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https://github.com/ido50/mccs

Fully-featured static file server
https://github.com/ido50/mccs

file-server http-server perl plack-app psgi static-site

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Fully-featured static file server

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README 

        
# NAME



mccs - Fully-featured static file server.



# SYNOPSIS



    $ mccs [OPTS] [DIR]



    # serve current working directory over HTTP, port 5000

    $ mccs



    # serve a directory on port 80 using Starman

    $ mccs -s Starman --listen :80 /some/directory



# DESCRIPTION



`mccs` is an HTTP static file server that can be used as a standalone

application, or as a [Plack](https://metacpan.org/pod/Plack) component.



## FEATURES



- Automatic, durable compression of files based on client support.

- Automatic minification of CSS and JavaScript files.

- Content negotiation including proper setting and handling of

cache-related headers.

- Optional virtual-hosts mode for serving multiple websites.

- Flexible deployment with support for various HTTP servers, FastCGI

servers, UNIX domain sockets, and more.



`mccs` aims for reducing CPU load by retaining minified and compressed

representations of files until they are no longer valid. It does not recompress

on every request.



For information on how to use `mccs` as a library or embedded in [Plack](https://metacpan.org/pod/Plack)

applications, see [Plack::App::MCCS](https://metacpan.org/pod/Plack%3A%3AApp%3A%3AMCCS) and [Plack::Middleware::MCCS](https://metacpan.org/pod/Plack%3A%3AMiddleware%3A%3AMCCS).



# ARGUMENTS



DIR



    The directory to serve files from. Defaults to the current working

    directory.



# OPTIONS



- --minify/--nominify



    Whether to minify CSS/JS files automatically. By default, `--minify` is on.



- --compress/--nocompress



    Whether to compress files automatically. By default, `--compress` is on.



- --etag/--noetag



    Whether to calculate ETag values for files and support `If-None-Match` headers.

    By default, `--etag` is on.



- --vhost-mode



    Enables virtual hosts mode, which allows serving multiple websites based on the

    HTTP Host header (HTTP/1.0 requests will not be supported in this mode). When

    enabled, the directory being served must contain subdirectories named after

    each host/domain to be served.



- --ignore-file



    Accepts a path to a file in the [Gitignore](https://git-scm.com/docs/gitignore)

    format. Any request that matches a rule in this file will result in a 404 Not

    Found response. Defaults to .mccsignore in the root directory. In vhost mode,

    every host can have its own ignore file, and there can also one global file for

    all hosts. Both the host-specific file and the global file will be used if they

    exist.



- -s, --server, the `PLACK_SERVER` environment variable



    Selects a specific server implementation to run on. When provided, the `-s` or

    `--server` flag will be preferred over the environment variable.



    If no option is given, `mccs` will try to detect the _best_ server

    implementation based on the environment variables as well as modules loaded by

    your application in `%INC`. See [Plack::Loader](https://metacpan.org/pod/Plack%3A%3ALoader) for details.



- -S, --socket



    Listens on a UNIX domain socket path. Defaults to undef. This option is only

    valid for servers which support UNIX sockets.



- -l, --listen



    Listens on one or more addresses, whether "HOST:PORT", ":PORT", or "PATH"

    (without colons). You may use this option multiple times to listen on multiple

    addresses, but the server will decide whether it supports multiple interfaces.



- -D, --daemonize



    Makes the process run in the background. It's up to the backend server/handler

    implementation whether this option is respected or not.



- --access-log



    Specifies the pathname of a file where the access log should be written.  By

    default, in the development environment access logs will go to STDERR.



Note that `mccs` is an extension of [plackup](https://metacpan.org/pod/plackup), and accepts all the flags

and options supported by it, but not all make sense in the context of `mccs`

usage. It is recommended to use an HTTP server such as [Twiggy](https://metacpan.org/pod/Twiggy) or [Starman](https://metacpan.org/pod/Starman)

in a production setting. Other options that starts with "--" are passed through

to the backend server. See each [Plack::Handler](https://metacpan.org/pod/Plack%3A%3AHandler) backend's documentation for

more details on their available options.



# HOW DOES IT WORK?



When a request is accepted by the server, the following process is initiated:



- 1. Discovery:



    `mccs` attempts to find the requested path in the root directory. If the

    path is not found, `404 Not Found` is returned. If the path exists but

    is a directory, `403 Forbidden` is returned (directory listings are currently

    not supported).



- 2. Examination:



    `mccs` will try to find the content type of the file, either by its extension

    (relying on [Plack::MIME](https://metacpan.org/pod/Plack%3A%3AMIME) for that), or by a specific setting provided

    to the app by the user (will take precedence). If not found (or file has

    no extension), `text/plain` is assumed (which means you should give your

    files proper extensions if possible).



    `mccs` will also determine for how long to allow clients (whether browsers,

    proxy caches, etc.) to cache the file. By default, it will set a representation

    as valid for 86400 seconds (i.e. one day). However, this can be changed either

    by setting a different global validity interval, or by setting a specific value

    for certain file types.



    By default, `mccs` also sets the `public` option for the `Cache-Control`

    header, meaning caches are allowed to save responses even when authentication is

    performed. You can change that the same way.



- 3. Minification



    If the content type is `text/css` or `application/javascript`, `mccs` will

    try to find a pre-minified version of it on disk. If found, and the version is

    younger than the original file, then it will be marked for serving. Otherwise,

    if [CSS::Minifier::XS](https://metacpan.org/pod/CSS%3A%3AMinifier%3A%3AXS) or [JavaScript::Minifier:XS](https://metacpan.org/pod/JavaScript%3A%3AMinifier%3AXS) are installed, `mccs`

    will minify the file, save the minified version to disk, and mark it as the

    version to serve. Future requests to the same file will see the minified version

    and not minify again.



    `mccs` searches for files that end with `.min.css` and `.min.js`, and that's

    how it creates them too. If a request comes to `style.css`, for example, then

    `mccs` will look for `style.min.css`, possibly creating it if not found or

    stale. The request path remains the same (`style.css`) though, even internally.

    If a request comes to `style.min.css` (which you don't really want when

    using `mccs`), the app will not attempt to minify it again (so you won't

    get things like `style.min.min.css`).



    If `min_cache_dir` is specified, it will do all its searching and storing of

    generated minified files within `$root`/`$min_cache_dir` and ignore minified

    files outside that directory.



- 4. Compression



    If the client supports compressed responses (via the gzip, deflate or

    zstd algorithms), as noted by the `Accept-Encoding` header, `mccs` will try to

    find a precompressed version of the file on disk. If found, and is not stale,

    this version is marked for serving. Otherwise, if the appropriate compression

    module is installed, `mccs` will compress the file, save the compressed version

    to disk, and mark it as the version to serve. Future requests to the same file

    will see the compressed version and not compress again.



    `mccs` searches for files that end with the appropriate extension for the

    algorithm (i.e. `.gz`, `.zip`, `.zstd`), and that's how it creates them too.

    If a request comes to `style.css` from a client that prefers gzip responses,

    for example, and the file was minified in the previous step, `mccs` will look

    for `style.min.css.gz`, possibly creating it if not found. The request path

    remains the same (`style.css`) though, even internally.



    `mccs` honors weight values supplied in the `Accept-Encoding` header, and will

    serve using the highest-weighted algorithm it supports.



- 5. Cache Validation



    If the client provided the `If-Modified-Since` header, `mccs` will determine

    if the file we're serving has been modified after the supplied date, and return

    `304 Not Modified` immediately if not.



    If file doesn't have the 'no-store' cache control option, and the client

    provided the `If-None-Match` header, `mccs` will look for a file that has the

    the same name as the file we're going to serve, plus an `.etag` suffix, such

    as `style.min.css.gz.etag`, for example. If found, and not stale, the content

    of this file is read and compared with the provided ETag. If the two values are

    equal, `mccs` will immediately return `304 Not Modified`.



- 6. ETagging



    If an `.etag` file wasn't found in the previous step, and the file we're

    serving doesn't have the 'no-store' cache control option, `mccs` will create

    one from the file's inode, last modification date and size. Future requests

    to the same file will see this ETag file, so it is not created again.



- 7. Headers and Cache-Control



    `mccs` now sets headers, especially cache control headers, as appropriate:



    - `Content-Encoding` is set to the compression algorithm used, if any.

    - `Content-Length` is set with the size of the file in bytes.

    - `Content-Type` is set with the MIME type of the file (if a text file,

    the character string is appended, e.g. `text/css; charset=UTF-8`).

    - `Last-Modified` is set with the last modification date of the file in

    HTTP date format.

    - `Expires` is set with the date on which cached versions should expire,

    as determined in stage 2, in HTTP date format.

    - `Cache-Control` is set with the number of seconds the representation is

    valid for (unless caching of the file is not allowed) and other options, as

    determined in stage 2.

    - `Etag` is set with the ETag value (if exists).

    - `Vary` is set with `Accept-Encoding`.



- 8. Serving



    The selected file is served to the client.



# CAVEATS AND THINGS TO CONSIDER



- You can't tell `mccs` not to minify/compress a specific file type, but

only disable minification/compression altogether.

- Directory listings are not supported.

- Caching middlewares such as [Plack::Middleware::Cache](https://metacpan.org/pod/Plack%3A%3AMiddleware%3A%3ACache) and [Plack::Middleware::Cached](https://metacpan.org/pod/Plack%3A%3AMiddleware%3A%3ACached)

don't rely on Cache-Control headers (or so I understand) for

their expiration values, which makes them less useful for applications that

rely on [Plack::App::MCCS](https://metacpan.org/pod/Plack%3A%3AApp%3A%3AMCCS) or [Plack::Middleware::MCCS](https://metacpan.org/pod/Plack%3A%3AMiddleware%3A%3AMCCS). You'll probably be

better off with an external cache like [Varnish](https://www.varnish-cache.org/)

if you want a cache on your application server. Even without a server cache, your

application should still appear faster for users due to browser caching (and

also CPU load should be decreased).

- `Range` requests are not supported. See [Plack::App::File::Range](https://metacpan.org/pod/Plack%3A%3AApp%3A%3AFile%3A%3ARange) if

you need that.

- The app is mounted on a directory and can't be set to only serve

requests that match a certain regular expression. Use the

[middleware](https://metacpan.org/pod/Plack%3A%3AMiddleware%3A%3AMCCS) for that.



# DIAGNOSTICS



`mccs` doesn't directly throw any exceptions, instead returning HTTP errors

to the client and possibly issuing some `warn`s. The following list should

help you to determine some potential problems with `MCCS`:



- `"Failed compressing %s with %s: %s"`



    This warning is issued when `mccs` fails to compress a file with a certain

    algorithm. When it happens, a compressed representation will not be returned.



- `"Can't open ETag file %s.etag for reading"`



    This warning is issued when `mccs` can't read an ETag file, probably because

    it does not have enough permissions. The request will still be fulfilled,

    but it won't have the `ETag` header.



- `"Can't open ETag file %s.etag for writing"`



    Same as before, but when `mccs` can't write an ETag file.



- `403 Forbidden` is returned for files that exist



    If a request for a certain file results in a `403 Forbidden` error, it

    probably means `mccs` has no read permissions for that file.



# CONFIGURATION AND ENVIRONMENT



`mccs` requires no configuration files or environment variables.



# REQUIREMENTS



`mccs` **requires** the following dependencies:



- [Perl 5.36+](https://www.perl.org/)

- [HTTP::Date](https://metacpan.org/pod/HTTP%3A%3ADate)

- [Plack](https://metacpan.org/pod/Plack)



`mccs` will use the following CPAN modules if they exist:



- [CSS::Minifier::XS](https://metacpan.org/pod/CSS%3A%3AMinifier%3A%3AXS)

- [JavaScript::Minifier::XS](https://metacpan.org/pod/JavaScript%3A%3AMinifier%3A%3AXS)

- [IO::Compress::Zstd](https://metacpan.org/pod/IO%3A%3ACompress%3A%3AZstd)



The following CPAN modules are also recommended:



- [Twiggy](https://metacpan.org/pod/Twiggy) for an event-loop based HTTP server.

- [Starman](https://metacpan.org/pod/Starman) for a preforking HTTP server.



# INCOMPATIBILITIES WITH OTHER MODULES



None reported.



# BUGS AND LIMITATIONS



Please report any bugs or feature requests to `[email protected]`,

or through the web interface at

[http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Plack-App-MCCS](http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Plack-App-MCCS).



# SEE ALSO



[Plack::App::MCCS](https://metacpan.org/pod/Plack%3A%3AApp%3A%3AMCCS), [Plack::Middleware::MCCS](https://metacpan.org/pod/Plack%3A%3AMiddleware%3A%3AMCCS), [Plack::Runner](https://metacpan.org/pod/Plack%3A%3ARunner), [plackup](https://metacpan.org/pod/plackup).



# AUTHOR



Ido Perlmuter 



# ACKNOWLEDGMENTS



Some of this application's code is based on [Plack::App::File](https://metacpan.org/pod/Plack%3A%3AApp%3A%3AFile) by Tatsuhiko

Miyagawa and [Plack::Middleware::ETag](https://metacpan.org/pod/Plack%3A%3AMiddleware%3A%3AETag) by Franck Cuny.



Christian Walde contributed new features and fixes for the 1.0.0 release.



# LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT



Copyright (c) 2011-2023, Ido Perlmuter `[email protected]`.



Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");

you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.

You may obtain a copy of the License at



    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0



Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software

distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,

WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.

See the License for the specific language governing permissions and

limitations under the License.