# Mongrel Web Server 0.3.12 -- Finally Out

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-web-server-0-3-12-finally-out/56345>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [March 30, 2006, 12:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-web-server-0-3-12-finally-out/56345 "2006-03-30T12:39:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 12:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-web-server-0-3-12-finally-out/56345/1 "2006-03-30T12:39:06Z")

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Hello Folks,

This is the long awaited (like 2 weeks) 0.3.12 release of Mongrel. This  
release has received heavier testing than previous releases and supports  
a  
whole raft of improvements to existing functionality plus some new  
stuff.

For those not clued in, Mongrel is a web server written in (mostly)  
Ruby.  
Check the funny dogs and read the docs about it at  
[http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/](http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/). The goal is to create a Ruby HTTP server  
to  
compete with Apache Tomcat or other Java application servers. The other  
goal is to have the speed of FastCGI with the ease of WEBrick.

WHAT’S NEW

The big points of this release are:

- The Mongrel::Configurator and Mongrel::Rails::Configurator for simple  
configuration (mostly for framework implementers to use).
- Dynamically loadable handlers from the GemPlugins system. Next  
release  
will let you write and add your own handlers.
- Chained handlers. That’s right, you can stack a series of handlers on  
any  
URIs and they’ll be processed in order. This gives you an advanced and  
fast  
pipe-lined processing system and is already used to implement the  
extensive  
debugging support Mongrel has.
- Debugging, Debugging, Debugging. Try the -B option and then look in  
the  
log/mongrel\_debug logs. I’ll be beefing this up to insane usefulness  
for  
the 0.3.13 release.
- Support for sendfile on FreeBSD, Linux, and Solaris if you install the  
ruby-sendfile ([http://rubyforge.org/projects/ruby-sendfile](http://rubyforge.org/projects/ruby-sendfile)) gem. This  
is  
experimental but already gives a 20% boost on static files.
- Additional proper headers for static files from the DirHandler in  
order to  
allow browsers to cache the content. People using Mongrel for  
development  
or small sites will love this combined with the sendfile support.
- Lots and lots of little tweaks to improve speed and stability.  
Mongrel is  
starting to hit a wall again with performance so I’ll be looking for new  
hot-spots to move to C in the near future.
- Initial support for Rails 1.1. Remember _if you use Typo it is broken  
not  
Mongrel_. Typo is being frantically fixed so be patient.
- Fix for a bad typo on Win32 that prevented people from using  
additional  
mime types files (stupid Emacs and it’s damn capitalize command being  
exactly the same as Copy in every other editor).
- Ability to specify a timeout throttling setting and a max number of  
concurrent connections with additional attempts at cleaning dead threads  
out. Future debugging will help people spot these.
- Lots of new Camping support and integration (thanks to Trotter Cashion  
for  
using Mongrel with Camping like crazy).
- A handy -C option for the mongrel\_rails script that lets you specify  
the  
options you’d normally do on the command line as a YAML hash. More on  
this  
later.

INSTALL

Everyone can go download 0.3.12 from  
[http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group\_id=1306](http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=1306)  
like normal or do the usual “gem install mongrel” or “gem update” to get  
the  
latest and greatest.

– If you followed pre-release please uninstall first.

NEXT STOP…

The next steps with Mongrel will be to add the capability for users of  
Mongrel to write their own Configurator scripts and to test the living  
daylights out of it. If you missed my last announcement, Mongrel is  
getting  
_commercial sponsorship_ from EastMedia ([http://www.eastmedia.com/](http://www.eastmedia.com/)) in  
partnership with VeriSign ([http://www.verisign.com/](http://www.verisign.com/)) for use in a  
potentially large scale project. My role in this is to make sure  
Mongrel  
can handle the required role and will not ever crash. I’ll be spending  
the  
next few weeks putting out less features and doing more stability and  
speed  
tweaks. Stay tuned. Should be fun.

Enjoy and report those bugs!

Zed A. Shaw  
[http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/](http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/)