Commit ddea9406 authored by Sergey Lyubka's avatar Sergey Lyubka

Docs added

parent 292e43b4
# Mongoose Embedding Guide
Embedding Mongoose is done in two steps:
1. Copy
[mongoose.c](https://raw.github.com/cesanta/mongoose/master/mongoose.c) and
[mongoose.h](https://raw.github.com/cesanta/mongoose/master/mongoose.h)
to your application's source tree and include these two files in the build.
2. Somewhere in the application code, call `mg_start()` to start the server.
Pass configuration options and event handlers to `mg_start()`. Call
`mg_stop()` when server needs to be stopped.
Mongoose calls event handlers when certain events happen.
For example, when new request arrives, Mongoose calls `begin_request`
handler to let user handle the request. In the handler, user code
can get all information about the request -- parsed headers, etcetera.
Here is a list of well-commented embedding examples:
* [hello.c](https://github.com/cesanta/mongoose/blob/master/examples/hello.c)
This is the most basic "Hello, world!" example
* [post.c](https://github.com/cesanta/mongoose/blob/master/examples/post.c)
This example shows how to handle form submission
* [upload.c](https://github.com/cesanta/mongoose/blob/master/examples/upload.c)
This example shows how to handle file upload
* [websocket.c](https://github.com/cesanta/mongoose/blob/master/examples/websocket.c)
This example shows how to handle websocket requests
* [chat.c](https://github.com/cesanta/mongoose/blob/master/examples/chat.c), [main.js](https://github.com/cesanta/mongoose/blob/master/examples/html/main.js)
An example of web chat application, with cookie-based user authentication,
session support. All UI is done using static HTML/CSS. Interaction
with backed is done using AJAX.
# API Reference
## mg\_start()
struct mg_context *mg_start(const char **configuration_options
int (*event_handler_func)(struct mg_event *),
void *user_data);
Starts mongoose web server. This function starts a separate master thread,
which opens listening sockets, and `num_threads` worker threads, which are
used to handle incoming requests.
`options`: NULL terminated list of option_name, option_value pairs that
specify Mongoose configuration parameters.
`event_handler`: a function that will be called on specific events,
see description below.
`user_data`: Opaque pointer, used by application developer to store
global private data.
Return: web server context, or NULL on error.
Side-effects: on UNIX, `mg_start()` ignores `SIGPIPE` signals. If custom
processing is required `SIGPIPE`, signal handler must be set up
after calling `mg_start()`.
Important: Mongoose does not install `SIGCHLD` handler. If CGI is used,
`SIGCHLD` handler must be set up to reap CGI zombie processes.
## mg\_stop()
void mg_stop(struct mg_context *);
Stop the web server. This function blocks until all Mongoose
threads are stopped. Context pointer becomes invalid.
## Events triggered by Mongoose
Every time an event happens, such as new connection being made,
Mongoose calls user-specified event handler. Mongoose passes `struct mg_event`
structure to the event handler, which event handler can use to find any
information required to handle an event:
struct mg_event {
int type; // Event type
void *user_data; // User data pointer passed to mg_start()
void *conn_data; // Connection-specific, per-thread user data.
void *event_param; // Event-specific parameter
struct mg_connection *conn;
struct mg_request_info *request_info;
};
Below is a list of all events triggered by Mongoose:
### MG\_REQUEST\_BEGIN
Called when Mongoose has received and successfully parsed new HTTP request.
`request_info`
attribute of `struct mg_event` contains parsed HTTP request. Return value tells
mongoose what to do next. If event handler returns 0, that means that the
handler did not process the request, did not send any data to the client, and
expects Mongoose to continue processing the request. Returning non-zero
tells Mongoose to stop doing any processing, cause callback already sent
valid reply to the client.
### MG\_REQUEST\_END
Called when mongoose has finished processing the request.
Could be used to implement custom request logging, request execution time
profiling, etcetera. Return value is ignored by Mongoose.
### MG\_HTTP\_ERROR
Called when Mongoose is about to send HTTP error to the client.
`event_param` attribute contains integer HTTP error code, that could be
accessed like this:
`int status_code = (int) (long) event->event_param;`
If handler returns zero, then Mongoose proceeds with sending error to the
client, otherwise Mongoose will not send anything.
### MG\_EVENT\_LOG
Called when Mongoose wants to log an error message.
Normally, error messages are logged to the error log file. If handler
returns 0, mongoose will not log to the log file. `event_param` holds
a message to be logged:
`const char *message = (const char *) event->event_param;`
### MG\_THREAD\_BEGIN
Called when Mongoose starts a new thread. Handler will be executing
in the context of that new thread. It is used to perform any extra per-thread
initialization. Return value is ignored by Mongoose.
### MG\_THREAD\_END
Called when Mongoose is about to terminate a thread. Used to clean up
the state initialized by `MG_THREAD_BEGIN` handling. Return value is ignored.
## Embedding Examples
The common pattern is to handle `MG_REQUEST_BEGIN` and serve static files
from memory, and/or construct dynamic replies on the fly. Here is
my [embed.c](https://gist.github.com/valenok/4714740) gist
that shows how to easily any data can be embedded
directly into the executable. If such data needs to be encrypted, then
encrypted database or encryption dongles would be a better choice.
# Mongoose Build on Android
This is a small guide to help you run mongoose on Android. Currently it is
tested on the HTC Wildfire. If you have managed to run it on other devices
as well, please comment or drop an email in the mailing list.
Note : You dont need root access to run mongoose on Android.
- Clone Mongoose Git repo
- Download the Android NDK from [http://developer.android.com/tools/sdk/ndk/index.html](http://developer.android.com/tools/sdk/ndk/index.html)
- Run `/path-to-ndk/ndk-build -C /path-to-mongoose/build`
That should generate mongoose/lib/armeabi/mongoose
- Using the adb tool (you need to have Android SDK installed for that),
push the generated mongoose binary to `/data/local` folder on device.
- From adb shell, navigate to `/data/local` and execute `./mongoose`.
- To test if the server is running fine, visit your web-browser and
navigate to `http://127.0.0.1:8080` You should see the `Index of /` page.
![screenshot](https://a248.e.akamai.net/camo.github.com/b88428bf009a2b6141000937ab684e04cc8586af/687474703a2f2f692e696d6775722e636f6d2f62676f6b702e706e67)
Notes:
- `jni` stands for Java Native Interface. Read up on Android NDK if you want
to know how to interact with the native C functions of mongoose in Android
Java applications.
- TODO: A Java application that interacts with the native binary or a
shared library.
# Mongoose FAQ
### PHP doesn't work: getting empty page, or 'File not found' error
The reason for that is wrong paths to the interpreter. Remember that with PHP,
correct interpreter is `php-cgi.exe` (`php-cgi` on UNIX). Solution: specify
full path to the PHP interpreter, e.g.:
mongoose -cgi_interpreter /full/path/to/php-cgi
### Mongoose fails to start
If Mongoose exits immediately when run, this
usually indicates a syntax error in the configuration file
(named `mongoose.conf` by default) or the command-line arguments.
Syntax checking is omitted from Mongoose to keep its size low. However,
the Manual should be of help. Note: the syntax changes from time to time,
so updating the config file might be necessary after executable update.
### Embedding with OpenSSL on Windows might fail because of calling convention
To force Mongoose to use `__stdcall` convention, add `/Gz` compilation
flag to the Visual Studio project settings.
# Mongoose Internals
Mongoose is multithreaded web server. `mg_start()` function allocates
web server context (`struct mg_context`), which holds all information
about web server instance:
- configuration options. Note that mongoose makes internal copies of
passed options.
- SSL context, if any
- user-defined callbacks
- opened listening sockets
- a queue for accepted sockets
- mutexes and condition variables for inter-thread synchronization
When `mg_start()` returns, all initialization is quaranteed to be complete
(e.g. listening ports are opened, SSL is initialized, etc). `mg_start()` starts
two threads: a master thread, that accepts new connections, and several
worker threads, that process accepted connections. The number of worker threads
is configurable via `num_threads` configuration option. That number puts a
limit on number of simultaneous requests that can be handled by mongoose.
When master thread accepts new connection, a new accepted socket (described by
`struct socket`) it placed into the accepted sockets queue,
which has size of 20 (see [code](https://github.com/cesanta/mongoose/blob/3892e0199e6ca9613b160535d9d107ede09daa43/mongoose.c#L486)). Any idle worker thread
can grab accepted sockets from that queue. If all worker threads are busy,
master thread can accept and queue up to 20 more TCP connections,
filling up the queue.
In the attempt to queue next accepted connection, master thread blocks
until there is space in a queue. When master thread is blocked on a
full queue, TCP layer in OS can also queue incoming connection.
The number is limited by the `listen()` call parameter on listening socket,
which is `SOMAXCONN` in case of Mongoose, and depends on a platform.
Worker threads are running in an infinite loop, which in simplified form
looks something like this:
static void *worker_thread() {
while (consume_socket()) {
process_new_connection();
}
}
Function `consume_socket()` gets new accepted socket from the mongoose socket
queue, atomically removing it from the queue. If the queue is empty,
`consume_socket()` blocks and waits until new sockets are placed in a queue
by the master thread. `process_new_connection()` actually processes the
connection, i.e. reads the request, parses it, and performs appropriate action
depending on a parsed request.
Master thread uses `poll()` and `accept()` to accept new connections on
listening sockets. `poll()` is used to avoid `FD_SETSIZE` limitation of
`select()`. Since there are only a few listening sockets, there is no reason
to use hi-performance alternatives like `epoll()` or `kqueue()`. Worker
threads use blocking IO on accepted sockets for reading and writing data.
All accepted sockets have `SO_RCVTIMEO` and `SO_SNDTIMEO` socket options set
(controlled by `request_timeout_ms` mongoose option, 30 seconds default) which
specify read/write timeout on client connection.
# Mongoose Lua Server Pages
Pre-built Windows and Mac mongoose binaries have built-in Lua Server Pages
support. That means it is possible to write PHP-like scripts with mongoose,
using Lua programming language instead of PHP. Lua is known
for it's speed and small size. Mongoose uses Lua version 5.2.1, the
documentation for it can be found at
[Lua 5.2 reference manual](http://www.lua.org/manual/5.2/).
To create a Lua Page, make sure a file has `.lp` extension. For example,
let's say it is going to be `my_page.lp`. The contents of the file, just like
with PHP, is HTML with embedded Lua code. Lua code must be enclosed in
`<? ?>` blocks, and can appear anywhere on the page. For example, to
print current weekday name, one can write:
<p>
<span>Today is:</span>
<? mg.write(os.date("%A")) ?>
</p>
Note that this example uses function `mg.write()`, which prints data to the
web page. Using function `mg.write()` is the way to generate web content from
inside Lua code. In addition to `mg.write()`, all standard library functions
are accessible from the Lua code (please check reference manual for details),
and also information about the request is available in `mg.request_info` object,
like request method, all headers, etcetera. Please refer to
`struct mg_request_info` definition in
[mongoose.h](https://github.com/cesanta/mongoose/blob/master/mongoose.h)
to see what kind of information is present in `mg.request_info` object. Also,
[page.lp](https://github.com/cesanta/mongoose/blob/master/test/page.lp) and
[prime_numbers.lp](https://github.com/cesanta/mongoose/blob/master/examples/lua/prime_numbers.lp)
contains some example code that uses `request_info` and other functions(form submitting for example).
Mongoose exports the following to the Lua server page:
mg.read() -- reads a chunk from POST data, returns it as a string
mg.write(str) -- writes string to the client
mg.include(path) -- sources another Lua file
mg.redirect(uri) -- internal redirect to a given URI
mg.onerror(msg) -- error handler, can be overridden
mg.version -- a string that holds Mongoose version
mg.request_info -- a table with request information
-- Connect to the remote TCP server. This function is an implementation
-- of simple socket interface. It returns a socket object with three
-- methods: send, recv, close, which are synchronous (blocking).
-- connect() throws an exception on connection error.
connect(host, port, use_ssl)
-- Example of using connect() interface:
local host = 'code.google.com' -- IP address or domain name
local ok, sock = pcall(connect, host, 80, 1)
if ok then
sock:send('GET /p/mongoose/ HTTP/1.0\r\n' ..
'Host: ' .. host .. '\r\n\r\n')
local reply = sock:recv()
sock:close()
-- reply now contains the web page https://code.google.com/p/mongoose
end
**IMPORTANT: Mongoose does not send HTTP headers for Lua pages. Therefore,
every Lua Page must begin with HTTP reply line and headers**, like this:
<? print('HTTP/1.0 200 OK\r\nContent-Type: text/html\r\n\r\n') ?>
<html><body>
... the rest of the web page ...
To serve Lua Page, mongoose creates Lua context. That context is used for
all Lua blocks within the page. That means, all Lua blocks on the same page
share the same context. If one block defines a variable, for example, that
variable is visible in the block that follows.
This diff is collapsed.
# Mongoose SSL guide
SSL is a protocol that makes web communication secure. To enable SSL
in mongoose, 3 steps are required:
1. Valid certificate file must be created
2. `ssl_certificate` options must be set to contain path to the
certificate file.
3. `listening_ports` option must contain a port number with letter `s`
appended to it, which instructs Mongoose to use SSL for all connections
made to that port.
Below is the `mongoose.conf` file snippet for typical SSL setup:
document_root www_root # Serve files in www_root directory
listening_ports 80r,443s # Redirect all HTTP requests to HTTPS
ssl_certificate ssl_cert.pem # Location of certificate file
## How to create SSL certificate file
SSL certificate file is a text file that must contain at least two
sections:
1. A private key
2. A certificate
Both sections should be chunks of text in PEM format. When PEM file is
opened in a text editor, it looks like this:
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
MIIEogIBAAKCAQEAwONaLOP7EdegqjRuQKSDXzvHmFMZfBufjhELhNjo5KsL4ieH
hYN0Zii2yTb63jGxKY6gH1R/r9dL8kXaJmcZrfSa3AgywnteJWg=
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIDBjCCAe4CCQCX05m0b053QzANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQQFADBFMQswCQYDVQQGEwJB
SEGI4JSxV56lYg==
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
Two aforementioned sections are clearly seen. Typically, those section
are bigger then in the example shown. The text between the `BEGIN` and
`END` is the text representation of binary data, a private key and a
certificate. Therefore, in order to create a certificate file,
* private key must be converted to PEM format
* certificate must be converted to PEM format
* those two should be concatenated into a single file
If the certificate chain in used, a chain file also needs to be
converted into PEM format and appended to the certificate file.
## How SSL works
SSL is a protocol that can encrypt communication between two parties. If third
party observes all messages passed by, it would be very
hard for the third party (though not impossible) to decrypt the communication.
The idea is based on so-called public key encryption. Communicating parties
have two keys: a public key and a private key. A public key is advertised
to everybody, and it is contained in a certificate. A private key is kept
secret. Security algorithm works in a way that anybody can encrypt
a message using public key, and only private key can decrypt it.
This is why web server needs both private key and certificate: private key
is used to decrypt incoming messages, and certificate is used to tell the
public key to the other party. When communication starts, parties exchange
their public keys, and keep private keys to themselves. Man-in-the-middle
who observes the communication is unable to decrypt the messages cause
private keys are required for decryption.
Encryption algorithms are built on top of hard mathematical problem, which
makes it very expensive for man-in-the-middle to compute private keys.
For example, RSA algorithm is based on a mathematical problem of factorization.
It is easy to generate two very large prime numbers `P` and `Q` and make
a product `P * Q`. But given a product, it is very hard to recover these
two prime numbers - this is called factorization.
# Mongoose Usage Guide
Mongoose is small and easy to use web server. It is self-contained, and does
not require any external software to run.
On Windows, mongoose iconifies itself to the system tray icon when started.
Right-click on the icon pops up a menu, where it is possible to stop
mongoose, or configure it, or install it as Windows service. The easiest way
to share a folder on Windows is to copy `mongoose.exe` to a folder,
double-click the exe, and launch a browser at
[http://localhost:8080](http://localhost:8080). Note that 'localhost' should
be changed to a machine's name if a folder is accessed from other computer.
On UNIX and Mac, mongoose is a command line utility. Running `mongoose` in
terminal, optionally followed by configuration parameters
(`mongoose [OPTIONS]`) or configuration file name
(`mongoose [config_file_name]`) starts the
web server. Mongoose does not detach from terminal. Pressing `Ctrl-C` keys
would stop the server.
When started, mongoose first searches for the configuration file.
If configuration file is specified explicitly in the command line, i.e.
`mongoose path_to_config_file`, then specified configuration file is used.
Otherwise, mongoose would search for file `mongoose.conf` in the same directory
where binary is located, and use it. Configuration file can be absent.
Configuration file is a sequence of lines, each line containing
command line argument name and it's value. Empty lines, and lines beginning
with `#`, are ignored. Here is the example of `mongoose.conf` file:
document_root c:\www
listening_ports 8080,8043s
ssl_certificate c:\mongoose\ssl_cert.pem
When configuration file is processed, mongoose process command line arguments,
if they are specified. Command line arguments therefore can override
configuration file settings. Command line arguments must start with `-`.
For example, if `mongoose.conf` has line
`document_root /var/www`, and mongoose has been started as
`mongoose -document_root /etc`, then `/etc` directory will be served as
document root, because command line options take priority over
configuration file. Configuration options section below provide a good
overview of Mongoose features.
Note that configuration options on the command line must start with `-`,
but their names are the same as in the config file. All option names are
listed in the next section. Thus, the following two setups are equivalent:
# Using command line arguments
$ mongoose -listening_ports 1234 -document_root /var/www
# Using config file
$ cat mongoose.conf
listening_ports 1234
document_root /var/www
$ mongoose
Mongoose can also be used to modify `.htpasswd` passwords file:
mongoose -A <htpasswd_file> <realm> <user> <passwd>
Unlike other web servers, mongoose does not require CGI scripts be located in
a special directory. CGI scripts can be anywhere. CGI (and SSI) files are
recognized by the file name pattern. Mongoose uses shell-like glob
patterns. Pattern match starts at the beginning of the string, so essentially
patterns are prefix patterns. Syntax is as follows:
** Matches everything
* Matches everything but slash character, '/'
? Matches any character
$ Matches the end of the string
| Matches if pattern on the left side or the right side matches.
All other characters in the pattern match themselves. Examples:
**.cgi$ Any string that ends with .cgi
/foo Any string that begins with /foo
**a$|**b$ Any string that ends with a or b
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