lighttpd

Original author(s)	Jan Kneschke
Developer(s)	Lighttpd Developers
Initial release	March 2003; 21 years ago
Repository	git.lighttpd.net/lighttpd ;
Written in	C
Operating system	Cross-platform
Available in	English
Type	Web server
License	3-clause BSD
Website	www.lighttpd.net

lighttpd (pronounced "lighty")^[1] is an open-source web server optimized for speed-critical environments while remaining standards-compliant, secure and flexible.^{[citation needed]} It was originally written by Jan Kneschke as a proof-of-concept of the c10k problem – how to handle 10,000 connections in parallel on one server,^[2] but has gained worldwide popularity.^[3]

Premise

The low memory footprint (compared to other web servers),^[4] small CPU load and speed optimizations^[5] make lighttpd suitable for servers that are suffering load problems, or for serving static media separately from dynamic content. lighttpd is free software/open source, and is distributed under the BSD license. It runs natively on Unix-like operating systems as well as Microsoft Windows.^[6]

Application support

lighttpd supports the FastCGI, SCGI and CGI interfaces to external programs, allowing web applications written in any programming language to be used with the server. As a particularly popular language, PHP performance has received special attention. Lighttpd's FastCGI can be configured to support PHP with opcode caches (like APC) properly and efficiently. Additionally, it has received attention from its popularity within the Python, Perl, Ruby and Lua communities. Lighttpd also supports WebDNA, the resilient in-memory database system designed to build database-driven websites. It is a popular web server for the Catalyst and Ruby on Rails web frameworks. Lighttpd does not support ISAPI.

Features

Load balancing FastCGI, SCGI and HTTP proxy support
chroot support
web server event mechanism performance – select(), poll(), and epoll() ^[7]
Support for more efficient event notification schemes like kqueue and epoll
Conditional URL rewriting (mod_rewrite)
TLS/SSL with SNI support, via OpenSSL.
Authentication against an LDAP server
RRDtool statistics
Rule-based downloading with possibility of a script handling only authentication
Server Side Includes support (but not server-side CGI)^[8]
Flexible virtual hosting
Modules support
Cache Meta Language (currently being replaced by mod_magnet)^[9] using the Lua programming language
Minimal WebDAV support
Servlet (AJP) support (in versions 1.5.x and up)
HTTP compression using mod_compress and the newer mod_deflate (1.5.x)
Light-weight (less than 1 MB)^[10]
Single-process design with only several threads. No processes or threads started per connection.

Limitations

Lighttpd (1.4.x) officially does not support sending large files from CGI, FastCGI, or proxies ^[11] unless X-Sendfile is used.

Usage

Lighttpd is used by a number of high-traffic websites, among them are Bloglines and Xkcd.^[12] It was used in the past by Meebo and YouTube.^[13]^{[better source needed]} Wikimedia also runs Lighttpd servers.^[14]^[15]^[16]^[17]

References

^ "lighttpd fly light". Retrieved 2010-06-13. all of these describe lighttpd (pron. lighty)
^ "lighttpd: Story". lighttpd.net. Retrieved 22 December 2008.
^ "Powered By lighttpd". Lighttpd wiki. Retrieved 22 December 2008.
^ "Web Server Performance Comparison". Retrieved 15 March 2012.
^ Gabriel Kerneis and Juliusz Chroboczek. Are events fast?. PPS technical report, University of Paris 7. 2009. http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~jch/research/cpc-bench.pdf
^ "Downloads @ WLMP Project". Retrieved 2011-03-27. LightTPD webserver for Windows Systems
^ Gammo, Louay; Brecht, Tim; Shukla, Amol; Pariag, David (2004). "Comparing and Evaluating epoll, select, and poll Event Mechanisms". Linux Symposium. University of Waterloo. p. 215. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
^ Lighttpd - Bug #1101: SSI include virtual does not run cgi – lighty labs
^ http://redmine.lighttpd.net/projects/lighttpd/wiki/Docs:ModMagnet
^ "lighttpd releases". lighttpd.net. Retrieved 20 June 2010.
^ "Memory usage increases when proxy+ssl+large file". lighttpd bug tracker. Retrieved 2011-04-11.
^ "Lighttpd Web Server Usage". WebTechster. Retrieved 2014-03-26.
^ "Fly Light With Lighttpd Web Server". ServerWatch. Archived from the original on 31 March 2014. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
^ Brion Vibber (2008-08-26). "Apache mod_php in wikipedia". Wikimedia wikitech-l mailing list. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
^ Tim Starling (2008-08-27). "Apache mod_php in wikipedia". Wikimedia wikitech-l mailing list. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
^ Domas Mitzuas (2008-08-27). "Apache mod_php in wikipedia". Wikimedia wikitech-l mailing list. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
^ "Powered by Lighttpd". The official site. 2007-04-04. Retrieved 2008-12-22. lighttpd is used by many well-known sites. The typical scenario is using lighttpd as off-load server to push out static content and leave the complex work to another server.

Bibliography

Bogus, Andre (October 29, 2008). Lighttpd (1st ed.). Packt Publishing. p. 236. ISBN 978-1847192103.

External links

WLMP

Lighty2Go Portable LightTPD, MySQL & PHP (LiMP) Project
yPortableWS Portable WLMP Project (requires .NET Framework)
WLMP Project - lighttpd builds for Windows

[1] "lighttpd fly light". Retrieved 2010-06-13. all of these describe lighttpd (pron. lighty)

[2] "lighttpd: Story". lighttpd.net. Retrieved 22 December 2008.

[3] "Powered By lighttpd". Lighttpd wiki. Retrieved 22 December 2008.

[4] "Web Server Performance Comparison". Retrieved 15 March 2012.

[5] Gabriel Kerneis and Juliusz Chroboczek. Are events fast?. PPS technical report, University of Paris 7. 2009. http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~jch/research/cpc-bench.pdf

[6] "Downloads @ WLMP Project". Retrieved 2011-03-27. LightTPD webserver for Windows Systems

[7] Gammo, Louay; Brecht, Tim; Shukla, Amol; Pariag, David (2004). "Comparing and Evaluating epoll, select, and poll Event Mechanisms". Linux Symposium. University of Waterloo. p. 215. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)

[8] Lighttpd - Bug #1101: SSI include virtual does not run cgi – lighty labs

[9] ttp://redmine.lighttpd.net/projects/lighttpd/wiki/Docs:ModMagnet

[10] "lighttpd releases". lighttpd.net. Retrieved 20 June 2010.

[11] "Memory usage increases when proxy+ssl+large file". lighttpd bug tracker. Retrieved 2011-04-11.

[12] "Lighttpd Web Server Usage". WebTechster. Retrieved 2014-03-26.

[13] "Fly Light With Lighttpd Web Server". ServerWatch. Archived from the original on 31 March 2014. Retrieved 2008-02-12.

[14] Brion Vibber (2008-08-26). "Apache mod_php in wikipedia". Wikimedia wikitech-l mailing list. Retrieved 2008-08-27.

[15] Tim Starling (2008-08-27). "Apache mod_php in wikipedia". Wikimedia wikitech-l mailing list. Retrieved 2008-08-27.

[16] Domas Mitzuas (2008-08-27). "Apache mod_php in wikipedia". Wikimedia wikitech-l mailing list. Retrieved 2008-08-27.

[PoweredbyLighttpd-17] "Powered by Lighttpd". The official site. 2007-04-04. Retrieved 2008-12-22. lighttpd is used by many well-known sites. The typical scenario is using lighttpd as off-load server to push out static content and leave the complex work to another server.

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