Httpd Written In Postscript? Shell?

eMBee writes: "You thought the kernel-httpd is weird? then look at these: a shell script, and another one in Postscript." Ya know, this kinda stuff gives me faith in humanity. Faith that we've evolved too far: it's time to back-up to, say ... using bone chips as knives ;)

Comments

Why only the httpd?

[yiegie]

I've heard some people are building an entire operating system in LISP

YDD

Re:Why only the httpd?

[Anonymous Coward]

(repost; better formatted)

A modestly ugly HTTP server written in emacs lisp.

;;; Luke's Emacs Webserver ("LEW" aka "Loo" aka any toilet joke you please)
;;; Copyright (C) 1998-1999 Luke Gorrie
;;;
;;; This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
;;; modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
;;; as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
;;; of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
;;;
;;; This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
;;; but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
;;; MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
;;; GNU General Public License for more details.
;;;
;;; You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
;;; along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
;;; Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.

;;; TODO list:
;;; support HEAD requests
;;; add some sort of dynamic content facility, either for elisp `servlets' or cgi

;;; $Id: http-server.el,v 1.2 1999/07/01 19:01:06 luke Exp luke $

(setq http-hits 0)

;;; configuration

(setq http-404-message
(concat "File not found."
"File not found"
"

"
"The file requested does not exist, or is not a regular file, "
"or something."
""))

;; regex path -> mime-type mappings
(setq mimetypes-alist
'(("\\.gif" .
"image/gif")
("\\.jpg" .
"image/jpeg")
("\\.png" .
"image/png")
("\\.\\(el\\|txt\\|erl\\|scm\\)" .
"text/plain")
("\\.html" .
"text/html")
("\\.\\(tar\\|gz\\|tgz\\|zip\\|exe\\|pdf\\|ps\\)" .
"application/octet-stream")))

;; document root directory
(setq document-base "/mnt/baked/www/vegetable.org")

;;; http server code

;; open a socket to the connection-connector with a transaction callback to
;; serve the request when it arrives
(defun offer-http-service ()
(let ((service-successful nil))
(unwind-protect
(progn
(lexical-let ((proc (open-network-stream "bar" "baz" "localhost" 8012)))
(set-process-sentinel proc 'http-sentinel)
(let ((tq (tq-create proc)))
(tq-enqueue tq "" ".*\r\n\r\n" "Http Connection"
#'(lambda (closure answer)
(lexical-let ((answer answer))
(handle-http-request proc answer))))))
(setq service-successful t))
(if (not service-successful)
(progn (offer-http-service) (message "service failed"))))))

;; called if there's an error in between offer-http-service
;; and handle-http-request -- usually when the connection is broken
(defun http-sentinel (proc sentinel)
(offer-http-service))

;; read a file as a string
(defun filestring (filename)
(save-excursion
(switch-to-buffer "*loading-work*")
(insert-file-contents filename)
(let ((contents (buffer-string)))
(kill-buffer "*loading-work*")
contents)))

(defun process-send-file (process filename)
(save-excursion
(switch-to-buffer "*loading-work*")
(insert-file-contents filename)
(mark-whole-buffer)
(process-send-region process (point) (mark))
(kill-buffer "*loading-work")))

;; returns the file length
(defun load-file-for-io (filename)
(save-excursion
(switch-to-buffer "*loading-work*")
(insert-file-contents filename)
(mark-whole-buffer)
(- (mark) (point))))

(defun send-current-file (process)
(save-excursion
(switch-to-buffer "*loading-work*")
(mark-whole-buffer)
(process-send-region process (point) (mark))
(kill-buffer "*loading-work*")))

;; handle a http request. Takes a process and request with headers,
;; and sends the response
(defun handle-http-request (proc request)
(unwind-protect
(progn
(string-match "\\( \\)\\(.*\\)\\( \\)" request)
(let ((r-path (concat document-base (match-string 2 request))))
(message r-path)
;; append "index.html" to and directory name
(if (string-match "/$" r-path)
(setq r-path (concat r-path "index.html")))
;; protect against accessing ../../ to get above document base
(if (string-match "\\.\\." r-path)
(setq r-path (concat document-base "/index.html")))
;; file exists?
(if (file-regular-p r-path)
(let ((length (load-file-for-io r-path)))
(message "request")
(process-send-string
proc (concat "HTTP/1.0 200 OK\r\n"
"Content-Type: "
(get-mimetype r-path mimetypes-alist "text/html")
"\r\n"
"Content-length: "
(number-to-string length) "\r\n"
"Server: " (version) "\r\n"
"Last-Modified: " (current-time-string) "\r\n"
"Connection: close\r\n"
"\r\n"
))
(send-current-file proc))
;; not a regular file
(process-send-string
proc (concat "HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found\r\n"
"Connection: close\r\n"
"Content-Type: text/html\r\n"
"\r\n"
http-404-message)))
(delete-process proc)
(setq http-hits (+ 1 http-hits)))))
(offer-http-service))

;; show number of hits
(defun show-http-stats ()
(message (concat "HTTP hits: " (number-to-string http-hits))))

;; determine the mimetype of path
(defun get-mimetype (path map default)
(if (eq map nil)
default
(let ((element (car map)))
(if (string-match (car element) path)
(cdr element)
(get-mimetype path (cdr map) default)))))

Re:Why only the httpd?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, Rob, why isn't there a 'stupid' moderation option? There doesn't need to be, it's already assumed.

My gosh. It's only a matter of time

[ghazban]

until... web browser include http servers in their scripting language... so warez kiddies can setup their own http servers really easily, hell.. it happened with xmms and icecast.. ;)

PS Source Code (GPL)

[Mignon]

"To install it, run from inetd:"

8080 stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/gs gs -dNODISPLAY -q \
/home/pugo/src/postscript/pshttpd/pshttpd.ps

Here's the source, in case the server gets PSDotted:

%! %================================================= == % PS-HTTPD V1.0 %
Copyright 2000 Anders Karlsson, pugo@pugo.org % License: GNU General Public License
%=============================================== ==== /get_file % read file /infile
and send it to %stdout { /buff 2048 string def { % loop infile buff readstring { stdout exch writestring
} { stdout exch writestring infile closefile exit } ifelse } bind loop } def /read_command % read
command from stdin and define it to /command { /stdin (%stdin) (r) file def /inbuff 256 string def
stdin inbuff readline pop /command exch def } def /concatstr % (a) (b) -- (ab) { /beta exch def /alfa
exch def /buffer 1024 string def alfa buffer copy pop buffer alfa length beta putinterval buffer (\000)
search pop exch pop exch pop } def /hitcount { /hitfile (/usr/local/psweb/hits) (r) file def /hits 16
string def hitfile hits readstring pop hitfile closefile /hitfile (/usr/local/psweb/hits) (w+) file def cvi 1
add hits cvs hitfile exch writestring hitfile closefile } def /print_header { stdout (HTTP/1.0 200
OK\n\n) writestring % stdout (Server: PS-HTTPD/1.0\n) writestring % stdout (Content-type:
text/html\n) writestring } def /parse_result { command token { (GET) eq { ( ) search { root exch
concatstr % build path /filename exch def pop pop % define filename and clean stack filename
filename length 1 sub 1 getinterval (/) eq { filename (index.html) concatstr /filename exch def } if %
add index.html filename (..) search { stdout (4711 Stupid user error!\n\n) writestring quit } if pop
filename /infile exch (r) file def % open file print_header get_file } if } if } if } def % Init
environment /stdout (%stdout) (w) file def /command () def % Root-path (root of WWW-pages)
/root (/usr/local/psweb) def %% Uncomment this and place a file named "/usr/local/psweb/hits" %%
(you can change the path in hitcount above) containing only a "0" to %% get a hitcount % % hitcount
% add one to the hitcount % Read a command from the server read_command parse_result quit

(OT) Retro technology comes full circle

[Morbid Curiosity]

"... it's time to back-up to, say ... using bone chips as knives"

Funny you should mention that - a lot of very delicate eye-surgery these days is done with glass or obsidian knives because at the small sizes needed they're a lot sharper than steel. The blades are flaked by Aleuts, who've been fashioning such knives for centuries, because they're the only ones who still have the skills to do it (incidentally making some of the most dangerous water-based weaponry in the world).

OK, it's mostly off-topic, but it's still damned cool :-)

Re:(OT) Retro technology comes full circle

[goliard]

I, too, have been informed (when I worked at the Exploratorium) that napped obsidian blades are used for surgery. The reason given was that obsidian can be napped down to monomolecular edges. These are, of course, incredibly fragile. Obsidian can be napped absolutely smooth (no burs), because it naps along a grain. In obsidian the grain is curved, so you get a scalpel-shape naturually. I see no reason they wouldn't be easy to sterilize: obsidian is volcanic glass, and as easy to sterilize as a test tube.

As it happened, while I was working in the Exploratorium, they had an obsidian napper as a guest artist a couple of times. Intrigued by this idea, I used a couple of his shards -- not blades, just leftovers -- to perform an eye dissection. They worked quite well.

As to whether they are actually being used, or who would be manufacturing them, I could not say.

FYI, for Stephenson fans: I have also done stained glass work, and broken/cut/ground a fair amount of window glass. Normal window glass doesn't have much of a grain, and I don't think it can be napped worth a damn. It's not like obsidian at all.
----------------------------------------------

dd/sh

[oyvindmo]

Some years ago, somebody set out to implement various things using only dd and sh. Their accomplishments included a text editor, a web server and -- to prove a point -- a Turing machine. The things could be found on the now non-existant http://dd.sh/ (fantastic, eh? :) but are now located on http://www.assurdo.com/dd.sh/. These things warm my heart. *happy sigh*

PostScript flexibility

[Tet]

Few people realise that PostScript is a full programming language, not just a page description language for printers (for the uninitiated, it's similar to Forth -- remember the Jupiter Ace?). I used to have a ray tracing program that someone had written in PostScript (in under 2K as well!). Of course, performance wasn't too great...

Re:PostScript flexibility

[Tet]

Somewhere I still have a Jupiter Ace... it's probably being kept company by my Sinclair QL

I can do better than that. Although I never had a QL, I do have a BT Merlin Tonto phone. It's basically a QL with a handset bolted onto the side! Complete with twin microdrives and all. It's very cool having a phone that you can program (even if it is in basic). It also had a great UI. Pick up the phone and type a 3 digit mnemonic representing whoever it is you want to call, and it dials the number for you. I just wish there was a modern equivalent...

HTTPD in assembler

[Anonymous Coward]

At the asmutils page. 586 bytes standalone executable. Make that!

Best regards,
The Anonymous Coward from Estern Europe

Jigsaw

[David A. Madore]

While we're talking about HTTPD's written in various languages, the W3 Consortium has written a free (as in speech) HTTPD entirely in Java for maximal portability: Jigsaw (see also the Jigsaw test site — that is, let's see how Jigsaw reacts to being slashdotted:-).

As you can guess, Jigsaw is fully HTTP/1.1 compliant (last time I checked, Apache still had some problems with that). While it's certainly much less efficient than Apache, it's probably also more flexible, modular and reusable. Personaly I haven't given it more than a cursory glance: I wonder if some people have tried it more thoroughly and would care to review its pros and cons?

Re:Jigsaw

[hargettp]

I use to run Jigsaw at home to serve up various documents on my network and to test server-based programming (Perl/CGI, Java servlets, etc.).

As a positive, Jigsaw is a feature rich server.

- Permits configuration of MIME types, content negotiation

- Security-based access to selected resources (not SSL--just standard HTTP USER and PASSWORD authentication)

- A Java-based admin tool suitable for remote administration

- Support for virtual servers

- Enables server-side processing, such as server side includes, CGI (through executables or through interpreters such as Perl), servlets, and a form of page scripting that allowed Java to be embedded in HTML (pre-JSP), among other techniques.

- Conformance to current specifications.

Eventually, I've abandoned Jigsaw, preferring either Apache or Tomcat. Here are my reasons:

- Performance. Although Jigsaw is not abominable, this was never a fast server.

- Frequent hangs. Although it is possible this was a WinNT issue, I found Jigsaw would frequently hang, often while serving images (?) for a document. On NT it would hang so badly Windows Explorer itself would no longer be able to display images for Web Folders unless I rebooted.

- An arcane architectural model. Jigsaw has a very powerful yet very abstract design based upon resources, frames, and filters. Sure, that was great for providing nearly limitless ways of customizing it's behaviour, but it was pretty hard to figure out what type of class to extend in order to customize the server. Frankly, servlets +JSP+all else Java give me just about all the customization I need.

- Slow integration with non-W3C standards. That's definitely a whine, but Jigsaw was usually a fraction of a step behind Sun's latest servlet spec, and took forever to adopt JSP in place of it's own Java-in-HTML service (although I did like their implementation). In fairness, this has been simply because W3C hasn't had resources for more than 1 or 2 people to handle the code, and the original author has unfortunately moved on from the W3C.

So, I haven't found Jigsaw worth running on a regular basis, but I will leave you with this: there's a *heck* of a lot of free code inside that server, so if nothing else one can learn from their design and even borrow some bits (haven't checked the license recently) for other projects. Good source of samples for Java network programming.

My $.02

In shell

[David A. Madore]

It's too easy. Try this for example:

#! /bin/sh
# Set the following to the location of Apache:
APACHE_LOC=/opt/apache/bin/httpd
exec $APACHE_LOC "$@"
exit 1

Re:In shell

[David A. Madore]

Easy:

`r`.n`.e`.d`.d`.i`.b`.r`.o`.F`. `.3`.0`.4i

GS is cheating

[Bassthang]

Running it under Ghostscript is cheating. Now, if you could actually run a web-server from a Postscript printer, that would impress me ...!

Re:GS is cheating

[Megane]

Later model Apple Laserwriters do have an Ethernet port, but no TCP/IP stack that I am aware of. Would it be cheating to set up a protocol proxy to translate TCP/IP into PAP (Printer Access Protocol)? Would it be cheating to also translate the request into a Postscript command?

But the real problem with running it on a real printer is that older (pre-EnergyStar) laser printers suck electricity like crazy. Once I decided to leave my Laserwriter (a IIntx at the time) on continously for a whole month. At the time I lived in a small apartment, with a $35/mo average electric bill, and leaving the printer on caused it to jump by about $20!

Re:GS is cheating

[alannon]

I have a LaserWriter II with a IIg board in it, and I'm pretty sure that it drops to a low power mode after being idle for 5 minutes or so, since the fuser goes cold, and after an extended period the printer takes a minute or two to print something, needing to warm up first.
I seriously would recommend getting yourself a IIg, as it has an Ethernet port and far better print quality than the IIntx.
I actually find it amazing that Apple was able to produce a print engine (the LaserWriter II) that sold for 8 or 9 years, though 5 I/O board revisions, before finally being retired, and that a IISC (1 Meg of Ram, Postscript 1) can be upgraded to a IIf (up to 32 megs of RAM, Ethernet and Postscript II) by a simple I/O board swap.

Re:GS is cheating

[Grimoire]

The IBM Network Color Laser printer has a builtin web & ftp server. You can manage the printer via www and submit jobs via ftp. This is the OEM version of a printer made by Cannon. Not sure if the Cannon model is still available but I know the IBM model was discontinued awhile back.

12PPM in B/W 4 in color. I put 32MB memory in it and it had it's own LPR spooler with a 480Mb (I think) HD in it. Sweet printer.

Re:GS is cheating

[Megane]

All Laserwriter II models use the same engine. The engine is the problem. It was not designed to have a power saving mode. OTOH, Apple has made at least one model of printer (the Personal LW 600, I think -- whatever it is, it's a QuickDraw printer) that doesn't even have a power switch!

And yes, I do have a IIg board now. That's why I said it was a IIntx back then. In fact, I now have two spare IInt printers and passed up another because they are so old they show up cheap (like $15-20!) at thrift stores these days.

Coding in unusual languages

[Nilz]

Despite the funny things about it, I like these 'senseless' projects of programming. They sometimes show up possibilities nobody ever expected.

A good example is 'The Towers of Babylon' programmed on the editor VI.

About ten years ago I 'programmed' a Texas Instuments 53 pocket calculator. With just 32 commands and almost no memory (one number could be stored) I was able to program the square root function. OK, it was about 20 times slower and also not as accurate as the square root key of the calculator, but, hey!, it worked! ;o)

Actually I'm messing around with CGI and WAP. Right now I'm focussing on a script that sends a 'whois' query to a bot placed in the IRCnet and displays it on the mobile phone. No one I talked to thought this script has any sense. Well, I'm not sure, but it's fun to program!

Re:Coding in unusual languages

[Titanhead]

Remember this page?
It has implementations for "99 bottles of beer" in over 200 languages, including some really obscure ones. (trumpet winsock, turing machine, pov-ray just to mention a few).
Have a look and laugh.

bash-httpd

[Morty]

Writing a web server in sh-style shell is relatively easy. Here's mine:

bash-httpd

But writing one is postscript is cool. :)

Remember the Atari server? That was BASIC

[Pflipp]

Hi,

Some time ago someone posted on slashdot about an Atari 800 server. I was one of the lucky to get through the "slashdot effect", and I saw the source code of this thing. It was in BASIC. It first redirected the output, and then it went like:

40 PRINT ""
50 PRINT "This page serverd by Atari"

...ertc.

Great.

Haven't figured out yet how Postscript should be executable, though. This time I haven't yet get through the /.ted page.


It's... It's...

virii?

[Pflipp]

Hi,

It should, then, be so damn easy to embed a virus in a PostScript document, right? Or am I being paranoia? (Or has it been done n times before, and didn't I notice?)

(BTW at my last post (just above) the HTML tags have fallen away cause I had Extrans on. I don't understand: if I want these tags to work (like here) they never do. Whatever.)


It's... It's...

Way back then

[redhog]

Way back then, there was an entire computer system type that run LISP as its machine language. They had an entire LISP OS, and even a windowing system. Everything written in LISP. History repeats... Soon, all our programs will be scriptable with guile...

As with Pugo - he's a real freak (I know him personally)...
--The knowledge that you are an idiot, is what distinguishes you from one.

Re:Way back then

[dlc]

• Everything written in LISP. History repeats...

Not repeats, recurses ...

darren

Cthulhu for President!

secure sh-httpd?

[kijiki]

Man, trying to secure a httpd written in sh is gonna suck. Just for starters, try:
http://jester.vip.net.pl:8081/../../../../../../ ../../../../etc/passwd

It also appears you can execute arbitrary commands by changing your reverse DNS to contain the command and '|', ';' and/or '&'.

There is a good reason not to write CGI scripts in shell, and an even better one not to write a whole httpd!

httpd written in hell - are you talking about IIS?

[xmedh02]

OOPS, a typo. :-)

Where's OOG the Caveman when you need him?

[Netsnipe]

"Faith that we've evolved too far: it's time to back-up to, say ... using bone chips as knives ;)"

Httpd can be written in something more primitive than Postscript or shell script, let alone Lisps. All we have to do is get OOG the Caveman to write it up in simple grunts and groans. Throw in a few cave paintings and it'll even have a state of the art GUI!

Then caveman shall once again rule the world. Don't forget to pay him in dead sabre-tooth carcasses and mammoth skins!

Re:Symbolics Lisp Machine (was Re:Way back then)

[daviddennis]

I used a Lisp machine at MIT in the late 1970s.

There were a lot of really cool things about it, but it was way ahead of its time in terms of computing power. The mouse action was so sluggish it gave me an intense prejudice against GUIs which lived on for decades.

D

----

Re:What is the point of shell scripts?

[darango]

Because building good things is not limited to the likes of folks who think everything has to be re-written from scratch just becuase we have fancy new tools.

Shell scripts and their bretheren (perl, tcl/tk, python) are great glue-ware for folks who are smart enough to realize that the wheel does not need to be redesigned every few years. I can glue together existing command line tools using a few well-written lines of script to perform complex tasks that the original developers of CLI tools could not imagine.

I am thankful that CLI tool builders use stdin and stdout so that my tools can feed and be fed.

In short, people still pulling out their visual IDE tools are the people that are holding the information revoltion back. We must embrace the existing technologies and tools that make our life easier rather than waste our time building everything from scratch, simply because they are old.

Big Deal

[roman_mir]

I heard about a company who wrote a graphical interface to a 4 bit operating system and called the whole thing NT Server!

Re:From the i-cant-connect dept.

[PollMastah]

Indeed. All too often, we see the Recursive Slashdot Problem... slashdotters attract more people to slashdot, and so slashdot slashdots more sites causing more slashdotters to come to slashdot, with the slashdot effect that slashdot becomes slashdotted because of the slashdot effect caused by slashdotters endlessly slashdotting on slashdot and slashdotting more sites bringing more slashdotters to the slashdotted slashdot...

Gah, I lost my train of thought ... my brain got slashdotted! :-P

First mp3 Stream Was written in Shell Script

[szyzyg]

Beleive it or not there is a point to coding things in shell script... speed of development.

My first version of mp3 server was written in less than an hour using bash and a few unix commands. Sox would record from the sound card, pipe the pcm audio to l3enc which would write an mp3 stream to a file. Meanwhile netcat would listen for connections and start 'tail -f mp3file' to send the 'live' data to the client.

Mp3 streaming in the days before winamp was even capable of recieving mp3 streams, never mind sending them to shoutcast.

The Poll Mastah's Poll Suggestion of the Day

[PollMastah]

What is the best language to implement HTTPD in?

1. C... because httpd is written in C
2. C++... because it's OO and therefore it is better by definition.
3. BASH... because you wanna bash competing httpd's
4. CSH... because "csh" sounds cooler than "bash"
5. AWK... because it represents the evolved single syllable from caveman language (cf. UF comic strip)
6. sed... because it's all about text-processing isn't it?
7. grep... because that's the closest thing to something you can grok...
8. Lisp... becauspe web spelling isp so bad is soundsp like lisping
9. ELisp... because Emacs is an operating system
10. PostScript... because those dumb Web designers got it all backwards!
11. Java... I mean, how else would you taut compatibility with JavaScript?!?!
12. Visual Basic... because webpages must be visual and basic enough for people to understand
13. Horn shell... I mean, what about all that pr0n?! (And yes this is a deliberate mispelling of Korn shell)
14. Perl... after all, that's all the Web is: pathologically eclectic rubbish listings!
15. Slashcode... because Slashdot is all geeks ever need on the Web!!!

Web Fileserver written in MS Word VBA

[dildog]

I wrote this thing a while back to serve files on and off of a machine when a Word document is opened. Try downloading this, and running it with macros enabled. Then browse to your own port 80. If you don't trust word macros, take a look at the source first with the visual basic editor. Requires Office 2000, but will work with Office 97 if you convert it down.

http://www3.l0pht.com/~dildog/webserver.doc

Note that you can upload files, download them, execute programs, and change file attributes by clicking on them in the directory list. The webserver shuts down when they close the document though, since I didn't bother to try to make the tool any more insidious than it was already.

Have fun.

Re:From the i-cant-connect dept.

[z4ce]

dang sed s/slashdot/geek on this post and JonKatz has a new article:)

Try "cat"

[thisrod]

Andrew Tridgell metioned at a Canberra Linux User Group meeting a few years ago that at first, when the SAMBA project website consisted of one page, it was served by a "cat foo" line in inetd.conf on some machine at ANU; foo was a file containing some http response headers and the page. He figured this would be simpler than installing and configuring apache. I don't think you can get much simpler than that.