BOA(8) Version 0.94 BOA(8)
Jan 22 2000
NAME
boa - a single-tasking high performance
SYNOPSIS
boa [ -c server_root ]
DESCRIPTION
Boa is a single-tasking HTTP server. That means that unlike
traditional web servers, it does not fork for each incoming
connection, nor does it fork many copies of itself to handle multiple
connections. It internally multiplexes all of the ongoing HTTP
connections, and forks only for CGI programs (which must be separate
processes.) Preliminary tests show Boa is more than twice as fast as
Apache.
The primary design goals of Boa are speed and security. Security, in
the sense of "can't be subverted by a malicious user", not "fine
grained access control and encrypted communications". Boa is not
intended as a feature-packed server; if you want one of those, check
out WN from John Franks. Modifications to Boa that improve its speed,
security, robustness, and portability, are eagerly sought. Other
features may be added if they can be achieved without hurting the
primary goals.
OPTIONS
The -c option chooses a server root overriding the default SERVER_ROOT
#define in defines.h
The server root must hold your local copy of the configuration file
boa.conf
FILES
boa.conf
This file is the sole configuration file for Boa. The directives
in this file are defined in the DIRECTIVES section.
mime.types
The MimeTypes <filename> defines what Content-Type Boa will send
in an HTTP/1.0 or better transaction.
DIRECTIVES
The Boa configuration file is parsed with a lex/yacc or flex/bison
generated parser. If it reports an error, the line number will be
provided; it should be easy to spot. The syntax of each of these
rules is very simple, and they can occur in any order. Where
possible, these directives mimic those of NCSA httpd 1.3; I (Paul
Phillips) saw no reason to introduce gratuitous differences.
Note: the "ServerRoot" is not in this configuration file. It can be
compiled into the server (see defines.h ) or specified on the command
line with the -c option.
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The following directives are contained in the boa.conf file, and most,
but not all, are required.
Port <integer>
This is the port that Boa runs on. The default port for http
servers is 80. If it is less than 1024, the server must be
started as root.
User <user name or UID>
The name or UID the server should run as. For Boa to attempt
this, the server must be started as root.
Group <group name or GID>
The group name or GID the server should run as. For Boa to
attempt this, the server must be started as root.
ServerAdmin <email address>
The email address where server problems should be sent. Note:
this is not currently used.
ErrorLog <filename>
The location of the error log file. If this does not start with
/, it is considered relative to the server root. Set to
/dev/null if you don't want errors logged.
AccessLog <filename>
The location of the access log file. If this does not start with
/, it is considered relative to the server root. Comment out or
set to /dev/null (less effective) to disable access logging.
VerboseCGILogs
This is a logical switch and does not take any parameters.
Comment out to disable.
ServerName <server_name>
The name of this server that should be sent back to clients if
different than that returned by gethostname. VirtualHost This is
a logical switch and does not take any parameters. Comment out
to disable. Given DocumentRoot /var/www, requests on interface
'A' or IP 'IP-A' become /var/www/IP-A. Example:
http://localhost/ becomes /var/www/127.0.0.1
DocumentRoot <directory>
The root directory of the HTML documents. If this does not start
with /, it is considered relative to the server root.
UserDir <directory>
The name of the directory which is appended onto a user's home
directory if a ~user request is received.
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DirectoryIndex <filename>
Name of the file to use as a pre-written HTML directory index.
Please make and use these files. On the fly creation of
directory indexes can be slow.
DirectoryMaker <directory>
Name of the program used to generate on-the-fly directory
listings. The program must take one or two command-line
arguments, the first being the directory to index (absolute), and
the second, which is optional, contains what Boa would have the
"title" of the document be. Comment out if you don't want on the
fly directory listings. If this does not start with /, it is
considered relative to the server root.
KeepAliveMax <integer>
Number of KeepAlive requests to allow per connection. Comment
out, or set to 0 to disable keepalive processing.
KeepAliveTimeout <integer>
Number of seconds to wait before keepalive connections time out.
MimeTypes <file>
The location of the mime.types file. If this does not start with
/, it is considered relative to the server root.
DefaultType <mime type>
MIME type used if the file extension is unknown, or there is no
file extension.
AddType <mime type> <extension> [extension...]
Associates a MIME type with an extension or extensions.
Redirect, Alias, and ScriptAlias <path1> <path2>
Redirect, Alias, and ScriptAlias all have the same semantics --
they match the beginning of a request and take appropriate
action. Use Redirect for other servers, Alias for the same
server, and ScriptAlias to enable directories for script
execution.
Redirect allows you to tell clients about documents which used to
exist in your server's namespace, but do not anymore. This
allows you tell the clients where to look for the relocated
document.
Alias aliases one path to another. Of course, symbolic links in
the file system work fine too.
ScriptAlias maps a virtual path to a directory for serving
scripts.
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BOA(8) Version 0.94 BOA(8)
Jan 22 2000
Please see the included boa.conf for defaults and examples.
HISTORY
Like the Linux kernel, even numbered versions are "stable", and odd
numbered versions are "unstable", or rather, "development". Versions
0.91 and 0.91beta of Boa were released by Paul Phillips <psp@well.com>
Version 0.92 was released by Larry Doolittle on December 12, 1996.
Version 0.93 was the development version of 0.94.
Version 0.94 was released 22 Jan 2000.
BUGS
There are probably bugs, but we are not aware of any at this time.
AUTHOR
Boa was created by Paul Phillips <psp@well.com>. It is now being
maintained and enhanced by Larry Doolittle <ldoolitt@boa.org> and Jon
Nelson <jnelson@boa.org>.
Linux is the development platform at the moment, other OS's are known
to work. If you'd like to contribute to this effort, contact Larry or
Jon via e-mail.
LICENSE
This program is distributed under the GNU General Public License, as
noted in each source file.
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