AOLserver Wiki - User contributions [en]

Frequently Asked Questions

2006-11-24T16:45:16Z

Kotalr:

'''Frequently Asked Questions'''

(Please add new questions at the very bottom of the list. Thanks.)

----

'''What is AOLserver?'''

AOLserver is America Online's Open Source web server. AOLserver is the backbone of the largest and busiest production environments in the world.

AOLserver is a multithreaded, Tcl-enabled, massively-scalable and extensible web server tuned for large scale, dynamic web sites. AOLserver also includes complete database integration and a dynamic page scripting language.

----

'''What is the latest version of AOLserver?'''
* The latest stable 3.4.x version is 3.4.2 released 18 September 2001.
* The latest stable 3.5.x version is 3.5.11 released 17 October 2003.
* The latest stable 4.0.x version is 4.0.10 released 18 January 2005.
* The latest stable 4.5.x version is 4.5.0 released 27 June 2006.
* Current development (CVS HEAD) is 4.1.0a.

----

'''Where can I get AOLserver?'''

The AOLserver project is hosted at [http://sourceforge.net/ SourceForge], and file releases are available for [[download]] in the [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=3152 AOLserver Project Filelist].

----

'''What platforms does AOLserver support?'''

'''AOLserver''' is known to compile and run on the following platforms:
* Linux 2.2 (i386), 2.4 and 2.6
* Windows 95/98/NT/2K/XP (i386) (partially supported, see #6)
* FreeBSD 3.4 (i386)
* OpenBSD 2.5 (i386)
* UnixWare 7.x (i386)
* DEC Tru64 & OSF/1 4.0 (alpha)
* Solaris 2.x (sparc), Solaris 2.10 (x86)
* HP/UX 10 & 11 (hppa)
* Irix 6.x (mips)
* Apple MacOS X 10.3 (ppc), 10.4 (ppc)

----

'''How is AOLserver licensed and distributed?'''

Via the [[AOLserver Public License]], viewable at http://aolserver.com/license/.

----

'''How does AOLserver performance compare to other major servers?'''

[[Brady Wetherington]] says: On Unix, AOLserver can generate many, many dynamic pages very quickly and reliably. It also has some special code paths designed to speed up processing of static pages (fastpath), though I don't use that very much, personally. Along with the database connection pools, it's definitely one of the highest-performance web-based database systems I've used.

'''How is it different from Apache HTTP Server?'''

The current Apache HTTP Server
* is part of / a project of the Apache Software Foundation. The process of development and decision making is working for years and accepted by all participants
* allows to run applications in a process-pre-forking or multi-threaded environment by design
* is the leading webserver, so it is widely known, accepted and supported
* is itself a subproject accompanied by lots of well known other projects and frameworks (like Ant, Jakarta, Struts...)

In contrast AOLserver
* can do lots of use cases that are done with Apache modules with a few lines of TCL code (via registered filters and procs)
* is bound to its multi-threaded architecture that has its own disadvantages, depending on what you want to do

'''How is it different from <insert other webserver>?'''

???

----

'''Where is AOLserver appropriate? Where is it not?'''

It is not appropriate...
* when you want to do virtual hosting for multiple customers. For static content, AOLserver is fine - you're just serving static content. For dynamic, server-side functionality, to get the level of privilege separation necessary, you'd have to run a separate nsd per customer to ensure that one customer can't access the content/data of another's. There are apparently some folks out there who have set up AOLserver just this way and are doing just this.
* when the code you want to use is not thread-safe (and you are not able to change that)
* when your main application makes heavy use of cgi-tools or other scripting languages like PHP or Phython (in general: where currently no active dedicated maintainer for corresponding modules is known)
* when you need backup of a large world wide community that uses tools, modules and code you can find and read in every single computer magazine. AOLserver and TCL are niche products, which only means they are not sexy to the broad audience, but are used intensively by a sophisticated, intelligent minority
* when you know you would need more than one day to convince your customer to use it (in other words: if you use technology the first time don't let your most important customer be the beta tester)

It is appropriate...
* when you want to make maximum use of your machines hardware ressources: AOLserver is a highly configurable beast that allows you to run big websites
* when you plan to run a website that makes heavy use of one or more databases (using pooled connections)
* when you want to cache lots or all of your static files (.html,.gif,.css.,.js ...) in your servers memory (via modules fastpath and nscache)
* when you like the good feeling of running and coding your apps on a well-tested multi-threaded server architecture. The server never has been a process-forking one.

The idea here is if you know your requirements and your scope is fairly stable and you feel comfortable you can predict the future, and if all signs point to the app. remaining small-to-medium in usage/traffic, then pick whatever platform or technology you like the best -- it really won't make a difference. But, if you think that it's a very real possibility you'll need
to scale up capacity to meet growing demand/traffic, possibly indefinitely, then yes, the hidden cost of re-architecting or migrating to a different technology can be a killer when you have to use the words "sunk cost" to describe the originally developed system. In that case, you may be better off starting with implementing with AOLserver, as its performance "ceiling" so to speak is higher than other technologies. (TODO: Benchmarks demonstrating this empirically?)

----

'''How do I get started with AOLserver?'''

<need to link to a newbie guide HOWTO>

----

'''How can I learn more about AOLserver?'''

Start by reading the [[Documentation]], which is still a work-in-progress.

----

'''"package require" doesn't work! What's wrong?'''

Here's the relevant portion of a message [[Dossy Shiobara]] sent to the AOLserver mailing list back on 16 June 2000:

set tcl_library [file join $tcl_pkgPath tcl${tcl_version}]
source [file join $tcl_library init.tcl]

package require works like a charm after that :-)

There you have it. Perhaps, some day, this won't be a necessary step. But, in the meantime ...

''As of AOLserver 4.0 and perhaps even a late version of 3.5.x, this step is no longer necessary.''

----

'''"ns_set update [ns_conn outputheaders $conn] Content-Type {application/x-tcl}" does not work in .adp files as I wish. The server always returns two copies of the Content-Type header, one as application/x-tcl, another as text/html and clients(galeon, tcl http package) always use the second. How do I remove the second Content-Type?'''

Good question -- this is really a bug that needs to be fixed in the server code itself.

----

'''How can I get Tclet scripts served from AOLserver to run inside the Tcl Plugin?'''

Someone asks: ''I have an aolserver for OpenACS. I installed Tcl Plugin which works well with classic Tclets on Tcl Plugin Home Pages. But with Aolserver, it doesn't work.... Do you know the answer of this?''

----

'''How can I compile AOLserver on HP-UX, both 10.20 and 11.x?'''

[[Dossy]]: Good question. If I had easy access to HP-UX machines, I'd try it myself. AOLserver 4.x should hopefully build on HP-UX without any changes, but I'm only guessing.

HPUX doesn't implement a lot of BSD/POSIX IPC functions, or so I hear.

----

'''I'm getting an error compiling AOLserver about POLLIN, POLLOUT and POLLPRI being redefined. What's wrong?'''

AOLserver requires that the "configure" script be run using the GNU C (gcc) compiler. Try running the configure script like this:

$ CC=gcc ./configure --args...

----

'''Does AOLserver support HTTP Keep-Alive? I'm sending a HTTP/1.1 request via httperf and AOLserver isn't doing Keep-Alive like Apache does! What's wrong?'''

Actually, nothing is wrong. You just need to tell httperf to include the headers that tell AOLserver to expect multiple requests per connection. Add '--add_header "Connection: Keep-Alive\n"' to your httperf request.

The issue is that Apache and AOLserver chose opposite default behaviors when interpretting [http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2068.txt RFC 2068 section 8.1.2.1]:

An HTTP/1.1 server MAY assume that a HTTP/1.1 client intends to
maintain a persistent connection unless a Connection header including
the connection-token "close" was sent in the request. If the server
chooses to close the connection immediately after sending the
response, it SHOULD send a Connection header including the
connection-token close.

An HTTP/1.1 client MAY expect a connection to remain open, but would
decide to keep it open based on whether the response from a server
contains a Connection header with the connection-token close. In case
the client does not want to maintain a connection for more than that
request, it SHOULD send a Connection header including the
connection-token close.

The key here is "MAY" -- AOLserver (currently, as of 4.0.10) chooses not to assume a Keep-Alive connection unless the client explicitly requests it by sending "Connection: Keep-Alive" in the HTTP request header. This may change in the future (HTTP/1.1 requests default to Keep-Alive unless the client explicitly sends "Connection: close" -- apparently this is how Apache works).

----

'''Aolserver 4.0.10 is consuming all my memory'''

[http://www.mail-archive.com/aolserver%40listserv.aol.com/msg09104.html Bas Scheffers says]: What version of Tcl did you use? Use 8.4.11 or 8.4.6, but nothing in between as they have a big memory leak.

Note that debian sarge includes tcl 8.4.9 (as of 2006-01-03).

----

[[Category Documentation]]

Sites That Run On AOLserver

2006-11-23T15:33:20Z

Kotalr:

The following is (a probably incomplete) list of sites that run on AOLserver. Some you will recognize, some you probably won't.

Note: Please add entries in the following format:
* Site name | Version | URL | description (optional)

In order to appear on this list, the server '''MUST''' respond with a "Server:" header in the HTTP response which indicates that it is running AOLserver, and what version.

The following is a list of sites running some version of AOLserver at AOL:

{| class="tabulardata" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" border="1"
|- class="header"
! Site name !! Version !! URL !! Description (optional)
|-
| AOL.COM || AOLserver/3.4.2 || http://aol.com/ ||
|-
| Netscape || AOLserver/3.5.5 || http://home.netscape.com/ ||
|-
| Digital City || AOLserver/4.0 || http://home.digitalcity.com/ ||
|-
| AOL Mail || AOLserver/3.5.9 || http://webmail.aol.com/ ||
|-
| Moviefone || ArtBlast/3.5.4 || http://www.moviefone.com/ ||
|}

These are non-AOL sites that also use some version of AOLserver:

{| class="tabulardata" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" border="1"
|- class="header"
! Site name !! Version !! URL !! Description (optional)
|-
| colspan="4" | '''AOLserver 4.1.x'''
|-
| the CodeMill || AOLserver/4.1.0 || http://www.thecodemill.biz || host of the #aolserver IRC logs[http://www.thecodemill.biz/services/aolserver/irc/]
|-
| colspan="4" | '''AOLserver 4.0.x'''
|-
| [[Panoptic Computer Network]] || AOLserver/4.0.10a || http://panoptic.com/ ||
|-
| NS_SHUTDOWN || AOLserver/4.0.10a || http://www.nsshutdown.com/ ||
|-
| Bayt.com || AOLserver/4.0.10 || http://www.bayt.com/ ||
|-
| OpenACS || AOLserver/4.0.9 || http://openacs.org/ ||
|-
| Creative Commons || AOLserver/4.0.8 || http://creativecommons.org/ ||
|-
| Volunteer Solutions || AOLserver/4.0.8 || http://www.volunteersolutions.org/ ||
|-
| jongriffin.com || AOLserver/4.0.5 || http://www.jongriffin.com/ ||
|-
| Rate Your Music || AOLserver/4.0.10 || http://rateyourmusic.com/ ||
|-
| Salsa Blanca || AOLserver/4.0.5 || http://www.salsablanca.com/ ||
|-
| Kurup.org || AOLserver/4.0.10 || http://kurup.org/ ||
|-
| Seven Sisters Trading || AOLserver/4.0.3 || http://www.7-sisters.com/ ||
|-
| AIESEC.net || AOLserver/4.0 || http://www.aiesec.net/ ||
|-
| Don Baccus Photography || AOLserver/4.0 || http://donb.photo.net/ ||
|-
| M³ Beratungsgesellschaft || AOLserver/4.0 || http://www.m3-beratung.de/ ||
|-
| photo.net || AOLserver/4.0 || http://www.photo.net/ ||
|-
| WhatsThisIP.com || AOLserver/4.0.10 || http://whatsthisip.com/ ||
|-
| Treffpunkt || AOLserver/4.0.10 || http://www.treffpunktsystems.com/ ||
|-
| Uptime || Aolserver/4.0.10 || http://uptime.openacs.org||
|-
| Myturl || Aolserver/4.0.10 || http://myturl.com || tinyurl clone
|-
| colspan="4" | '''AOLserver 3.5.x'''
|-
| OneWeek || AOLserver/3.5.10 || http://oneweek.org/ ||
|-
| Vitamist Spray Vitamins || AOLserver/3.5.6 || http://www.vitamist.com/ ||
|-
| Anchor Baptist Church || AOLserver/3.5.0 || http://www.anchorbaptist.org/ ||
|-
| Blue Ridge Amateur Radio Club || NaviServer/2.0 AOLserver/3.5.0 || http://www.radioclub.org/ ||
|-
| Irish Tribute || AOLserver/3.5.0 || http://www.irishtribute.com/ || IrishAbroad's tribute site for the WTC dead and missing
|-
| online.ie || AOLserver/3.5.0 || http://www.online.ie/ || Irish news portal
|-
| colspan="4" | '''AOLserver 3.4.x'''
|-
| Polska.pl || AOLserver/3.4z4l || http://www.polska.pl/ ||
|-
| AMTDA || AOLserver/3.4.2 || http://www.amtda.org/ ||
|-
| Away.com || AOLserver 3.4.2 || http://www.away.com/ ||
|-
| Onet.pl || AOLserver/3.4.2 || http://www.onet.pl/ ||
|-
| Techspex || AOLserver/3.4.2 || http://www.techspex.com/ ||
|-
| University of Hawaii Athletics || AOLserver/3.4.2 || http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu/ ||
|-
| Vivtek || AOLserver/3.4.2 || http://www.vivtek.com/ ||
|-
| unresponsive.net || AOLserver/3.4 || http://www.unresponsive.net/ ||
|-
| DolphinGames || AOLserver/3.4.2 || http://www.dolphingames.cz/ || "Server:" header renamed to DolphinGames/1.0.0; online wap and sms games; internal run also 4.0.x aol servers
|-
| colspan="4" | '''AOLserver 3.3.x'''
|-
| Akoor || AOLserver/3.3.1+ad13 || http://www.akoor.com/ || a cultural french quiz site
|-
| Bitzi || AOLserver/3.3.1+ad13 || http://bitzi.com/ ||
|-
| Caltech || AOLserver/3.3.1+ad13 || http://www.caltech.edu/ ||
|-
| Greatest Networker dot.Community || AOLserver/3.3.1+ad13 || http://www.greatestnetworker.com/ ||
|-
| Infogettable.net Backgammon || AOLserver/3.3.1+ad13 || http://backgammon.infogettable.net/ ||
|-
| thedesignexperience || AOLserver/3.3.1+ad13 || http://www.thedesignexperience.org/ ||
|-
| colspan="4" | '''AOLserver 3.2.x'''
|-
| Investsberbank || AOLserver/3.2 || http://www.isb.ru/ || Joint-Stock Bank "Investsberbank"
|-
| MyWorkoutProgram || AOLserver/3.2+ad12 || http://www.myworkoutprogram.com/ ||
|-
| colspan="4" | '''AOLserver 2.x'''
|-
| Asimba Trainer Pro || NaviServer/2.0 AOLserver/2.3.3 || http://www.asimbatrainerpro.com/ ||
|-
| Fitrex.com || NaviServer/2.0 AOLserver/2.3.3 || http://www.fitrex.com/ ||
|-
| WGCR Radio || NaviServer/2.0 AOLserver/2.3.3 || http://www.wgcr.org/ ||
|-
| British Cattle Movement Service || NaviServer/2.0 AOLserver/2.3.3 || http://www.bcms.gov.uk/ ||
|}

Also, every website on this list is should be using AOLserver as well: http://openacs.org/community/sites/

----

'''Discussion:'''

'''Why MUST?''' Some people turn that off as part of their security principles. A known bug in Version 4.x would allow an attacker do simply grep through the following list. Could we please take that into consideration? How many sites would, e.g., introduce .adp pages just to get it on this _huge_ (irony) list?

''If anyone takes "security through obscurity" seriously enough to obfuscate the Server: header that's returned, then they also shouldn't want to be included on this list for the same reasons, so that people don't know they run AOLserver. Everyone else is free to advertise their sites here to try and ensure they get picked up by web server surveys like Netcraft, et. al.''

Ok, good point. You're perfectly right. Maybe I was just annoyed by being deleted from the list without explanation about the reason (which was added later). But why reject sites that don't expose the Server header for whatever reason? It is very easy to test that a site is running AOLserver (as easy as testing if a bug exists, of course). Why should we insist on detailed versioning?

''It makes maintaining the list easier. It'd be annoying for folks to add sites to this list and claim they run AOLserver, and then three months later the site switches to Apache. Who has the time to go poking and prodding to do server detection? It's easy to automate a script that asks "do I get a Server: AOLserver/xxx in the HTTP response?" and have it automatically keep the list fresh, which is what I currently have and run periodically. If folks running Apache/IIS want to falsely report AOLserver, that's annoying because the list will be inaccurate, but at least AOLserver will get the credit for the sites. :-)''

----

'''Sites that claim to run AOLserver 3.x, because the person who entered it into this Wiki assured it at that point in time. It may happen that the site runs Apache when you visit it and that may result in immediate pain, suffering or death. You have been warned!'''
* removed

''The links on the pages look awfully Vignette CURL-like. Is this site really running AOLserver? How can you prove it?''

How does a label in the header prove it? But we had this already. I started this rubric ''Sites that claim to run...'' to go around it. But I have absolutely no problem to remove all my sites (including the ones who have the header) from this wiki page in order to satisfy this principle.

Nsfb

2006-10-23T12:03:43Z

Kotalr: /* nsfb 1.1 */

= nsfb 1.2 =
Created by [mailto:info@waplikace.cz Richard Kotal].

This is internal AOLserver database driver for Firebird|Interbase database (http://www.firebirdsql.org).
* support read and write BLOB data
* support read and write ARRAY data
* support full size of varchar (32765 bytes) or char (32767 bytes)
* support many configuration options such as charset, dialect, transaction isolation level, ...
* support all kind of the data types
* support for FB specific functions such as create and drop db, information about db connection
* support for FB events handle
* support for importing data from a file into the BLOB value
* support for writing a BLOB data into the file
* support hexadecimal and base64 representation of the input (set to the db) and output data (read from the db)

[http://www.aolserver.cz/download.php Download page], [http://www.aolserver.cz/download/nsfb-1.2.tgz nsfb-1.2.tgz]

Simple sample (update array data):

set db [ns_db gethandle fb15]
ns_db dml $db "set transaction"
ns_db sp_start $db "update job set language_req = ? where job_code = 'CEO'"
ns_db sp_setparam $db "1" "" "in" "[list Eng "" Ger "" Itl]"
ns_db sp_exec $db
ns_db dml $db "commit"
ns_db releasehandle $db

Simple sample (synchronous waiting for events):

set db [ns_db gethandle fb15]
set events [list "DEC" "SUN" "HP"]
ns_fb event alloc $db $events
ns_fb event wait $db ; # process waiting for the occurence of the event
set out [ns_fb event catch $db $events]
ns_adp_puts "catched events: $out"
ns_db releasehandle $db

Nsfb

2006-10-06T12:21:18Z

Kotalr:

= nsfb 1.1 =
Created by [mailto:info@waplikace.cz Richard Kotal].

This is internal AOLserver database driver for Firebird|Interbase database (http://www.firebirdsql.org).
* support read and write BLOB data
* support read and write ARRAY data
* support full size of varchar (32765 bytes) or char (32767 bytes)
* support many configuration options such as charset, dialect, transaction isolation level, ...
* support all kind of the data types
* support for FB specific functions such as create and drop db, information about db connection
* support for FB events handle

[http://www.aolserver.cz/download.php Download page], [http://www.aolserver.cz/download/nsfb-1.1.tgz nsfb-1.1.tgz]

Simple sample (update array data):

set db [ns_db gethandle fb15]
ns_db dml $db "set transaction"
ns_db sp_start $db "update job set language_req = ? where job_code = 'CEO'"
ns_db sp_setparam $db "1" "" "in" "[list Eng "" Ger "" Itl]"
ns_db sp_exec $db
ns_db dml $db "commit"
ns_db releasehandle $db

Simple sample (synchronous waiting for events):

set db [ns_db gethandle fb15]
set events [list "DEC" "SUN" "HP"]
ns_fb event alloc $db $events
ns_fb event wait $db ; # process waiting for the occurence of the event
set out [ns_fb event catch $db $events]
ns_adp_puts "catched events: $out"
ns_db releasehandle $db

Nsgd

2006-09-14T12:36:31Z

Kotalr:

Updated by [mailto:info@waplikace.cz Richard Kotal].

This is AOLserver module (nsgd 2.0) that implements interface to gd library.
* support for aolserver 4.0.x (3.x)
* fix memory leak in tclGdWriteCmd function
* support for gif,wbmp,jpeg,gd,png formats
* fix mime-type bug in tclGdReturnCmd function
* support for true-color
* fix problem with gdImageFill function from gd

Download: [http://www.aolserver.cz/download.php Home page]

Nsunixodbc

2006-09-14T12:34:44Z

Kotalr:

Updated by [mailto:info@waplikace.cz Richard Kotal].

This is AOLserver module that implements internal driver for ODBC.
* support for aolserver 4.0.x (3.x)
* support for 32k varchar
* support unixODBC

Download: [http://www.aolserver.cz/download.php Home page]

Nsmsg

2006-09-14T12:33:26Z

Kotalr:

Created by [mailto:info@waplikace.cz Richard Kotal].

This is AOLserver module (nsmsg 1.0) that implements IPC message system.
* support for aolserver 4.0.x (3.x)

Download: [http://www.aolserver.cz/download.php Home page]

Nsfb

2006-09-14T12:28:53Z

Kotalr: /* nsfb 1.0 */

= nsfb 1.0 =
Created by [mailto:info@waplikace.cz Richard Kotal].

This is internal AOLserver database driver for Firebird|Interbase database (http://www.firebirdsql.org).
* support read and write BLOB data
* support read and write ARRAY data
* support full size of varchar (32765 bytes) or char (32767 bytes)
* support many configuration options such as charset, dialect, transaction isolation level, ...
* support all kind of the data types

[http://www.aolserver.cz/download.php Download page], [http://www.aolserver.cz/download/nsfb-1.0.tgz nsfb-1.0.tgz]

Simple sample (update array data):

set db [ns_db gethandle fb15]
ns_db dml $db "set transaction"
ns_db sp_start $db "update job set language_req = ? where job_code = 'CEO'"
ns_db sp_setparam $db "1" "" "in" "[list Eng "" Ger "" Itl]"
ns_db sp_exec $db
ns_db dml $db "commit"
ns_db releasehandle $db

Nsfb

2006-09-14T11:26:56Z

Kotalr:

= nsfb 1.0 =
Created by [mailto:richard.kotal@dolphingames.com Richard Kotal].

This is internal AOLserver database driver for Firebird|Interbase database (http://www.firebirdsql.org).
* support read and write BLOB data
* support read and write ARRAY data
* support full size of varchar (32765 bytes) or char (32767 bytes)
* support many configuration options such as charset, dialect, transaction isolation level, ...
* support all kind of the data types

[http://www.aolserver.cz/download.php Download page], [http://www.aolserver.cz/download/nsfb-1.0.tgz nsfb-1.0.tgz]

Simple sample (update array data):

set db [ns_db gethandle fb15]
ns_db dml $db "set transaction"
ns_db sp_start $db "update job set language_req = ? where job_code = 'CEO'"
ns_db sp_setparam $db "1" "" "in" "[list Eng "" Ger "" Itl]"
ns_db sp_exec $db
ns_db dml $db "commit"
ns_db releasehandle $db

Modules

2006-09-14T11:19:32Z

Kotalr: /* Database Drivers */

''See also: [[Toolkits]] and [[Languages]]''

''[[Jamie Rasmussen]] maintains a list of AOLserver modules tested against Windows[http://empoweringminds.spd.dcu.ie/openacs/aolserver_modules]. (Not recently updated - JR)''

== Standard Modules ==

AOLserver ships with the following modules:

* [[nscgi]] -- Standard CGI support for running external C programs, perl scripts etc.
* [[nscp]] -- Admin/debug support via a telnet like interface into a running server.
* [[nsdb]] -- The database interface, loads database specific drivers (below).
* [[nsext]] -- Communicates with external database drivers via proxy daemon.
* [[nslog]] -- Common log format or extended common log format access logging.
* [[nsperm]] -- Access control lists for groups/users, supports basic auth.
* [[nssock]] -- Standard [[socket driver]], used for HTTP requests.
* [[nsssl]] -- SSL [[socket driver]], links against proprietary RSA BSAFE library (not supplied).

== Database Drivers ==

AOLserver database drivers are either internal or external. Internal drivers are shared libraries that are loaded in-process with the webserver -- they provide the best performance. External drivers are shared libraries which are loaded by the AOLserver database proxy daemon [[nsext]], which communicates with the webserver process via sockets. The advantage of running the database driver external to the webserver is that it isolates buggy, non-threadsafe database access libraries. These days however this is largely unneccessary, and the external drivers are usually slower due to context switching overhead.

* [[nsfb]] -- Internal '''Firebird|Interbase''' driver.
* [[dqd_db2]] -- Internal '''IBM DB2''' driver (unmaintained).
* [[nsberkeleydb]] -- Internal '''BerkeleyDB''' driver.
* [[nsfreetds]] -- Internal MS '''SQL Server'''/'''Sybase''' driver.
* [[nsinformix]] -- Internal '''Informix''' driver.
* [[nsingres]] -- Internal '''Ingres r3''' driver.
* [[nsibasepd]] -- External '''Interbase''' driver.
* [[nsmysql]] -- Internal '''MySQL''' driver.
* [[nsodbc]] -- Internal '''ODBC''' driver.
* [[nsoracle]] -- Internal '''Oracle''' driver.
* [[nspostgres]] -- Internal '''PostgreSQL''' driver.
* [[nssolid]] -- Internal '''Solid''' driver.
* [[nssqlite2]] -- Internal '''SQLite v2''' driver.
* [[nssqlite3]] -- Internal '''SQLite v3''' driver.
* [[nsunixodbc]] -- Internal ODBC driver which uses the '''unixODBC''' driver.

== Encryption / Security ==

* [[nsblowfish]] -- Encrypt Tcl strings with Blowfish cypher and hex encode.
* [[nsencrypt]] -- Uses OpenSSL to encrypt using the AES, Blowfish, Cast5, IDEA and DES cyphers.
* [[nsnss]] -- New SSL [[socket driver]], links against Netscape's portable runtime (NSPR) and security services (NSS) libraries.
* [[nsopenssl]] -- SSL [[socket driver]] links against OpenSSL, and also provides client connection capabilities.
* [[nspasswd]] -- CRYPT, MD5, SMD5, SHA and SSHA hashing algorithms.
* [[nssha1]] -- AOLserver module to perform SHA1 hashes.
* [[nspam]] -- Interface to Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM).
* [[nsdigest]] -- Access control lists for groups/users (like [[nsperm]]), supports digest authentication.
* [[nsmhash]] -- Implementation of mhash library interface to hash, hmac and keygen algorithms (MD5,SHA1, ...). Available shared with nsv_*.
* [[nsmcrypt]] -- Implementation of mcrypt library interface to crypt,decrypt algorithms (blowfish, des, ...). Available shared with nsv_*.

== Virtual Hosting ==

AOLserver 2.x and 4.x have built-in support for software or name-based [[virtual hosting]], but AOLserver 3.x does not. Hardware virtual hosting (each server on its own port or IP) is supported across all three versions.

* [[nsvhr]] -- Redirecting proxy, passes virtualy hosted requests back to standalone server.
* [[nsunix]] -- [[socket driver]] for unix domain sockets, complements '''nsvhr'''.
* Patches to nsvhr and nsunix by [[Jerry Asher]] [http://web.hollyjerry.org:16080/]
* [[nssmartvh]] -- C and Tcl based smart virtual hosting module, by [[Zoro]]
* [[vat]] -- Tcl based Vhost Abstract Template Module, by [[Tom Jackson]]
* C-based virtual hosting module [http://deadlock.et.tudelft.nl/~daniel/vhost.html]
* [[nsvirthost]]

== Charting ==

* [[nsgdchart]] -- Generate png/jpg charts using open source gd library.
* [[nschartdir]] -- Generate charts using proprietary ChartDirector library.
* [[nsgd]] -- Generate png,jpg,wbmp,gif,... images using open source gd library.
* [[nsgraph]] --
* i-no graphing module using gd library (defunct: [http://www.i-no.com/art/inochart.html])

== XML ==

* [[tDOM]] -- a Tcl extension which provides XML/XSLT functionality.
* [[nsxml]] --
* [[nsexpat]] -- Interface to Expat

== Web Services ==

* [[nssoap]] -- ''unfinnished, unsupported''
* [[nsxmlrpc]] -- XML-RPC server and client API [http://openacs.org/sdm/one-package.tcl?package_id=12]

== WebDAV ==

* [[nsdav]] -- Port of Apache's WebDAV [http://www.webdav.org/mod_dav/] support for AOLserver.
* [[nswebdav]] --
* [[tDAV]] -- A WebDAV server module that uses [[tDOM]].

== Miscellaneous ==

* [[dqd_log]] -- Makes AOLserver log to a file descriptor.
* [[dqd_threadpool]] -- Job scheduling system with Tcl interface.
* [[dqd_utils]] -- collection of half a dozen small utility procs.
* [[nsadmin]] -- Database admin/log viewing features from v2 ported to v3.
* [[nsaspell]] -- Aspell Module [http://www.crystalballinc.com/vlad/software/]
* [[nsbinarysupport]] -- Write 8bit strings to connection without translation.
* [[nscache]] -- Tcl interface to AOLserver's caching API
* [[nsclamav]] -- ClamAV Anti-Virus Interface Module [http://www.crystalballinc.com/vlad/software/]
* [[nsdns]] -- DNS Server/Proxy Module [http://www.crystalballinc.com/vlad/software/]
* [[nsdqe]] -- Collection of utilities including caching, page counter, virtual hosting etc.
* [[nsexample]] -- An example module to help guide new module writers.
* [[nsfortune]] - Fortune like game module, uses real fortune files
* [[nsftp]] -- FTP server front end for AOLserver.
* [[nsfts]] -- Interface to Postgres full text search engine.
* [[nsimage]] -- returns sizes of various modules, implements [[ns_image]] & [[ns_pngsize]], replaces [[ns_jpegsize]] & [[ns_gifsize]]
* [[nsimap]] -- IMAP Module [http://www.crystalballinc.com/vlad/software/]
* [[nsjabber]] --
* [[nsjk2]] -- Jakarta connector
* [[nsldap]] -- LDAP client
* [[nsmaverix]] -- SMTP Proxy with anti-spam/anti-virus/whitelist/greylist/blacklist capabilities and Web interface [http://www.crystalballinc.com/vlad/software/maverix/]
* [[nsmsg]] - IPC message module for AOLserver
* [[ns_pkg]] -- Dynamic Tcl package loading.
* [[nspool]] -- Pools of sockets, pipes and external processes.
* [[nsprofile]] -- Time execution of Tcl commands.
* [[nsreturnz]] -- Gzip content encoding for dynamic requests.
* [[nsrewrite]] --
* [[nsroaming]] -- Netscape Navigator 4 Roaming Profiles.
* [[nssavi]] -- SOPHOS Anti-Virus Interface Module [http://www.crystalballinc.com/vlad/software/]
* [[nssession]] -- Session Management
* [[nssession (C module)]] -- Sessions implemented as a C module
* [[nssnmp]] -- SNMP Module [http://www.crystalballinc.com/vlad/software/]
* [[nssys]] - Unix system calls, including chmod, ioctl, fsstat, syslog, signal
* [[nstelemetry]] --
* [[nsthreadpool]] --
* [[nsuuid]] -- UUID generator module
* [[nszlib]] -- Zlib Module [http://www.crystalballinc.com/vlad/software/]
* [[nsperl]] -- Embedded Perl module (not production ready) [http://jam.sessionsnet.org/files/file?file_id=5477]

== Additional Software ==

* [[jk-voting]] -- Example DB based Voting Booth
* [http://bas.scheffers.net/aolserver/ Cache Tools], by [[Bas Scheffers]] -- I haven't worked with this or tested it in years, would like to hear from users!
* Tcl AutoLoader for AOLServer by Hal Heisler [http://www.heisler.net/hal]
* AOLserver 3.x Remote Administration Modules [http://www.scriptkitties.com/]
* HTTP Cookie Library [http://www.scriptkitties.com/]
* Simple-Templating System [http://www.oakroad.net/simple-templates/]
* [[nstest]]
* [[William Webb]] has a list of some unmaintained AOLserver software he created which may still be useful to you.
* AM.net[http://aolserver.am.net] maintains a page of AOLserver resources which includes an [[ADP]] pareser module and a module which fetches web pages.

[[Category:Documentation]]
[[Category:Modules]]

Nsmcrypt

2006-04-24T13:25:05Z

Kotalr:

= nsmcrypt 1.0 =
Created by [mailto:richard.kotal@dolphingames.com Richard Kotal].

This is AOLserver module (nsmcrypt 1.0) that implements interface to mcrypt library (http://mcrypt.sourceforge.net).
* tested with 2.5.7 version of mcrypt library
* support a lot of crypt algorithms (des, blowfish, rijndael, ...)
* support a lot of cipher mode (cbc, cfb, stream, ...)
* work with nsv_*. CRYPT object may be shared.

[http://www.aolserver.cz/download.php Download page], [http://www.aolserver.cz/download/nsmcrypt-1.0.tgz nsmcrypt-1.0.tgz]

Simple sample:

set td [ns_mcrypt new "rijndael-256" "ncfb"]
ns_mcrypt initvector set -hex $td "ab325897ffde"
ns_mcrypt init $td "foo"
set ctxt [ns_mcrypt crypt -in raw -out hex $td "foofoo"]
ns_mcrypt flush $td
ns_adp_puts "cipher text (hex string): $ctxt"
set detachid [ns_mcrypt detach $td]
nsv_set test test $detachid
set id [nsv_get test test]
set td [ns_mcrypt attach $id]
ns_mcrypt init $td "foo"
set ptxt [ns_mcrypt decrypt -in hex -out raw $td $ctxt]
ns_mcrypt destroy $td
ns_adp_puts plain decrypted text: $ptxt

'''result:'''
'''cipher text (hex string): d84d40f267c0'''
'''plain decrypted text: foofoo'''

Modules

2006-04-24T13:16:37Z

Kotalr: /* Encryption / Security */

''See also: [[Toolkits]] and [[Languages]]''

''[[Jamie Rasmussen]] maintains a list of AOLserver modules tested against Windows[http://empoweringminds.spd.dcu.ie/openacs/aolserver_modules]. (Not recently updated - JR)''

== Standard Modules ==

AOLserver ships with the following modules:

* [[nscgi]] -- Standard CGI support for running external C programs, perl scripts etc.
* [[nscp]] -- Admin/debug support via a telnet like interface into a running server.
* [[nsdb]] -- The database interface, loads database specific drivers (below).
* [[nsext]] -- Communicates with external database drivers via proxy daemon.
* [[nslog]] -- Common log format or extended common log format access logging.
* [[nsperm]] -- Access control lists for groups/users, supports basic auth.
* [[nssock]] -- Standard [[socket driver]], used for HTTP requests.
* [[nsssl]] -- SSL [[socket driver]], links against proprietary RSA BSAFE library (not supplied).

== Database Drivers ==

AOLserver database drivers are either internal or external. Internal drivers are shared libraries that are loaded in-process with the webserver -- they provide the best performance. External drivers are shared libraries which are loaded by the AOLserver database proxy daemon [[nsext]], which communicates with the webserver process via sockets. The advantage of running the database driver external to the webserver is that it isolates buggy, non-threadsafe database access libraries. These days however this is largely unneccessary, and the external drivers are usually slower due to context switching overhead.

* [[dqd_db2]] -- Internal '''IBM DB2''' driver (unmaintained).
* [[nsberkeleydb]] -- Internal '''BerkeleyDB''' driver.
* [[nsfreetds]] -- Internal MS '''SQL Server'''/'''Sybase''' driver.
* [[nsinformix]] -- Internal '''Informix''' driver.
* [[nsingres]] -- Internal '''Ingres r3''' driver.
* [[nsibasepd]] -- External '''Interbase''' driver.
* [[nsmysql]] -- Internal '''MySQL''' driver.
* [[nsodbc]] -- Internal '''ODBC''' driver.
* [[nsoracle]] -- Internal '''Oracle''' driver.
* [[nspostgres]] -- Internal '''PostgreSQL''' driver.
* [[nssolid]] -- Internal '''Solid''' driver.
* [[nssqlite2]] -- Internal '''SQLite v2''' driver.
* [[nssqlite3]] -- Internal '''SQLite v3''' driver.
* [[nsunixodbc]] -- Internal ODBC driver which uses the '''unixODBC''' driver.

== Encryption / Security ==

* [[nsblowfish]] -- Encrypt Tcl strings with Blowfish cypher and hex encode.
* [[nsencrypt]] -- Uses OpenSSL to encrypt using the AES, Blowfish, Cast5, IDEA and DES cyphers.
* [[nsnss]] -- New SSL [[socket driver]], links against Netscape's portable runtime (NSPR) and security services (NSS) libraries.
* [[nsopenssl]] -- SSL [[socket driver]] links against OpenSSL, and also provides client connection capabilities.
* [[nspasswd]] -- CRYPT, MD5, SMD5, SHA and SSHA hashing algorithms.
* [[nssha1]] -- AOLserver module to perform SHA1 hashes.
* [[nspam]] -- Interface to Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM).
* [[nsdigest]] -- Access control lists for groups/users (like [[nsperm]]), supports digest authentication.
* [[nsmhash]] -- Implementation of mhash library interface to hash, hmac and keygen algorithms (MD5,SHA1, ...). Available shared with nsv_*.
* [[nsmcrypt]] -- Implementation of mcrypt library interface to crypt,decrypt algorithms (blowfish, des, ...). Available shared with nsv_*.

== Virtual Hosting ==

AOLserver 2.x and 4.x have built-in support for software or name-based [[virtual hosting]], but AOLserver 3.x does not. Hardware virtual hosting (each server on its own port or IP) is supported across all three versions.

* [[nsvhr]] -- Redirecting proxy, passes virtualy hosted requests back to standalone server.
* [[nsunix]] -- [[socket driver]] for unix domain sockets, complements '''nsvhr'''.
* Patches to nsvhr and nsunix by [[Jerry Asher]] [http://web.hollyjerry.org:16080/]
* [[nssmartvh]] -- C and Tcl based smart virtual hosting module, by [[Zoro]]
* [[vat]] -- Tcl based Vhost Abstract Template Module, by [[Tom Jackson]]
* C-based virtual hosting module [http://deadlock.et.tudelft.nl/~daniel/vhost.html]
* [[nsvirthost]]

== Charting ==

* [[nsgdchart]] -- Generate png/jpg charts using open source gd library.
* [[nschartdir]] -- Generate charts using proprietary ChartDirector library.
* [[nsgd]] -- Generate png,jpg,wbmp,gif,... images using open source gd library.
* [[nsgraph]] --
* i-no graphing module using gd library (defunct: [http://www.i-no.com/art/inochart.html])

== XML ==

* [[tDOM]] -- a Tcl extension which provides XML/XSLT functionality.
* [[nsxml]] --
* [[nsexpat]] -- Interface to Expat

== Web Services ==

* [[nssoap]] -- ''unfinnished, unsupported''
* [[nsxmlrpc]] -- XML-RPC server and client API [http://openacs.org/sdm/one-package.tcl?package_id=12]

== WebDAV ==

* [[nsdav]] -- Port of Apache's WebDAV [http://www.webdav.org/mod_dav/] support for AOLserver.
* [[nswebdav]] --
* [[tDAV]] -- A WebDAV server module that uses [[tDOM]].

== Miscellaneous ==

* [[dqd_log]] -- Makes AOLserver log to a file descriptor.
* [[dqd_threadpool]] -- Job scheduling system with Tcl interface.
* [[dqd_utils]] -- collection of half a dozen small utility procs.
* [[nsadmin]] -- Database admin/log viewing features from v2 ported to v3.
* [[nsaspell]] -- Aspell Module [http://www.crystalballinc.com/vlad/software/]
* [[nsbinarysupport]] -- Write 8bit strings to connection without translation.
* [[nscache]] -- Tcl interface to AOLserver's caching API
* [[nsclamav]] -- ClamAV Anti-Virus Interface Module [http://www.crystalballinc.com/vlad/software/]
* [[nsdns]] -- DNS Server/Proxy Module [http://www.crystalballinc.com/vlad/software/]
* [[nsdqe]] -- Collection of utilities including caching, page counter, virtual hosting etc.
* [[nsexample]] -- An example module to help guide new module writers.
* [[nsfortune]] - Fortune like game module, uses real fortune files
* [[nsftp]] -- FTP server front end for AOLserver.
* [[nsfts]] -- Interface to Postgres full text search engine.
* [[nsimage]] -- returns sizes of various modules, implements [[ns_image]] & [[ns_pngsize]], replaces [[ns_jpegsize]] & [[ns_gifsize]]
* [[nsimap]] -- IMAP Module [http://www.crystalballinc.com/vlad/software/]
* [[nsjabber]] --
* [[nsjk2]] -- Jakarta connector
* [[nsldap]] -- LDAP client
* [[nsmaverix]] -- SMTP Proxy with anti-spam/anti-virus/whitelist/greylist/blacklist capabilities and Web interface [http://www.crystalballinc.com/vlad/software/maverix/]
* [[nsmsg]] - IPC message module for AOLserver
* [[ns_pkg]] -- Dynamic Tcl package loading.
* [[nspool]] -- Pools of sockets, pipes and external processes.
* [[nsprofile]] -- Time execution of Tcl commands.
* [[nsreturnz]] -- Gzip content encoding for dynamic requests.
* [[nsrewrite]] --
* [[nsroaming]] -- Netscape Navigator 4 Roaming Profiles.
* [[nssavi]] -- SOPHOS Anti-Virus Interface Module [http://www.crystalballinc.com/vlad/software/]
* [[nssession]] -- Session Management
* [[nssnmp]] -- SNMP Module [http://www.crystalballinc.com/vlad/software/]
* [[nssys]] - Unix system calls, including chmod, ioctl, fsstat, syslog, signal
* [[nstelemetry]] --
* [[nsthreadpool]] --
* [[nsuuid]] -- UUID generator module
* [[nszlib]] -- Zlib Module [http://www.crystalballinc.com/vlad/software/]
* [[nsperl]] -- Embedded Perl module (not production ready) [http://jam.sessionsnet.org/files/file?file_id=5477]

== Additional Software ==

* [[jk-voting]] -- Example DB based Voting Booth
* [http://bas.scheffers.net/aolserver/ Cache Tools], by [[Bas Scheffers]] -- I haven't worked with this or tested it in years, would like to hear from users!
* Tcl AutoLoader for AOLServer by Hal Heisler [http://www.heisler.net/hal]
* AOLserver 3.x Remote Administration Modules [http://www.scriptkitties.com/]
* HTTP Cookie Library [http://www.scriptkitties.com/]
* Simple-Templating System [http://www.oakroad.net/simple-templates/]
* [[nstest]]
* [[William Webb]] has a list of some unmaintained AOLserver software he created which may still be useful to you.
* AM.net[http://aolserver.am.net] maintains a page of AOLserver resources which includes an [[ADP]] pareser module and a module which fetches web pages.

[[Category:Documentation]]
[[Category:Modules]]