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https://github.com/franzinc/aserve

AllegroServe, a web server written in Common Lisp
https://github.com/franzinc/aserve

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AllegroServe, a web server written in Common Lisp

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README 

        
# The AllegroServe Webserver



## Table of contents



* [Description](#description)

* [Author](#author)

* [Author comments](#author-comments)

* [Documentation](#documentation)

* [Platforms](#platforms)

* [Dependencies](#dependencies)

* [Installation](#installation)

* [Configuration](#configuration)

* [Licence](#license)

* [Notes](#notes)

* [Examples](#examples)

* [Open Source](#open-source)



## Description



AllegroServe has these components:



  * HTTP/1.1 compliant web server capable of serving static and dynamic pages.

  * HTML generation facility that seamlessly merges html tag printing with

    computation of dynamic content. The HTML generator matches perfectly with

    the HTML parser (which is in another project) to allow web pages to be read,

    modifed in Lisp and then regenerated.

  * HTTP client functions to access web sites and retrieve data.

  * Secure Socket Layer (SSL) for both the server and client.

  * Web Proxy facility with a local cache.

  * Comprehensive regression test suite that verifies the functionality of the

    client, server, proxy and SSL.

  * High performance for static and dynamic web page delivery.

  * Licensed under terms that ensure that it will always be open source and that

    encourages its use in commercial settings.

  * A publish function that builds a page from static and dynamic data and

    handles caching of the result.

  * Access control mechanisms for publishing directories that gives the

    webmaster the ability to specify which files and directories in the tree

    should be visible.

  * The ability to run external CGI programs.

  * An improved virtual hosting system that supports different logging and error

    streams for each virtual host.



We've recently added these features:



  * The ability to compress and inflate files on the fly.

  * Support for chunking and HTTP/1.1.

  * Security up through TLS 1.0 (SSL 3.1).



See [the latest Allegro CL Release

Notes](doc/aserve.md#release-notes)

for more information on AllegroServe changes.



## Author



John Foderaro, Franz Inc.



## Author comments



The server part of AllegroServe can be used either as a standalone web server or

a module loaded into an application to provide a user interface to the

application. AllegroServe's proxy ability allows it to run on the gateway

machine between a company's internal network and the internet. AllegroServe's

client functions allow Lisp programs to explore the web.



AllegroServe was also written and open sourced as a way to demonstrate network

programming in Allegro Common Lisp. AllegroServe was written according to a

certain coding standard to demonstrate how Lisp programs are more readable if

certain macros and special forms are avoided.



## Platforms



AllegroServe works on all versions of Allegro Common Lisp since 6.0.



## Dependencies



There are no dependences for AllegroServe. In order to run the allegroserve

test suite you'll need to have the tester module (available at

https://github.com/franzinc) loaded.



## Installation



### Start lisp

    

This should work in a lisp running in a :case-insensitive-upper or

**`:case-sensitive-lower`** mode, although we do most of our running and testing

in a **`:case-sensitive-lower`** lisp. The current case mode is the value of

**`excl:*current-case-mode*`**



### Load in the file load.cl 



    user(1):  :ld /load.cl



it will compile and and load all of AllegroServe, and it will load in the

examples file too.



### Start the server



    user(2):  (net.aserve:start :port 8000)



You can omit the port argument on Windows where any process can allocate port 80

(as long as it's unused).



### Try out the server



Go to a web browser and try `http://your-machine-name:8000/`. If the web

browser is on the same machine as AllegroServe is running you can use

`http://localhost:8000/` as well. Now that you've verified that it works,

you'll want to create an aserve.fasl that you can load into your application.



### Change lisp's current directory to the AllegroServe source



    user(3): :cd  

    

### Make a distribution



    user(4): (make-aserve.fasl)



Now you'll find aserve.fasl in the aserve source directory.



## Configuration



See the [`doc/aserve.md`](./doc/aserve.md) file that is part of this project for more

information on configuring AllegroServe.



## Documentation



For complete documentation see the contents of the doc directory, 

which is part of this project or visit the online version of the

[AllegroServe documentation](./doc/aserve.md).



### Quick Start Documentation



`cd` to the directory containing the distribution and start Allegro cl (or start

Allegro and use the toplevel `:cd` command to `cd` to the directory containing

the aserve).



#### Load `aserve.fasl`



    user(1): :ld aserve.fasl



#### Load the examples (either the compiled or source version)



    user(2): :ld examples/examples



#### start the webserver



    user(3):  (net.aserve:start :port 8010)



#### View in a browser



    http://localhost:8010/



#### Usage notes



 * The steps to load the examples and start the server are interchangeable.

 * If you're running on a PC (or running as root on Unix) you can allocate port

   80, so you don't have to specify a port when running the net.aserve:start

   function.

 * See the doc directory that is part of this project for more detailed usage

   documenation.



## License



The aserve source code is licensed under the terms of the [Lisp Lesser GNU

Public License](http://opensource.franz.com/preamble.html), known as the

LLGPL. The LLGPL consists of a preamble and the LGPL. Where these conflict, the

preamble takes precedence. This project is referenced in the preamble as the

LIBRARY.



## Notes



Webactions is a session-based framework for building web sites mixing static and

dynamic content that builds upon AllegroServe and is part of this project.



See the [`webactions/doc/webactions.md`](./webactions/doc/webactions.md)

file for more information.



For other links that may be of interest are:



 * [Portable AllegroServe](http://sourceforge.net/projects/portableaserve)

 * [Source to the if* macro](https://franz.com/~jkf/ifstar.txt)

 * [CL-HTTP](http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/cl-http/home-page.html)



## Examples and Information



See the [`doc/tutorial.md`](./doc/tutorial.md) file and the contents under the

examples directory that are part of this project for more examples on how to

work with AllegroServe.



## Franz Inc. Open Source Info

      

This project's homepage is https://github.com/franzinc/aserve. There is an

informal community support and development mailing list

[[email protected]](http://opensource.franz.com/mailinglist.html) for these

open source projects. We encourage you to take advantage by subscribing to the

list. Once you're subscribed, email to [email protected] with your

questions, comments, suggestions, and patches.