[Ocamlnet-devel] New server type for web applications

[Gerd S. <in...@ge...>]

Hello list,

I recently developed a new server type for web applications that are
connected by the JServ protocol to the web server. This type 
(`Process_pool) starts a fixed number of worker processes that can
serve requests at the same time. The worker processes do neither fork
nor any other potentially expensive action whean they accept a request,
as they immediately begin processing the current request. Every worker
processes the requests it can get sequentially.

This server type is especially designed for highly loaded servers with
several CPUs.

The server model is the same as that of the Apache web server with the
exception that Apache can dynamically start and stop worker processes.
I have focused on the simpler version with a fixed number of processes
to get started with this type of servers.

To create such a server, call the function Netcgi_jserv_app.run with the
server type `Process_pool. The rest works like for the other types.
There is also an example, add_procpool.ml

This means we have now three JServ server types (and classic CGI). The
types are:
- `Sequential: A single process gets all requests sequentially
- `Forking: for every request a new subprocess is spawned
- `Process_pool: every request is forwarded to a free process from a
   pool of available servers
I have plans to develop a fourth type, `Thread_pool, that has a pool
of available worker threads instead of processes.

Gerd
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Gerd Stolpmann      Telefon: +49 6151 997705 (privat)
Viktoriastr. 45             
64293 Darmstadt     EMail:   ge...@ge...
Germany                     
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