perl-Net-Server

Extensible, general Perl server engine

'Net::Server' is an extensible, generic Perl server engine. 'Net::Server' combines the good properties from 'Net::Daemon' (0.34), 'NetServer::Generic' (1.03), and 'Net::FTPServer' (1.0), and also from various concepts in the Apache Webserver. 'Net::Server' attempts to be a generic server as in 'Net::Daemon' and 'NetServer::Generic'. It includes with it the ability to run as an inetd process ('Net::Server::INET'), a single connection server ('Net::Server' or 'Net::Server::Single'), a forking server ('Net::Server::Fork'), a preforking server which maintains a constant number of preforked children ('Net::Server::PreForkSimple'), or as a managed preforking server which maintains the number of children based on server load ('Net::Server::PreFork'). In all but the inetd type, the server provides the ability to connect to one or to multiple server ports. 'Net::Server' uses ideologies of 'Net::FTPServer' in order to provide extensibility. The additional server types are made possible via "personalities" or sub classes of the 'Net::Server'. By moving the multiple types of servers out of the main 'Net::Server' class, the 'Net::Server' concept is easily extended to other types (in the near future, we would like to add a "Thread" personality). 'Net::Server' borrows several concepts from the Apache Webserver. 'Net::Server' uses "hooks" to allow custom servers such as SMTP, HTTP, POP3, etc. to be layered over the base 'Net::Server' class. In addition the 'Net::Server::PreFork' class borrows concepts of min_start_servers, max_servers, and min_waiting servers. 'Net::Server::PreFork' also uses the concept of an flock serialized accept when accepting on multiple ports (PreFork can choose between flock, IPC::Semaphore, and pipe to control serialization).