etc: Use the send handler from dirplex.d in apache-compat.

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

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

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

SYNOPSIS
--------
*ashd-wsgi* [*-hA*] [*-p* 'MODPATH'] [*-l* 'LIMIT'] '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.

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.

*-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 .`".

*-l* 'LIMIT'::

	Allow at most 'LIMIT' requests to run concurrently. If a new
	request is made when 'LIMIT' requests are executing, the new
	request will wait up to ten seconds for one of them to
	complete; if none does, *ashd-wsgi* will assume that the
	process is foobar and *abort*(3).

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. 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.

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
  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/>