kallithea Changeset - 439792d55052

Changeset - 439792d55052

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Mads Kiilerich - 10 years ago 2015-08-20 17:29:55
madski@unity3d.com

docs: try to improve the web server overview page

Say more about the role of paster and reverse proxies and do not give any hints
that the combination should be a magic silver bullet.

1 file changed with 32 insertions and 18 deletions:

docs/overview.rst

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docs/overview.rst

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@@ @@ -74,55 +74,69 @@ installed. @@
 Web server
 ----------
 Kallithea is (primarily) a WSGI_ application that must be run from a web
 server that serves WSGI applications over HTTP.
 - Kallithea uses the Paste_ tool for some admin tasks. Paste provides ``paster
   serve`` as a convenient way to launch Python WSGI / web servers.
   This method is perfect for development but *can* also be used for production.
 Kallithea itself is not serving HTTP (or HTTPS); that is the web server's
 responsibility. Kallithea does however need to know its own user facing URL
 (protocol, address, port and path) for each HTTP request. Kallithea will
 usually use its own HTML/cookie based authentication but can also be configured
 to use web server authentication.
   ``paster`` is a command line tool. Using it in production requires some way to
   wrap it as a manageable service.
 There are several web server options:
   Paste come with its own web server but Kallithea defaults to use Waitress_.
   Gunicorn_ is also an option. These web servers have different limited feature
   sets.
 - Kallithea uses the Paste_ tool as command line interface. Paste provides
   ``paster serve`` as a convenient way to launch a Python WSGI / web server
   from the command line. That is perfect for development and evaluation.
   Actual use in production might have different requirements and need extra
   work to make it manageable as a scalable system service.
   It is also common/mandatory to put another web server or (reverse) proxy in
   front of these Python web servers. Nginx_ is a common choice. This simple
   setup will thus often end up being quite complex.
   Paste comes with its own built-in web server but Kallithea defaults to use
   Waitress_. Gunicorn_ is also an option. These web servers have different
   limited feature sets.
   The configuration of which web server to use is in the ini file passed to
   ``paster``. The entry point for the WSGI application is configured in
   ``setup.py`` as ``kallithea.config.middleware:make_app``.
   The web server used by ``paster`` is configured in the ``.ini`` file passed
   to it. The entry point for the WSGI application is configured
   in ``setup.py`` as ``kallithea.config.middleware:make_app``.
 - `Apache httpd`_ can serve WSGI applications directly using mod_wsgi_ and a
   simple Python file with the necessary configuration. This is a good option if
   Apache is an option.
 - uWSGI_ is also a full web server with built-in WSGI module.
 - IIS_ can also server WSGI applications directly using isapi-wsgi_.
 - UWSGI_ is also an option.
 - A `reverse HTTP proxy <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_proxy>`_
   can be put in front of another web server which has WSGI support.
   Such a layered setup can be complex but might in some cases be the right
   option, for example to standardize on one internet-facing web server, to add
   encryption or special authentication or for other security reasons, to
   provide caching of static files, or to provide load balancing or fail-over.
   Nginx_, Varnish_ and HAProxy_ are often used for this purpose, often in front
   of a ``paster`` server that somehow is wrapped as a service.
 The best option depends on what you are familiar with and the requirements for
 performance and stability. Also, keep in mind that Kallithea mainly is serving
 custom data generated from relatively slow Python process. Kallithea is also
 often used inside organizations with a limited amount of users and thus no
 dynamically generated pages from a relatively slow Python process. Kallithea is
 also often used inside organizations with a limited amount of users and thus no
 continuous hammering from the internet.
 .. _Python: http://www.python.org/
 .. _Gunicorn: http://gunicorn.org/
 .. _Waitress: http://waitress.readthedocs.org/en/latest/
 .. _virtualenv: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/virtualenv
 .. _Paste: http://pythonpaste.org/
 .. _PyPI: https://pypi.python.org/pypi
 .. _Apache httpd: http://httpd.apache.org/
 .. _mod_wsgi: https://code.google.com/p/modwsgi/
 .. _isapi-wsgi: https://github.com/hexdump42/isapi-wsgi
-.. _UWSGI: https://uwsgi-docs.readthedocs.org/en/latest/
+.. _uWSGI: https://uwsgi-docs.readthedocs.org/en/latest/
 .. _nginx: http://nginx.org/en/
 .. _iis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Information_Services
 .. _pip: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pip_%28package_manager%29
 .. _WSGI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Server_Gateway_Interface
 .. _pylons: http://www.pylonsproject.org/
 .. _HAProxy: http://www.haproxy.org/
 .. _Varnish: https://www.varnish-cache.org/

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