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<h1>README</h1>
<table class="header-table">
<tr class="top-aligned-row">
<td><strong>Path:</strong></td>
<td>README
</td>
</tr>
<tr class="top-aligned-row">
<td><strong>Last Update:</strong></td>
<td>Fri Jan 09 17:31:18 +0100 2009</td>
</tr>
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<h1><a href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a>, a modular Ruby webserver interface</h1>
<p>
<a href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a> provides a minimal, modular and
adaptable interface for developing web applications in Ruby. By wrapping
HTTP requests and responses in the simplest way possible, it unifies and
distills the API for web servers, web frameworks, and software in between
(the so-called middleware) into a single method call.
</p>
<p>
The exact details of this are described in the <a
href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a> specification, which all <a
href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a> applications should conform to.
</p>
<h2>Supported web servers</h2>
<p>
The included <b>handlers</b> connect all kinds of web servers to <a
href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a>:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Mongrel
</li>
<li>EventedMongrel
</li>
<li>SwiftipliedMongrel
</li>
<li>WEBrick
</li>
<li>FCGI
</li>
<li>CGI
</li>
<li>SCGI
</li>
<li>LiteSpeed
</li>
<li>Thin
</li>
</ul>
<p>
These web servers include <a href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a> handlers
in their distributions:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Ebb
</li>
<li>Fuzed
</li>
<li>Phusion Passenger (which is mod_rack for Apache)
</li>
</ul>
<p>
Any valid <a href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a> app will run the same on
all these handlers, without changing anything.
</p>
<h2>Supported web frameworks</h2>
<p>
The included <b>adapters</b> connect <a
href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a> with existing Ruby web frameworks:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Camping
</li>
</ul>
<p>
These frameworks include <a href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a> adapters
in their distributions:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Coset
</li>
<li>Halcyon
</li>
<li>Mack
</li>
<li>Maveric
</li>
<li>Merb
</li>
<li>Racktools::SimpleApplication
</li>
<li>Ramaze
</li>
<li>Ruby on Rails
</li>
<li>Sinatra
</li>
<li>Sin
</li>
<li>Vintage
</li>
<li>Waves
</li>
</ul>
<p>
Current links to these projects can be found at <a
href="http://ramaze.net/#other-frameworks">ramaze.net/#other-frameworks</a>
</p>
<h2>Available middleware</h2>
<p>
Between the server and the framework, <a
href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a> can be customized to your applications
needs using middleware, for example:
</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="../classes/Rack/URLMap.html">Rack::URLMap</a>, to route to
multiple applications inside the same process.
</li>
<li><a href="../classes/Rack/CommonLogger.html">Rack::CommonLogger</a>, for
creating Apache-style logfiles.
</li>
<li>Rack::ShowException, for catching unhandled exceptions and presenting them
in a nice and helpful way with clickable backtrace.
</li>
<li><a href="../classes/Rack/File.html">Rack::File</a>, for serving static
files.
</li>
<li>…many others!
</li>
</ul>
<p>
All these components use the same interface, which is described in detail
in the <a href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a> specification. These
optional components can be used in any way you wish.
</p>
<h2>Convenience</h2>
<p>
If you want to develop outside of existing frameworks, implement your own
ones, or develop middleware, <a href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a>
provides many helpers to create <a href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a>
applications quickly and without doing the same web stuff all over:
</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="../classes/Rack/Request.html">Rack::Request</a>, which also
provides query string parsing and multipart handling.
</li>
<li><a href="../classes/Rack/Response.html">Rack::Response</a>, for convenient
generation of HTTP replies and cookie handling.
</li>
<li><a href="../classes/Rack/MockRequest.html">Rack::MockRequest</a> and <a
href="../classes/Rack/MockResponse.html">Rack::MockResponse</a> for
efficient and quick testing of <a href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a>
application without real HTTP round-trips.
</li>
</ul>
<h2>rack-contrib</h2>
<p>
The plethora of useful middleware created the need for a project that
collects fresh <a href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a> middleware.
rack-contrib includes a variety of add-on components for <a
href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a> and it is easy to contribute new
modules.
</p>
<ul>
<li><a
href="http://github.com/rack/rack-contrib">github.com/rack/rack-contrib</a>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>rackup</h2>
<p>
rackup is a useful tool for running <a href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a>
applications, which uses the <a
href="../classes/Rack/Builder.html">Rack::Builder</a> DSL to configure
middleware and build up applications easily.
</p>
<p>
rackup automatically figures out the environment it is run in, and runs
your application as FastCGI, CGI, or standalone with Mongrel or
WEBrick—all from the same configuration.
</p>
<h2>Quick start</h2>
<p>
Try the lobster!
</p>
<p>
Either with the embedded WEBrick starter:
</p>
<pre>
ruby -Ilib lib/rack/lobster.rb
</pre>
<p>
Or with rackup:
</p>
<pre>
bin/rackup -Ilib example/lobster.ru
</pre>
<p>
By default, the lobster is found at <a
href="http://localhost:9292">localhost:9292</a>.
</p>
<h2>Installing with RubyGems</h2>
<p>
A Gem of <a href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a> is available. You can
install it with:
</p>
<pre>
gem install rack
</pre>
<p>
I also provide a local mirror of the gems (and development snapshots) at my
site:
</p>
<pre>
gem install rack --source http://chneukirchen.org/releases/gems/
</pre>
<h2>Running the tests</h2>
<p>
Testing <a href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a> requires the test/spec
testing framework:
</p>
<pre>
gem install test-spec
</pre>
<p>
There are two rake-based test tasks:
</p>
<pre>
rake test tests all the fast tests (no Handlers or Adapters)
rake fulltest runs all the tests
</pre>
<p>
The fast testsuite has no dependencies outside of the core Ruby
installation and test-spec.
</p>
<p>
To run the test suite completely, you need:
</p>
<pre>
* camping
* mongrel
* fcgi
* ruby-openid
* memcache-client
</pre>
<p>
The full set of tests test FCGI access with lighttpd (on port 9203) so you
will need lighttpd installed as well as the FCGI libraries and the fcgi
gem:
</p>
<p>
Download and install lighttpd:
</p>
<pre>
http://www.lighttpd.net/download
</pre>
<p>
Installing the FCGI libraries:
</p>
<pre>
curl -O http://www.fastcgi.com/dist/fcgi-2.4.0.tar.gz
tar xzvf fcgi-2.4.0.tar.gz
cd fcgi-2.4.0
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make
sudo make install
cd ..
</pre>
<p>
Installing the Ruby fcgi gem:
</p>
<pre>
gem install fcgi
</pre>
<p>
Furthermore, to test Memcache sessions, you need memcached (will be run on
port 11211) and memcache-client installed.
</p>
<h2>History</h2>
<ul>
<li>March 3rd, 2007: First public release 0.1.
</li>
<li>May 16th, 2007: Second public release 0.2.
<ul>
<li>HTTP Basic authentication.
</li>
<li>Cookie Sessions.
</li>
<li>Static file handler.
</li>
<li>Improved <a href="../classes/Rack/Request.html">Rack::Request</a>.
</li>
<li>Improved <a href="../classes/Rack/Response.html">Rack::Response</a>.
</li>
<li>Added <a href="../classes/Rack/ShowStatus.html">Rack::ShowStatus</a>, for
better default error messages.
</li>
<li>Bug fixes in the Camping adapter.
</li>
<li>Removed Rails adapter, was too alpha.
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>February 26th, 2008: Third public release 0.3.
<ul>
<li>LiteSpeed handler, by Adrian Madrid.
</li>
<li>SCGI handler, by Jeremy Evans.
</li>
<li>Pool sessions, by blink.
</li>
<li>OpenID authentication, by blink.
</li>
<li>:Port and :File options for opening FastCGI sockets, by blink.
</li>
<li>Last-Modified HTTP header for <a
href="../classes/Rack/File.html">Rack::File</a>, by blink.
</li>
<li>Rack::Builder#use now accepts blocks, by Corey Jewett. (See
example/protectedlobster.ru)
</li>
<li>HTTP status 201 can contain a Content-Type and a body now.
</li>
<li>Many bugfixes, especially related to Cookie handling.
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>August 21st, 2008: Fourth public release 0.4.
<ul>
<li>New middleware, <a href="../classes/Rack/Deflater.html">Rack::Deflater</a>,
by Christoffer Sawicki.
</li>
<li>OpenID authentication now needs ruby-openid 2.
</li>
<li>New Memcache sessions, by blink.
</li>
<li>Explicit EventedMongrel handler, by Joshua Peek <josh@joshpeek.com>
</li>
<li><a href="../classes/Rack/Reloader.html">Rack::Reloader</a> is not loaded in
rackup development mode.
</li>
<li>rackup can daemonize with -D.
</li>
<li>Many bugfixes, especially for pool sessions, URLMap, thread safety and
tempfile handling.
</li>
<li>Improved tests.
</li>
<li><a href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a> moved to Git.
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>January 6th, 2009: Fifth public release 0.9.
<ul>
<li><a href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a> is now managed by the <a
href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a> Core Team.
</li>
<li><a href="../classes/Rack/Lint.html">Rack::Lint</a> is stricter and follows
the HTTP RFCs more closely.
</li>
<li>Added ConditionalGet middleware.
</li>
<li>Added ContentLength middleware.
</li>
<li>Added Deflater middleware.
</li>
<li>Added Head middleware.
</li>
<li>Added MethodOverride middleware.
</li>
<li><a href="../classes/Rack/Mime.html">Rack::Mime</a> now provides popular
MIME-types and their extension.
</li>
<li>Mongrel Header now streams.
</li>
<li>Added Thin handler.
</li>
<li>Official support for swiftiplied Mongrel.
</li>
<li>Secure cookies.
</li>
<li>Made HeaderHash case-preserving.
</li>
<li>Many bugfixes and small improvements.
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>January 9th, 2009: Sixth public release 0.9.1.
<ul>
<li>Fix directory traversal exploits in <a
href="../classes/Rack/File.html">Rack::File</a> and <a
href="../classes/Rack/Directory.html">Rack::Directory</a>.
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>Contact</h2>
<p>
Please mail bugs, suggestions and patches to <<a
href="mailto:rack-devel@googlegroups.com">rack-devel@googlegroups.com</a>>.
</p>
<p>
Mailing list archives are available at <<a
href="http://groups.google.com/group/rack-devel">groups.google.com/group/rack-devel</a>>.
</p>
<p>
There is a bug tracker at <<a
href="http://rack.lighthouseapp.com">rack.lighthouseapp.com</a>/>.
</p>
<p>
Git repository (patches rebased on master are most welcome):
</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://github.com/rack/rack">github.com/rack/rack</a>
</li>
<li><a
href="http://git.vuxu.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=rack.git">git.vuxu.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=rack.git</a>
</li>
</ul>
<p>
You are also welcome to join the rack channel on irc.freenode.net.
</p>
<h2>Thanks</h2>
<p>
The <a href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a> Core Team, consisting of
</p>
<ul>
<li>Christian Neukirchen (chneukirchen)
</li>
<li>James Tucker (raggi)
</li>
<li>Josh Peek (josh)
</li>
<li>Michael Fellinger (manveru)
</li>
<li>Ryan Tomayko (rtomayko)
</li>
<li>Scytrin dai Kinthra (scytrin)
</li>
</ul>
<p>
would like to thank:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Adrian Madrid, for the LiteSpeed handler.
</li>
<li>Christoffer Sawicki, for the first Rails adapter and <a
href="../classes/Rack/Deflater.html">Rack::Deflater</a>.
</li>
<li>Tim Fletcher, for the HTTP authentication code.
</li>
<li>Luc Heinrich for the Cookie sessions, the static file handler and bugfixes.
</li>
<li>Armin Ronacher, for the logo and racktools.
</li>
<li>Aredridel, Ben Alpert, Dan Kubb, Daniel Roethlisberger, Matt Todd, Tom
Robinson, and Phil Hagelberg for bug fixing and other improvements.
</li>
<li>Stephen Bannasch, for bug reports and documentation.
</li>
<li>Gary Wright, for proposing a better <a
href="../classes/Rack/Response.html">Rack::Response</a> interface.
</li>
<li>Jonathan Buch, for improvements regarding <a
href="../classes/Rack/Response.html">Rack::Response</a>.
</li>
<li>Armin Röhrl, for tracking down bugs in the Cookie generator.
</li>
<li>Alexander Kellett for testing the Gem and reviewing the announcement.
</li>
<li>Marcus Rückert, for help with configuring and debugging lighttpd.
</li>
<li>The WSGI team for the well-done and documented work they‘ve done and
<a href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a> builds up on.
</li>
<li>All bug reporters and patch contributers not mentioned above.
</li>
</ul>
<h2>Copyright</h2>
<p>
Copyright (C) 2007, 2008, 2009 Christian Neukirchen <<a
href="http://purl.org/net/chneukirchen">purl.org/net/chneukirchen</a>>
</p>
<p>
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction,
including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge,
publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the
following conditions:
</p>
<p>
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
</p>
<p>
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN
NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER
DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
</p>
<h2>Links</h2>
<table>
<tr><td valign="top"><a href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a>:</td><td><<a href="http://rack.rubyforge.org">rack.rubyforge.org</a>/>
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign="top"><a href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a>‘s Rubyforge project:</td><td><<a
href="http://rubyforge.org/projects/rack">rubyforge.org/projects/rack</a>>
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign="top">Official <a href="../classes/Rack.html">Rack</a> repositories:</td><td><<a href="http://github.com/rack">github.com/rack</a>>
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign="top">rack-devel mailing list:</td><td><<a
href="http://groups.google.com/group/rack-devel">groups.google.com/group/rack-devel</a>>
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign="top">Christian Neukirchen:</td><td><<a href="http://chneukirchen.org">chneukirchen.org</a>/>
</td></tr>
</table>
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