# Rack 0.4, a modular Ruby webserver interface **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [August 21, 2008, 1:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rack-0-4-a-modular-ruby-webserver-interface/146470 "2008-08-21T13:15:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cneuhaus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@cneuhaus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cneuhaus)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 1:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rack-0-4-a-modular-ruby-webserver-interface/146470/1 "2008-08-21T13:15:52Z")
Hello, Today I’m proud to release Rack 0.4. = Rack, a modular Ruby webserver interface Rack provides a minimal, modular and adaptable interface for developing web applications in Ruby. By wrapping HTTP requests and responses in the simplest way possible, it unifies and distills the API for web servers, web frameworks, and software in between (the so-called middleware) into a single method call. The exact details of this are described in the Rack specification, which all Rack applications should conform to. == Future specification changes PLEASE NOTE: In versions of Rack LATER than 0.4, the following changes will be commited to the Rack specification: - 1xx, 204 and 304 status codes MUST not contain a Content-Type. - A valid Content-Length header MUST be provided for non 1xx, 204 and 304 responses with a Transfer-Encoding of “identity” (default). The Content-Length MUST be the same as the sum of the byte-sizes of the chunks. - The REQUEST\_METHOD may be any HTTP token. Internal Rack modules have been updated to follow this behavior, but the Rack 0.4 Lint does NOT check it yet for compatibility reasons. Please update your libraries accordingly. == Changes - August 21st, 2008: Fourth public release 0.4. - New middleware, Rack::Deflater, by Christoffer S… - OpenID authentication now needs ruby-openid 2. - New Memcache sessions, by blink. - Explicit EventedMongrel handler, by Joshua Peek. - Rack::Reloader is not loaded in rackup development mode. - rackup can daemonize with -D. - Many bugfixes, especially for pool sessions, URLMap, thread safety and tempfile handling. - Improved tests. - Rack moved to Git. == Where can I get it? You can download Rack 0.4 at ``` http://chneukirchen.org/releases/rack-0.4.0.tar.gz http://rubyforge.org/projects/rack ``` Alternatively, you can checkout from the development repository with: ``` git clone git://github.com/chneukirchen/rack.git cd rack && git checkout rack-0.4 # for this release ``` == Supported web servers The included _handlers_ connect all kinds of web servers to Rack: - Mongrel - EventedMongrel - WEBrick - FCGI - CGI - SCGI - LiteSpeed These web servers include Rack handlers in their distributions: - Ebb - Fuzed - Phusion Passenger (which is mod\_rack for Apache) - Thin Any valid Rack app will run the same on all these handlers, without changing anything. == Supported web frameworks The included _adapters_ connect Rack with existing Ruby web frameworks: - Camping These frameworks include Rack adapters in their distributions: - Coset - Halcyon - Mack - Maveric - Merb - Racktools::SimpleApplication - Ramaze - Sinatra - Vintage - Waves Ruby on Rails can be run with the adapter included with Thin, which will be merged into a later Rack version. Current links to these projects can be found at > **[Ramaze • The Web Framework for Rubyists](http://ramaze.net/#other-frameworks)** > > Ramaze is a very simple and straight-forward web-framework. == Available middleware Between the server and the framework, Rack can be customized to your applications needs using middleware, for example: - Rack::URLMap, to route to multiple applications inside the same process. - Rack::CommonLogger, for creating Apache-style logfiles. - Rack::ShowException, for catching unhandled exceptions and presenting them in a nice and helpful way with clickable backtrace. - Rack::File, for serving static files. - …many others! All these components use the same interface, which is described in detail in the Rack specification. These optional components can be used in any way you wish. == Convenience If you want to develop outside of existing frameworks, implement your own ones, or develop middleware, Rack provides many helpers to create Rack applications quickly and without doing the same web stuff all over: - Rack::Request, which also provides query string parsing and multipart handling. - Rack::Response, for convenient generation of HTTP replies and cookie handling. - Rack::MockRequest and Rack::MockResponse for efficient and quick testing of Rack application without real HTTP round-trips. == rackup rackup is a useful tool for running Rack applications, which uses the Rack::Builder DSL to configure middleware and build up applications easily. rackup automatically figures out the environment it is run in, and runs your application as FastCGI, CGI, or standalone with Mongrel or WEBrick—all from the same configuration. == Installing with RubyGems A Gem of Rack is available. You can install it with: ``` gem install rack ``` I also provide a local mirror of the gems (and development snapshots) at my site: ``` gem install rack --source http://chneukirchen.org/releases/gems ``` == Contact Please mail bugs, suggestions and patches to [mailto:removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid). Mailing list archives are available at [http://groups.google.com/group/rack-devel](http://groups.google.com/group/rack-devel). Git repository (branches rebased on master are most welcome): - [GitHub - leahneukirchen/rack: a modular Ruby webserver interface | personal fork | PLEASE BRANCH/SEND PULL REQUESTS/FILE BUGS AT rack/rack](http://github.com/chneukirchen/rack) - [http://git.vuxu.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=rack.git](http://git.vuxu.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=rack.git) You are also welcome to join the #rack channel on [irc.freenode.net](http://irc.freenode.net). == Thanks to - blink for the Pool sessions, Memcache sessions, OpenID support, many tweaks, patches and bugreports. - Michael F., for the helpful discussion, bugfixes and a better Rack::Request interface. - Adrian M., for the LiteSpeed handler. - Christoffer S., for the first Rails adapter and Rack::Deflater. - Tim F., for the HTTP authentication code. - Luc H. for the Cookie sessions, the static file handler and bugfixes. - Armin Ronacher, for the logo and racktools. - Aredridel, for bug fixing. - Stephen B., for bug reports and documentation. - Gary W., for proposing a better Rack::Response interface. - Jonathan B., for improvements regarding Rack::Response. - Armin Röhrl, for tracking down bugs in the Cookie generator. - Alexander Kellett for testing the Gem and reviewing the announce. - Marcus Rückert, for help with configuring and debugging lighttpd. - The WSGI team for the well-done and documented work they’ve done and Rack builds up on. - All bug reporters and patch contributers not mentioned above. == Copyright Copyright (C) 2007, 2008 Christian N. [http://purl.org/net/chneukirchen](http://purl.org/net/chneukirchen) Rack is freely distributable under the terms of an MIT-style license. == Links Rack:: [http://rack.rubyforge.org/](http://rack.rubyforge.org/) Rack’s Rubyforge project:: [http://rubyforge.org/projects/rack](http://rubyforge.org/projects/rack) rack-devel mailing list:: [http://groups.google.com/group/rack-devel](http://groups.google.com/group/rack-devel) Christian N.:: [http://chneukirchen.org/](http://chneukirchen.org/) Happy hacking and have a nice day, Christian N. 65a19e53a0dc661f4055d043126585b49a0b618d rack-0.4.0.tar.gz 90df61eb1dbc05678bf13b99ec61e27b546a07a1 rack-0.4.0.gem