364 lines
12 KiB
Text
364 lines
12 KiB
Text
= Rack, a modular Ruby webserver interface
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Rack provides a minimal, modular and adaptable interface for developing
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web applications in Ruby. By wrapping HTTP requests and responses in
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the simplest way possible, it unifies and distills the API for web
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servers, web frameworks, and software in between (the so-called
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middleware) into a single method call.
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The exact details of this are described in the Rack specification,
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which all Rack applications should conform to.
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== Specification changes in this release
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With Rack 1.0, the Rack specification (found in SPEC) changed in the
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following backward-incompatible ways. This was done to properly
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support Ruby 1.9 and to deprecate some problematic techniques:
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* Rack::VERSION has been pushed to [1,0].
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* Header values must be Strings now, split on "\n".
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* rack.input must be rewindable and support reading into a buffer,
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wrap with Rack::RewindableInput if it isn't.
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* Content-Length can be missing, in this case chunked transfer
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encoding is used.
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* Bodies can now additionally respond to #to_path with a filename to
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be served.
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* String bodies are deprecated and will not work with Ruby 1.9, use an
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Array with a single String instead.
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* rack.session is now specified.
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== Supported web servers
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The included *handlers* connect all kinds of web servers to Rack:
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* Mongrel
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* EventedMongrel
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* SwiftipliedMongrel
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* WEBrick
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* FCGI
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* CGI
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* SCGI
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* LiteSpeed
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* Thin
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These web servers include Rack handlers in their distributions:
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* Ebb
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* Fuzed
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* Phusion Passenger (which is mod_rack for Apache and for nginx)
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* Unicorn
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Any valid Rack app will run the same on all these handlers, without
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changing anything.
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== Supported web frameworks
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The included *adapters* connect Rack with existing Ruby web frameworks:
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* Camping
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These frameworks include Rack adapters in their distributions:
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* Camping
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* Coset
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* Halcyon
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* Mack
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* Maveric
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* Merb
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* Racktools::SimpleApplication
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* Ramaze
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* Ruby on Rails
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* Rum
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* Sinatra
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* Sin
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* Vintage
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* Waves
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* Wee
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Current links to these projects can be found at
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http://wiki.ramaze.net/Home#other-frameworks
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== Available middleware
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Between the server and the framework, Rack can be customized to your
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applications needs using middleware, for example:
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* Rack::URLMap, to route to multiple applications inside the same process.
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* Rack::CommonLogger, for creating Apache-style logfiles.
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* Rack::ShowException, for catching unhandled exceptions and
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presenting them in a nice and helpful way with clickable backtrace.
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* Rack::File, for serving static files.
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* ...many others!
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All these components use the same interface, which is described in
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detail in the Rack specification. These optional components can be
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used in any way you wish.
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== Convenience
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If you want to develop outside of existing frameworks, implement your
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own ones, or develop middleware, Rack provides many helpers to create
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Rack applications quickly and without doing the same web stuff all
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over:
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* Rack::Request, which also provides query string parsing and
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multipart handling.
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* Rack::Response, for convenient generation of HTTP replies and
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cookie handling.
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* Rack::MockRequest and Rack::MockResponse for efficient and quick
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testing of Rack application without real HTTP round-trips.
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== rack-contrib
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The plethora of useful middleware created the need for a project that
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collects fresh Rack middleware. rack-contrib includes a variety of
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add-on components for Rack and it is easy to contribute new modules.
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* http://github.com/rack/rack-contrib
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== rackup
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rackup is a useful tool for running Rack applications, which uses the
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Rack::Builder DSL to configure middleware and build up applications
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easily.
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rackup automatically figures out the environment it is run in, and
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runs your application as FastCGI, CGI, or standalone with Mongrel or
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WEBrick---all from the same configuration.
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== Quick start
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Try the lobster!
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Either with the embedded WEBrick starter:
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ruby -Ilib lib/rack/lobster.rb
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Or with rackup:
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bin/rackup -Ilib example/lobster.ru
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By default, the lobster is found at http://localhost:9292.
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== Installing with RubyGems
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A Gem of Rack is available. You can install it with:
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gem install rack
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I also provide a local mirror of the gems (and development snapshots)
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at my site:
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gem install rack --source http://chneukirchen.org/releases/gems/
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== Running the tests
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Testing Rack requires the test/spec testing framework:
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gem install test-spec
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There are two rake-based test tasks:
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rake test tests all the fast tests (no Handlers or Adapters)
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rake fulltest runs all the tests
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The fast testsuite has no dependencies outside of the core Ruby
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installation and test-spec.
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To run the test suite completely, you need:
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* camping
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* fcgi
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* memcache-client
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* mongrel
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* ruby-openid
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* thin
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The full set of tests test FCGI access with lighttpd (on port
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9203) so you will need lighttpd installed as well as the FCGI
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libraries and the fcgi gem:
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Download and install lighttpd:
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http://www.lighttpd.net/download
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Installing the FCGI libraries:
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curl -O http://www.fastcgi.com/dist/fcgi-2.4.0.tar.gz
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tar xzvf fcgi-2.4.0.tar.gz
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cd fcgi-2.4.0
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./configure --prefix=/usr/local
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make
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sudo make install
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cd ..
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Installing the Ruby fcgi gem:
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gem install fcgi
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Furthermore, to test Memcache sessions, you need memcached (will be
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run on port 11211) and memcache-client installed.
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== History
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* March 3rd, 2007: First public release 0.1.
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* May 16th, 2007: Second public release 0.2.
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* HTTP Basic authentication.
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* Cookie Sessions.
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* Static file handler.
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* Improved Rack::Request.
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* Improved Rack::Response.
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* Added Rack::ShowStatus, for better default error messages.
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* Bug fixes in the Camping adapter.
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* Removed Rails adapter, was too alpha.
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* February 26th, 2008: Third public release 0.3.
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* LiteSpeed handler, by Adrian Madrid.
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* SCGI handler, by Jeremy Evans.
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* Pool sessions, by blink.
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* OpenID authentication, by blink.
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* :Port and :File options for opening FastCGI sockets, by blink.
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* Last-Modified HTTP header for Rack::File, by blink.
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* Rack::Builder#use now accepts blocks, by Corey Jewett.
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(See example/protectedlobster.ru)
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* HTTP status 201 can contain a Content-Type and a body now.
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* Many bugfixes, especially related to Cookie handling.
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* August 21st, 2008: Fourth public release 0.4.
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* New middleware, Rack::Deflater, by Christoffer Sawicki.
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* OpenID authentication now needs ruby-openid 2.
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* New Memcache sessions, by blink.
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* Explicit EventedMongrel handler, by Joshua Peek <josh@joshpeek.com>
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* Rack::Reloader is not loaded in rackup development mode.
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* rackup can daemonize with -D.
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* Many bugfixes, especially for pool sessions, URLMap, thread safety
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and tempfile handling.
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* Improved tests.
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* Rack moved to Git.
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* January 6th, 2009: Fifth public release 0.9.
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* Rack is now managed by the Rack Core Team.
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* Rack::Lint is stricter and follows the HTTP RFCs more closely.
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* Added ConditionalGet middleware.
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* Added ContentLength middleware.
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* Added Deflater middleware.
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* Added Head middleware.
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* Added MethodOverride middleware.
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* Rack::Mime now provides popular MIME-types and their extension.
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* Mongrel Header now streams.
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* Added Thin handler.
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* Official support for swiftiplied Mongrel.
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* Secure cookies.
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* Made HeaderHash case-preserving.
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* Many bugfixes and small improvements.
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* January 9th, 2009: Sixth public release 0.9.1.
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* Fix directory traversal exploits in Rack::File and Rack::Directory.
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* April 25th, 2009: Seventh public release 1.0.0.
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* SPEC change: Rack::VERSION has been pushed to [1,0].
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* SPEC change: header values must be Strings now, split on "\n".
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* SPEC change: Content-Length can be missing, in this case chunked transfer
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encoding is used.
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* SPEC change: rack.input must be rewindable and support reading into
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a buffer, wrap with Rack::RewindableInput if it isn't.
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* SPEC change: rack.session is now specified.
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* SPEC change: Bodies can now additionally respond to #to_path with
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a filename to be served.
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* NOTE: String bodies break in 1.9, use an Array consisting of a
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single String instead.
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* New middleware Rack::Lock.
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* New middleware Rack::ContentType.
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* Rack::Reloader has been rewritten.
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* Major update to Rack::Auth::OpenID.
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* Support for nested parameter parsing in Rack::Response.
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* Support for redirects in Rack::Response.
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* HttpOnly cookie support in Rack::Response.
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* The Rakefile has been rewritten.
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* Many bugfixes and small improvements.
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* October 18th, 2009: Eighth public release 1.0.1.
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* Bump remainder of rack.versions.
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* Support the pure Ruby FCGI implementation.
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* Fix for form names containing "=": split first then unescape components
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* Fixes the handling of the filename parameter with semicolons in names.
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* Add anchor to nested params parsing regexp to prevent stack overflows
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* Use more compatible gzip write api instead of "<<".
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* Make sure that Reloader doesn't break when executed via ruby -e
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* Make sure WEBrick respects the :Host option
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* Many Ruby 1.9 fixes.
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== Contact
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Please mail bugs, suggestions and patches to
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<mailto:rack-devel@googlegroups.com>.
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Mailing list archives are available at
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<http://groups.google.com/group/rack-devel>.
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There is a bug tracker at <http://rack.lighthouseapp.com/>.
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Git repository (send Git patches to the mailing list):
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* http://github.com/rack/rack
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* http://git.vuxu.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=rack.git
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You are also welcome to join the #rack channel on irc.freenode.net.
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== Thanks
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The Rack Core Team, consisting of
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* Christian Neukirchen (chneukirchen)
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* James Tucker (raggi)
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* Josh Peek (josh)
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* Michael Fellinger (manveru)
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* Ryan Tomayko (rtomayko)
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* Scytrin dai Kinthra (scytrin)
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would like to thank:
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* Adrian Madrid, for the LiteSpeed handler.
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* Christoffer Sawicki, for the first Rails adapter and Rack::Deflater.
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* Tim Fletcher, for the HTTP authentication code.
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* Luc Heinrich for the Cookie sessions, the static file handler and bugfixes.
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* Armin Ronacher, for the logo and racktools.
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* Aredridel, Ben Alpert, Dan Kubb, Daniel Roethlisberger, Matt Todd,
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Tom Robinson, Phil Hagelberg, and S. Brent Faulkner for bug fixing
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and other improvements.
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* Brian Candler, for Rack::ContentType.
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* Graham Batty, for improved handler loading.
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* Stephen Bannasch, for bug reports and documentation.
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* Gary Wright, for proposing a better Rack::Response interface.
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* Jonathan Buch, for improvements regarding Rack::Response.
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* Armin Röhrl, for tracking down bugs in the Cookie generator.
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* Alexander Kellett for testing the Gem and reviewing the announcement.
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* Marcus Rückert, for help with configuring and debugging lighttpd.
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* The WSGI team for the well-done and documented work they've done and
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Rack builds up on.
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* All bug reporters and patch contributers not mentioned above.
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== Copyright
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Copyright (C) 2007, 2008, 2009 Christian Neukirchen <http://purl.org/net/chneukirchen>
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Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
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of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to
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deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the
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rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or
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sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
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furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
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The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
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all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
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THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
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IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
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FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL
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THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER
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IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN
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CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
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== Links
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Rack:: <http://rack.rubyforge.org/>
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Rack's Rubyforge project:: <http://rubyforge.org/projects/rack>
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Official Rack repositories:: <http://github.com/rack>
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rack-devel mailing list:: <http://groups.google.com/group/rack-devel>
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Christian Neukirchen:: <http://chneukirchen.org/>
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