etc: Add environment option to run init.d/ashd silently.

[ashd.git] / python / doc / ashd-wsgi.doc

ashd-wsgi(1)
============

NAME
----
ashd-wsgi - WSGI adapter for ashd(7)

SYNOPSIS
--------
*ashd-wsgi* [*-hAL*] [*-m* 'PDM-SPEC'] [*-p* 'MODPATH'] [*-t* 'HANDLING-MODEL'] 'HANDLER-MODULE' ['ARGS'...]

DESCRIPTION
-----------

The *ashd-wsgi* handler translates *ashd*(7) requests to WSGI
requests, and passes them to a specified Python handler module. The
precise Python convention for doing so is described in the PROTOCOL
section, below.

*ashd-wsgi* is a persistent handler, as defined in *ashd*(7). It uses
multithreaded dispatching in a single Python interpreter, which means
that WSGI applications that use it need to be thread-safe, but that
they can also share all Python data structures and global variables
between requests. More precisely, *ashd-wsgi* implements a couple of
slightly different ways to handle requests and threads, which can be
configured using the *-t* option, as described in the REQUEST HANDLING
section, below.

The Python module that *ashd-wsgi* comes with also contains a standard
handler module, `ashd.wsgidir`, which serves individual WSGI
applications directly from the files in which they reside and as such
makes this program useful as a *dirplex*(1) handler. Please see its
Python documentation for further details.

*ashd-wsgi* requires the `ashd.proto` and `ashd.util` modules, which
are only available for CPython. If you want to use some other Python
implementation instead, you may want to use the *scgi-wsgi*(1) program
instead, along with *callscgi*(1).

OPTIONS
-------

*-h*::

	Print a brief help message to standard output and exit.

*-A*::

	Use the convention used by Apache's mod_wsgi module to find
	the WSGI application object. See the PROTOCOL section, below,
	for details.

*-L*::
	By default, *ashd-wsgi* sets up the Python logging with a
	logging format and for logging to standard error. The *-L*
	option suppresses that behavior, so that any handler module
	may set up logging itself.

*-p* 'MODPATH'::

	Prepend 'MODPATH' to Python's `sys.path`; can be given multiple
	times. Note that the working directory of *ashd-wsgi* is not
	on Python's module path by default, so if you want to use a
	module in that directory, you will need to specify "`-p .`".

*-t* 'HANDLING-MODEL'::

	Specify the way *ashd-wsgi* handles requests. See below, under
	REQUEST HANDLING.

*-m* 'PDM-SPEC'::

	If the PDM library is installed on the system, create a
	listening socket for connecting PDM clients according to
	'PDM-SPEC'.

PROTOCOL
--------

When starting, *ashd-wsgi* will attempt to import the module named by
'HANDLER-MODULE', look for an object named `wmain` in that module,
call that object passing the 'ARGS' (as Python strings) as positional
parameters, and use the returned object as the WSGI application
object. If the *-A* option was specified, it will look for an object
named `application` instead of `wmain`, and use that object directly
as the WSGI application object.

When calling the WSGI application, a new thread is started for each
request, in which the WSGI application object is called (but see
below, under REQUEST HANDLING, for details). All requests run in the
same interpreter, so it is guaranteed that data structures and global
variables can be shared between requests.

The WSGI environment is the standard CGI environment, including the
`SCRIPT_FILENAME` variable whenever the `X-Ash-File` header was
included in the request.

REQUEST HANDLING
----------------

*ashd-wsgi* can be configured to handle requests in various ways,
using the *-t* command-line option. The argument to the *-t* option
takes the form 'HANDLER'[*:*'PAR'[*=*'VAL'][(*,*'PAR'[*=*'VAL'])...]],
in order to specify the handler model, along with parameters to the
same (using the same syntax as the port specifications of
*htparser*(1)). The 'HANDLER' can be any of the following:

*free*[*:max=*'MAX-THREADS'*,timeout=*'TIMEOUT']::

	The *free* handler, which is the default, starts a new thread
	for every incoming request, which runs the whole request in
	its entirety, from running the WSGI handler function to
	sending the contents of the response iterator. Optionally,
	'MAX-THREADS' may be specified to an integer, in which case no
	more than that many request-handler threads will be allowed to
	run at any one time (by default, any number of threads are
	allowed to run, without limit). If further requests come in
	while 'MAX-THREADS' handlers are running, the request dispatch
	thread itself will block until one exits, making new requests
	queue up in the socket over which they arrive, eventually
	filling up its buffers if no threads exit, in turn making the
	parent handler either block or receive *EAGAIN* errors. Also,
	if 'MAX-THREADS' is specified, 'TIMEOUT' may also be
	specified, to tell the dispatcher thread to never block more
	than so many seconds for a handler thread to exit. If it is
	forced to wait longer than 'TIMEOUT' seconds, it will assume
	the whole process is somehow foobar and will *abort*(3).

*rplex*[*:max=*'MAX-THREADS']::

	The *rplex* handler starts a new thread for every incoming
	request, but unlike the *free* handler, only the WSGI handler
	function runs in that thread. Whenever any such thread, then,
	returns its response iterator, all such iterators will be
	passed to a single independent thread which sends their
	contents to the clients, multiplexing between them whenever
	their respective clients are ready to receive data. Like the
	*free* handler, a 'MAX-THREADS' argument may be given to
	specify how many handler threads are allowed to run at the
	same time. The main advantage, compared to the *free* handler,
	is that the *rplex* handler allows an arbitrary number of
	response iterators to run simultaneously without tying up
	handler threads, therefore not counting towards 'MAX-THREADS',
	which may be necessary for applications handling large
	files. However, it must be noted that no response iterators in
	the application may block on returning data, since that would
	also block all other running responses. Also, the *rplex*
	handler does not support the `write` function returned by
	`start_request`, according to the WSGI specification.

*single*::

	The *single* handler starts no threads at all, running all
	received requests directly in the main dispatch thread. It is
	probably not good for much except as the simplest possible
	example of a request handling model.

EXAMPLES
--------

The following *dirplex*(1) configuration can be used for serving WSGI
modules directly from the filesystem.

--------
child wsgidir
  exec ashd-wsgi ashd.wsgidir
match
  filename *.wsgi
  xset python-handler chain
  handler wsgidir
--------

Since *ashd-wsgi* is a persistent handler, it can be used directly as
a root handler for *htparser*(1). For instance, if the directory
`/srv/www/foo` contains a `wsgi.py` file, which declares a standard
WSGI `application` object, it can be served with the following
command:

--------
htparser plain:port=8080 -- ashd-wsgi -Ap /srv/www/foo wsgi
--------

AUTHOR
------
Fredrik Tolf <fredrik@dolda2000.com>

SEE ALSO
--------
*scgi-wsgi*(1), *ashd*(7), <http://wsgi.org/>