NAME

Net::Server - Extensible, general Perl server engine

SYNOPSIS

#!/usr/bin/perl -w -T
package MyPackage;

use Net::Server;
@ISA = qw(Net::Server);

sub process_request {
   #...code...
}

MyPackage->run(port => 160);
exit;

OBTAINING

Visit http://seamons.com/ for the latest version.

FEATURES

* Single Server Mode
* Inetd Server Mode
* Preforking Simple Mode (PreForkSimple)
* Preforking Managed Mode (PreFork)
* Forking Mode
* Multiplexing Mode using a single process
* Multi port accepts on Single, Preforking, and Forking modes
* Simultaneous accept/recv on tcp, udp, and unix sockets
* Safe signal handling in Fork/PreFork avoids perl signal trouble
* User customizable hooks
* Chroot ability after bind
* Change of user and group after bind
* Basic allow/deny access control
* Customized logging (choose Syslog, log_file, or STDERR)
* HUP able server (clean restarts via sig HUP)
* Dequeue ability in all Fork and PreFork modes.
* Taint clean
* Written in Perl
* Protection against buffer overflow
* Clean process flow
* Extensibility

DESCRIPTION

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).

PERSONALITIES

Net::Server is built around a common class (Net::Server) and is extended using sub classes, or personalities. Each personality inherits, overrides, or enhances the base methods of the base class.

Included with the Net::Server package are several basic personalities, each of which has their own use.

Fork: Found in the module Net/Server/Fork.pm (see Net::Server::Fork). This server binds to one or more ports and then waits for a connection. When a client request is received, the parent forks a child, which then handles the client and exits. This is good for moderately hit services.
INET: Found in the module Net/Server/INET.pm (see Net::Server::INET). This server is designed to be used with inetd. The pre_bind, bind, accept, and post_accept are all overridden as these services are taken care of by the INET daemon.
MultiType: Found in the module Net/Server/MultiType.pm (see Net::Server::MultiType). This server has no server functionality of its own. It is designed for servers which need a simple way to easily switch between different personalities. Multiple server_type parameters may be given and Net::Server::MultiType will cycle through until it finds a class that it can use.
Multiplex: Found in the module Net/Server/Multiplex.pm (see Net::Server::Multiplex). This server binds to one or more ports. It uses IO::Multiplex to multiplex between waiting for new connections and waiting for input on currently established connections. This personality is designed to run as one process without forking. The process_request method is never used but the mux_input callback is used instead (see also IO::Multiplex). See examples/samplechat.pl for an example using most of the features of Net::Server::Multiplex.
PreForkSimple: Found in the module Net/Server/PreFork.pm (see Net::Server::PreFork). This server binds to one or more ports and then forks max_servers child process. The server will make sure that at any given time there are always max_servers available to receive a client request. Each of these children will process up to max_requests client connections. This type is good for a heavily hit site that can dedicate max_server processes no matter what the load. It should scale well for most applications. Multi port accept is accomplished using either flock, IPC::Semaphore, or pipe to serialize the children. Serialization may also be switched on for single port in order to get around an OS that does not allow multiple children to accept at the same time. For a further discussion of serialization see Net::Server::PreFork.
PreFork: Found in the module Net/Server/PreFork.pm (see Net::Server::PreFork). This server binds to one or more ports and then forks min_servers child process. The server will make sure that at any given time there are at least min_spare_servers but not more than max_spare_servers available to receive a client request, up to max_servers. Each of these children will process up to max_requests client connections. This type is good for a heavily hit site, and should scale well for most applications. Multi port accept is accomplished using either flock, IPC::Semaphore, or pipe to serialize the children. Serialization may also be switched on for single port in order to get around an OS that does not allow multiple children to accept at the same time. For a further discussion of serialization see Net::Server::PreFork.
Single: All methods fall back to Net::Server. This personality is provided only as parallelism for Net::Server::MultiType.

Net::Server was partially written to make it easy to add new personalities. Using separate modules built upon an open architecture allows for easy addition of new features, a separate development process, and reduced code bloat in the core module.

SOCKET ACCESS

Once started, the Net::Server will take care of binding to port and waiting for connections. Once a connection is received, the Net::Server will accept on the socket and will store the result (the client connection) in $self->{server}->{client}. This property is a Socket blessed into the the IO::Socket classes. UDP servers are slightly different in that they will perform a recv instead of an accept.

To make programming easier, during the post_accept phase, STDIN and STDOUT are opened to the client connection. This allows for programs to be written using <STDIN> and print "out\n" to print to the client connection. UDP will require using a ->send call.

SAMPLE CODE

The following is a very simple server. The main functionality occurs in the process_request method call as shown below. Notice the use of timeouts to prevent Denial of Service while reading. (Other examples of using Net::Server can, or will, be included with this distribution).

#!/usr/bin/perl -w -T
#--------------- file test.pl ---------------

package MyPackage;

use strict;
use vars qw(@ISA);
use Net::Server::PreFork; # any personality will do

@ISA = qw(Net::Server::PreFork);

MyPackage->run();
exit;

### over-ridden subs below

sub process_request {
  my $self = shift;
  eval {

    local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { die "Timed Out!\n" };
    my $timeout = 30; # give the user 30 seconds to type a line

    my $previous_alarm = alarm($timeout);
    while( <STDIN> ){
      s/\r?\n$//;
      print "You said \"$_\"\r\n";
      alarm($timeout);
    }
    alarm($previous_alarm);

  };

  if( $@=~/timed out/i ){
    print STDOUT "Timed Out.\r\n";
    return;
  }

}

1;

#--------------- file test.pl ---------------

Playing this file from the command line will invoke a Net::Server using the PreFork personality. When building a server layer over the Net::Server, it is important to use features such as timeouts to prevent Denial of Service attacks.

ARGUMENTS

There are four possible ways to pass arguments to Net::Server. They are passing on command line, using a conf file, passing parameters to run, or using a pre-built object to call the run method.

Arguments consist of key value pairs. On the commandline these pairs follow the POSIX fashion of --key value or --key=value, and also key=value. In the conf file the parameter passing can best be shown by the following regular expression: ($key,$val)=~/^(\w+)\s+(\S+?)\s+$/. Passing arguments to the run method is done as follows: Net::Server-run(key1 => 'val1')>. Passing arguments via a prebuilt object can best be shown in the following code:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w -T
#--------------- file test2.pl ---------------
package MyPackage;
use strict;
use vars (@ISA);
use Net::Server;
@ISA = qw(Net::Server);

my $server = bless {
  key1 => 'val1',
  }, 'MyPackage';

$server->run();
#--------------- file test.pl ---------------

All five methods for passing arguments may be used at the same time. Once an argument has been set, it is not over written if another method passes the same argument. Net::Server will look for arguments in the following order:

1) Arguments contained in the prebuilt object.
2) Arguments passed on command line.
3) Arguments passed to the run method.
4) Arguments passed via a conf file.
5) Arguments set in the configure_hook.

Key/value pairs used by the server are removed by the configuration process so that server layers on top of Net::Server can pass and read their own parameters. Currently, Getopt::Long is not used. The following arguments are available in the default Net::Server or Net::Server::Single modules. (Other personalities may use additional parameters and may optionally not use parameters from the base class.)

Key               Value                    Default
conf_file         "filename"               undef

log_level         0-4                      2
log_file          (filename|Sys::Syslog)   undef

## syslog parameters
syslog_logsock    (unix|inet)              unix
syslog_ident      "identity"               "net_server"
syslog_logopt     (cons|ndelay|nowait|pid) pid
syslog_facility   \w+                      daemon

port              \d+                      20203
host              "host"                   "*"
proto             (tcp|udp|unix)           "tcp"
listen            \d+                      SOMAXCONN

reverse_lookups   1                        undef
allow             /regex/                  none
deny              /regex/                  none

## daemonization parameters
pid_file          "filename"               undef
chroot            "directory"              undef
user              (uid|username)           "nobody"
group             (gid|group)              "nobody"
background        1                        undef
setsid            1                        undef

no_close_by_child (1|undef)                undef

## See Net::Server::Proto::(TCP|UDP|UNIX|etc)
## for more sample parameters.

conf_file

Filename from which to read additional key value pair arguments for starting the server. Default is undef.

log_level

Ranges from 0 to 4 in level. Specifies what level of error will be logged. "O" means logging is off. "4" means very verbose. These levels should be able to correlate to syslog levels. Default is 2. These levels correlate to syslog levels as defined by the following key/value pairs: 0=>'err', 1=>'warning', 2=>'notice', 3=>'info', 4=>'debug'.

log_file

Name of log file to be written to. If no name is given and hook is not overridden, log goes to STDERR. Default is undef. If the magic name "Sys::Syslog" is used, all logging will take place via the Sys::Syslog module. If syslog is used the parameters syslog_logsock, syslog_ident, and syslog_logopt,and syslog_facility may also be defined. If a log_file is given or if setsid is set, STDIN and STDOUT will automatically be opened to /dev/null and STDERR will be opened to STDOUT. This will prevent any output from ending up at the terminal.

pid_file

Filename to store pid of parent process. Generally applies only to forking servers. Default is none (undef).

syslog_logsock

Only available if log_file is equal to "Sys::Syslog". May be either "unix" of "inet". Default is "unix". See Sys::Syslog.

syslog_ident

Only available if log_file is equal to "Sys::Syslog". Id to prepend on syslog entries. Default is "net_server". See Sys::Syslog.

syslog_logopt

Only available if log_file is equal to "Sys::Syslog". May be either zero or more of "pid","cons","ndelay","nowait". Default is "pid". See Sys::Syslog.

syslog_facility

Only available if log_file is equal to "Sys::Syslog". See Sys::Syslog and syslog. Default is "daemon".

port

See Net::Server::Proto. Local port/socket on which to bind. If low port, process must start as root. If multiple ports are given, all will be bound at server startup. May be of the form host:port/proto, host:port, port/proto, or port, where host represents a hostname residing on the local box, where port represents either the number of the port (eg. "80") or the service designation (eg. "http"), and where proto represents the protocol to be used. See Net::Server::Proto. If you are working with unix sockets, you may also specify socket_file|unix or socket_file|type|unix where type is SOCK_DGRAM or SOCK_STREAM. If the protocol is not specified, proto will default to the proto specified in the arguments. If proto is not specified there it will default to "tcp". If host is not specified, host will default to host specified in the arguments. If host is not specified there it will default to "*". Default port is 20203.

host

Local host or addr upon which to bind port. If a value of '*' is given, the server will bind that port on all available addresses on the box. See Net::Server::Proto. See IO::Socket.

proto

See Net::Server::Proto. Protocol to use when binding ports. See IO::Socket. As of release 0.70, Net::Server supports tcp, udp, and unix. Other types will need to be added later (or custom modules extending the Net::Server::Proto class may be used).

listen

See L<IO::Socket>.  Not used with udp protocol (or UNIX SOCK_DGRAM).

reverse_lookups

Specify whether to lookup the hostname of the connected IP. Information is cached in server object under peerhost property. Default is to not use reverse_lookups (undef).

allow/deny

May be specified multiple times. Contains regex to compare to incoming peeraddr or peerhost (if reverse_lookups has been enabled). If allow or deny options are given, the incoming client must match an allow and not match a deny or the client connection will be closed. Defaults to empty array refs.

chroot

Directory to chroot to after bind process has taken place and the server is still running as root. Defaults to undef.

user

Userid or username to become after the bind process has occured. Defaults to "nobody." If you would like the server to run as root, you will have to specify user equal to "root".

group

Groupid or groupname to become after the bind process has occured. Defaults to "nobody." If you would like the server to run as root, you will have to specify group equal to "root".

background

Specifies whether or not the server should fork after the bind method to release itself from the command line. Defaults to undef. Process will also background if setsid is set.

setsid

Specifies whether or not the server should fork after the bind method to release itself from the command line and then run the POSIX::setsid() command to truly daemonize. Defaults to undef. If a log_file is given or if setsid is set, STDIN and STDOUT will automatically be opened to /dev/null and STDERR will be opened to STDOUT. This will prevent any output from ending up at the terminal.

no_close_by_child

Specifies whether or not a forked child process has permission or not to shutdown the entire server process. If set to 1, the child may NOT signal the parent to shutdown all children. Default is undef (not set).

PROPERTIES

All of the ARGUMENTS listed above become properties of the server object under the same name. These properties, as well as other internal properties, are available during hooks and other method calls.

The structure of a Net::Server object is shown below:

$self = bless( {
                 'server' => {
                               'key1' => 'val1',
                               # more key/vals
                             }
               }, 'Net::Server' );

This structure was chosen so that all server related properties are grouped under a single key of the object hashref. This is so that other objects could layer on top of the Net::Server object class and still have a fairly clean namespace in the hashref.

You may get and set properties in two ways. The suggested way is to access properties directly via

my $val = $self->{server}->{key1};

Accessing the properties directly will speed the server process. A second way has been provided for object oriented types who believe in methods. The second way consists of the following methods:

my $val = $self->get_property( 'key1' );
my $self->set_property( key1 => 'val1' );

Properties are allowed to be changed at any time with caution (please do not undef the sock property or you will close the client connection).

CONFIGURATION FILE

Net::Server allows for the use of a configuration file to read in server parameters. The format of this conf file is simple key value pairs. Comments and white space are ignored.

#-------------- file test.conf --------------

### user and group to become
user        somebody
group       everybody

### logging ?
log_file    /var/log/server.log
log_level   3
pid_file    /tmp/server.pid

### optional syslog directive
### used in place of log_file above
#log_file       Sys::Syslog
#syslog_logsock unix
#syslog_ident   myserver
#syslog_logopt  pid|cons

### access control
allow       .+\.(net|com)
allow       domain\.com
deny        a.+

### background the process?
background  1

### ports to bind (this should bind
### 127.0.0.1:20205 and localhost:20204)
### See Net::Server::Proto
host        127.0.0.1
port        localhost:20204
port        20205

### reverse lookups ?
# reverse_lookups on

#-------------- file test.conf --------------

PROCESS FLOW

The process flow is written in an open, easy to override, easy to hook, fashion. The basic flow is shown below.

$self->configure_hook;

$self->configure(@_);

$self->post_configure;

$self->post_configure_hook;

$self->pre_bind;

$self->bind;

$self->post_bind_hook;

$self->post_bind;

$self->pre_loop_hook;

$self->loop;

### routines inside a standard $self->loop
# $self->accept;
# $self->run_client_connection;
# $self->done;

$self->pre_server_close_hook;

$self->server_close;

The server then exits.

During the client processing phase ($self->run_client_connection), the following represents the program flow:

$self->post_accept;

$self->get_client_info;

$self->post_accept_hook;

if( $self->allow_deny

    && $self->allow_deny_hook ){

  $self->process_request;

}else{

  $self->request_denied_hook;

}

$self->post_process_request_hook;

$self->post_process_request;

The process then loops and waits for the next connection. For a more in depth discussion, please read the code.

During the server shutdown phase ($self->server_close), the following represents the program flow:

$self->close_children;  # if any

$self->post_child_cleanup_hook;

if( Restarting server ){
   $self->restart_close_hook();
   $self->hup_server;
}

exit;

HOOKS

Net::Server provides a number of "hooks" allowing for servers layered on top of Net::Server to respond at different levels of execution.

$self->configure_hook(): This hook takes place immediately after the ->run() method is called. This hook allows for setting up the object before any built in configuration takes place. This allows for custom configurability.
$self->post_configure_hook(): This hook occurs just after the reading of configuration parameters and initiation of logging and pid_file creation. It also occurs before the ->pre_bind() and ->bind() methods are called. This hook allows for verifying configuration parameters.
$self->post_bind_hook(): This hook occurs just after the bind process and just before any chrooting, change of user, or change of group occurs. At this point the process will still be running as the user who started the server.
$self->pre_loop_hook(): This hook occurs after chroot, change of user, and change of group has occured. It allows for preparation before looping begins.
$self->post_accept_hook(): This hook occurs after a client has connected to the server. At this point STDIN and STDOUT are mapped to the client socket. This hook occurs before the processing of the request.
$self->allow_deny_hook(): This hook allows for the checking of ip and host information beyond the $self->allow_deny() routine. If this hook returns 1, the client request will be processed, otherwise, the request will be denied processing.
$self->request_denied_hook(): This hook occurs if either the $self->allow_deny() or $self->allow_deny_hook() have taken place.
$self->post_process_request_hook(): This hook occurs after the processing of the request, but before the client connection has been closed.
$self->pre_server_close_hook(): This hook occurs before the server begins shutting down.
$self->write_to_log_hook: This hook handles writing to log files. The default hook is to write to STDERR, or to the filename contained in the parameter log_file. The arguments passed are a log level of 0 to 4 (4 being very verbose), and a log line. If log_file is equal to "Sys::Syslog", then logging will go to Sys::Syslog and will bypass the write_to_log_hook.
$self->fatal_hook: This hook occurs when the server has encountered an unrecoverable error. Arguments passed are the error message, the package, file, and line number. The hook may close the server, but it is suggested that it simply return and use the built in shut down features.
$self->post_child_cleanup_hook: This hook occurs in the parent server process after all children have been shut down and just before the server either restarts or exits. It is intended for additional cleanup of information. At this point pid_files and lockfiles still exist.
$self->restart_open_hook: This hook occurs if a server has been HUPed (restarted via the HUP signal. It occurs just before reopening to the filenos of the sockets that were already opened.
$self->restart_close_hook: This hook occurs if a server has been HUPed (restarted via the HUP signal. It occurs just before restarting the server via exec.

RESTARTING

Each of the server personalities (except for INET), support restarting via a HUP signal (see "kill -l"). When a HUP is received, the server will close children (if any), make sure that sockets are left open, and re-exec using the same commandline parameters that initially started the server. (Note: for this reason it is important that @ARGV is not modified until ->run is called.

TO DO

There are several tasks to perform before the alpha label can be removed from this software:

Use It: The best way to further the status of this project is to use it. There are immediate plans to use this as a base class in implementing some mail servers and banner servers on a high hit site.
Other Personalities: Explore any other personalities
Net::Server::HTTP, etc: Create various types of servers. Possibly, port exising servers to user Net::Server as a base layer.

FILES

The following files are installed as part of this
distribution.

Net/Server.pm
Net/Server/Fork.pm
Net/Server/INET.pm
Net/Server/MultiType.pm
Net/Server/PreForkSimple.pm
Net/Server/PreFork.pm
Net/Server/Single.pm
Net/Server/Daemonize.pm
Net/Server/SIG.pm
Net/Server/Proto.pm
Net/Server/Proto/*.pm

INSTALL

Download and extract tarball before running these commands in its base directory:

perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install

For RPM installation, download tarball before running these commands in your _topdir:

rpm -ta SOURCES/Net-Server-*.tar.gz
rpm -ih RPMS/noarch/perl-Net-Server-*.rpm

AUTHOR

Paul T. Seamons <paul at seamons.com>

THANKS

Thanks to Rob Brown (bbb at cpan.org) for help with miscellaneous concepts such as tracking down the serialized select via flock ala Apache and the reference to IO::Select making multiport servers possible. And for researching into allowing sockets to remain open upon exec (making HUP possible). Rob Brown is also the maintainer for Net::Server.

Thanks to Jonathan J. Miner <miner at doit.wisc.edu> for patching a blatant problem in the reverse lookups.

Thanks to Bennett Todd <bet at rahul.net> for pointing out a problem in Solaris 2.5.1 which does not allow multiple children to accept on the same port at the same time. Also for showing some sample code from Viktor Duchovni which now represents the semaphore option of the serialize argument in the PreFork server.

Thanks to traveler and merlyn from http://perlmonks.org for pointing me in the right direction for determining the protocol used on a socket connection.

Thanks to Jeremy Howard <j+daemonize at howard.fm> for numerous suggestions and for work on Net::Server::Daemonize.

Thanks to Vadim <vadim at hardison.net> for patches to implement parent/child communication on PreFork.pm.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2001, Paul T Seamons
                    paul at seamons.com
                    http://seamons.com/

This package may be distributed under the terms of either the
GNU General Public License
  or the
Perl Artistic License

All rights reserved.

To install Net::Server, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.

cpanm

cpanm Net::Server

CPAN shell

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Net::Server

For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.

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