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[catagits/Catalyst-Manual.git] / lib / Catalyst / Manual / Deployment / DevelopmentServer.pod

=head2 Development server deployment

The development server is a mini web server written in perl.  If you
expect a low number of hits or you don't need mod_perl/FastCGI speed,
you could use the development server as the application server with a
lightweight proxy web server at the front.  However, consider using
L<Catalyst::Engine::HTTP::Prefork> for this kind of deployment instead, since
it can better handle multiple concurrent requests without forking, or can
prefork a set number of servers for improved performance.

=head3 Pros

As this is an application server setup, the pros are the same as
FastCGI (with the exception of speed).
It is also:

=head4 Simple

The development server is what you create your code on, so if it works
here, it should work in production!

=head3 Cons

=head4 Speed

Not as fast as mod_perl or FastCGI. Needs to fork for each request
that comes in - make sure static files are served by the web server to
save forking.

=head3 Setup

=head4 Start up the development server

   script/myapp_server.pl -p 8080 -k  -f -pidfile=/tmp/myapp.pid

You will probably want to write an init script to handle stop/starting
the app using the pid file.

=head4 Configuring Apache

Make sure mod_proxy is enabled and add:

    # Serve static content directly
    DocumentRoot /var/www/MyApp/root
    Alias /static /var/www/MyApp/root/static

    ProxyRequests Off
    <Proxy *>
        Order deny,allow
        Allow from all
    </Proxy>

    # Need to specifically stop these paths from being passed to proxy
    ProxyPass /static !
    ProxyPass /favicon.ico !

    ProxyPass / http://localhost:8080/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:8080/

    # This is optional if you'd like to show a custom error page
    # if the proxy is not available
    ErrorDocument 502 /static/error_pages/http502.html

You can wrap the above within a VirtualHost container if you want
different apps served on the same host.

=head1 AUTHORS

Catalyst Contributors, see Catalyst.pm

=head1 COPYRIGHT

This library is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the same terms as Perl itself.

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