd and Apache. It would be nice if any new servers
implemented this feature, it would make it easier to test/deploy
things without involving Apache.

http://www.fastcgi.com/devkit/doc/fastcgi-whitepaper/fastcgi.htm
    * Responder. This is the basic FastCGI role, and corresponds to
the simple functionality offered by CGI today.
    * Authorizer. The FastCGI program performs an access control
decision for the request (such as performing a username/password
database lookup).

The rubgy fcgi support only implements the responsder and authorizer
roles. Roles are not specific to FCGI for example Apache modules also
support them. Roles are very useful for protecting access to files,
like having to log in before being able to download a file.

Example lighttpd setup:
fastcgi.server = (
"/private" =>
  ( "localhost-d" =>
    ( "min-procs" => 1,
      "max-procs" => 1,
      "socket" => "log/fcgi.socket",
      "bin-path" => "public/dispatch.fcgi",
      "bin-environment" => ( "RAILS_ENV" => "development" ),
      "docroot" => "private",
      "mode" => "authorizer"
    )
  ),
".fcgi" =>
  ( "localhost-f" =>
    (
      "min-procs" => 1,
      "max-procs" => 1,
      "socket"    => "log/fcgi.socket",
      "bin-path"  => "public/dispatch.fcgi",
      "bin-environment" => ( "RAILS_ENV" => "development" ),
      "mode" => "responder"
    )
  )
)


--
Jon Smirl
jonsmirl@gmail.com