# Super simple serving of ruby pages **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [September 20, 2006, 6:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376 "2006-09-20T18:01:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zerohalo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 6:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376/1 "2006-09-20T18:01:07Z")
Hi. I apologize in advance if this is a dumb question, but though I’ve searched online I haven’t found an answer. I’m starting to teach my 8yr daughter Ruby. We’ve covered HTML and CSS already and she handcoded her own static website. I’d like to incorporate her Ruby learning experience into her website, which is much more interesting for her than using Ruby to write scripts or desktop apps. She’s just starting out, so Rails is much too complicated for her. She’s not ready for the whole MVC concept yet. What I’d like to do is to run very simple Ruby scripts from the site and incorporate Ruby code into rhtml files, but without Rails. I don’t really want a “framework”, just the ability to run a ruby file that will serve up an rhtml file. In other words, something very simple like PHP (I don’t want to teach her PHP). [I’ll get into Rails later once she’s more advanced.] ERb looks like the ticket, but there’s a missing link (for me). I can write a ruby script that generates an rhtml file, but then how do I serve that rhtml file without a framework like Rails/Nitro/Camping/etc.? Probably the answer is with Webrick somehow, but I’m missing the connection. I can’t find a simple tutorial anywhere online, and I’m no expert on web applications. Thanks for the help. ---
**Author:** ![zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zerohalo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 6:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376/2 "2006-09-20T18:17:09Z")
On 9/20/06, zerohalo [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Ruby code into rhtml files, but without Rails. I don’t really want a > online, and I’m no expert on web applications. > > Thanks for the help. Webrick has WEBrick::HTTPServlet::ERBHandler, which (I believe) serves ERb pages. Mongrel probably has something similar. ---
**Author:** ![zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zerohalo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 6:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376/3 "2006-09-20T18:27:10Z")
zerohalo wrote: / … > ERb looks like the ticket, but there’s a missing link (for me). I can > write a ruby script that generates an rhtml file, but then how do I > serve that rhtml file without a framework like > Rails/Nitro/Camping/etc.? Probably the answer is with Webrick somehow, > but I’m missing the connection. I can’t find a simple tutorial anywhere > online, and I’m no expert on web applications. Just one question. Do you want the existing Web server to serve your Ruby code, or do you require the server to be Ruby-based also? If the former, you can tell Apache to serve Ruby scripts that contain the usual CGI conventions. That seems simple enough. And it might not be what you are asking for. ---
**Author:** ![zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zerohalo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 6:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376/4 "2006-09-20T18:41:12Z")
Paul L. wrote: > Just one question. Do you want the existing Web server to serve your Ruby > code, or do you require the server to be Ruby-based also? No, the server doesn’t need to be Ruby-based. I could use lighttpd or apache to serve the code. > If the former, you can tell Apache to serve Ruby scripts that contain the > usual CGI conventions. That seems simple enough. And it might not be what > you are asking for. That’s the part I’m missing. I find Apache extremely difficult to configure (beyond the basics). How would I tell Apache to serve Ruby scripts? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zerohalo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 6:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376/5 "2006-09-20T18:27:10Z")
On 9/20/06, zerohalo [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Ruby code into rhtml files, but without Rails. I don’t really want a > online, and I’m no expert on web applications. > > Thanks for the help. Webrick seems to have support for ERB - see httpservlet/erbhandler.rb, that is used for .rhtml files by FileHandler. Just find in the tutorials how to start webrick for a given document root (Webrick::HttpServer.new({:DocumentRoot = ‘/var/www/’}) and something?) You can use meta\_vars and query variables in your rhtml files. ---
**Author:** ![zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zerohalo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 6:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376/6 "2006-09-20T18:53:13Z")
On 9/20/06, zerohalo [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > usual CGI conventions. That seems simple enough. And it might not be what > > you are asking for. > > That’s the part I’m missing. I find Apache extremely difficult to > configure (beyond the basics). How would I tell Apache to serve Ruby > scripts? In a recent thread (eruby?) someone mentioned adding > AddType application/x-httpd-eruby .rhtml > Action application/x-httpd-eruby /cgi-bin/eruby > to httpd.conf In my win installation there is c:/ruby/bin/erb.bat so I suppose there is something similar in unix. Now either add #!/usr/bin/erb to the top of any .cgi file or, preferably, do something similar to the above, somehow telling apache to run erb. (I’m not an apache guru, so these are just hints to get you started…) ---
**Author:** ![zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zerohalo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 6:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376/7 "2006-09-20T18:59:14Z")
Jan S. wrote: > Webrick seems to have support for ERB - see httpservlet/erbhandler.rb, > that is used for .rhtml files by FileHandler. Just find in the > tutorials how to start webrick for a given document root > (Webrick::HttpServer.new({:DocumentRoot = ‘/var/www/’}) and > something?) Yes, I tried that. Unfortunately there is no documentation on the webrick site on how to use ERBHandler. I have this in a ruby script which does start up the Webrick server. However, while it serves HTML files fine, it treats RHTML files as binaries and RB files as just plain text. Here’s my code: ``` require 'webrick' include WEBrick def start_webrick(config = {}) config.update(:Port => 8080) server = HTTPServer.new(config) yield server if block_given? ['INT', 'TERM'].each {|signal| trap(signal) {server.shutdown} } ruby_dir = File.expand_path('/data/sandbox/ruby') server.mount("/data/sandbox/ruby", HTTPServlet::ERBHandler, ruby_dir) server.start end start_webrick(:DocumentRoot => '/data/sandbox/ruby') ``` ---
**Author:** ![zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zerohalo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 7:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376/8 "2006-09-20T19:19:19Z")
On 9/20/06, zerohalo [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Yes, I tried that. Unfortunately there is no documentation on the > webrick site on how to use ERBHandler. I have this in a ruby script > which does start up the Webrick server. However, while it serves HTML > files fine, it treats RHTML files as binaries and RB files as just > plain text. Here’s my code: require ‘webrick’ include WEBrick def start\_webrick(config = {}) config.update(:Port =\> 8080) - config.update(:MimeTypes =\> {‘rhtml’ =\> ‘text/html’}) server = HTTPServer.new(config) yield server if block\_given? [‘INT’, ‘TERM’].each {|signal| trap(signal) {server.shutdown} } - ruby\_dir = File.expand\_path(‘/data/sandbox/ruby’) - server.mount(“/data/sandbox/ruby”, HTTPServlet::ERBHandler, ruby\_dir) server.start end start\_webrick(:DocumentRoot =\> ‘/data/sandbox/ruby’) ---
**Author:** ![zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zerohalo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 7:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376/9 "2006-09-20T19:37:22Z")
Thanks, Jan. That was easy. Now .rhtml files render correctly. Is there a way to tell it to execute .rb files rather than treat them as simple text files? ---
**Author:** ![zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zerohalo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 7:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376/10 "2006-09-20T19:43:23Z")
On 9/20/06, zerohalo [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > [snip] > > > If the former, you can tell Apache to serve Ruby scripts that contain the > > usual CGI conventions. That seems simple enough. And it might not be what > > you are asking for. > > That’s the part I’m missing. I find Apache extremely difficult to > configure (beyond the basics). How would I tell Apache to serve Ruby > scripts? On Debian and Ubuntu, it just works. After you apt-get install apache2, you just copy some foo.rb file (maybe like the one shown below) to /usr/lib/cgi-bin/ and then point your browser at [http://localhost/cgi-bin/foo.rb](http://localhost/cgi-bin/foo.rb) and boom. 🙂 ==== snip /usr/lib/cgi-bin/foo.rb ==== #!/opt/ruby/bin/ruby -w puts “Content-type: text/html” puts puts " The time is now #{Time.now}, so you'd better get crackin'! " ==== /snip ==== —John ---
**Author:** ![zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zerohalo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 8:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376/11 "2006-09-20T20:01:24Z")
On 9/20/06, zerohalo [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > files fine, it treats RHTML files as binaries and RB files as just > > > plain text. Here’s my code: > > > > require ‘webrick’ > > include WEBrick - module WEBrick - module HTTPServlet - ``` FileHandler.add_handler("rb", CGIHandler) ``` - end - end > > - server.mount(“/data/sandbox/ruby”, HTTPServlet::ERBHandler, ruby\_dir) > > server.start > > end > > > > start\_webrick(:DocumentRoot =\> ‘/data/sandbox/ruby’) Now it starts .rb for me, although I’m not able to write any good cgi right now 😉 maybe it’s because I’m on windows… ---
**Author:** ![zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zerohalo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 8:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376/12 "2006-09-20T20:41:38Z")
Jan S. wrote: > Now it starts .rb for me, although I’m not able to write any good cgi > right now 😉 maybe it’s because I’m on windows… Doesn’t work for me. With even the simplest .rb file it gives me the following error: ERROR Premature end of script headers: but maybe I need to put a particular include in particular at the top of each .rb file? Not used to working with .rb files outside Rails. ---
**Author:** ![zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zerohalo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 8:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376/13 "2006-09-20T20:11:26Z")
On 9/20/06, zerohalo [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I don’t really want a > “framework”, just the ability to run a ruby file that will serve up an > rhtml file. In other words, something very simple like PHP (I don’t > want to teach her PHP). [I’ll get into Rails later once she’s more advanced.] Does this help? [http://cyll.org/blog/tech/2006-08-26-makingrubyintophp.html](http://cyll.org/blog/tech/2006-08-26-makingrubyintophp.html) ---
**Author:** ![zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zerohalo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 9:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376/14 "2006-09-20T21:01:40Z")
Wilson B. wrote: > Does this help? > [http://cyll.org/blog/tech/2006-08-26-makingrubyintophp.html](http://cyll.org/blog/tech/2006-08-26-makingrubyintophp.html) Indeed it did. Thanks. That works nicely. ---
**Author:** ![zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zerohalo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 9:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376/15 "2006-09-20T21:51:51Z")
zerohalo wrote: > Jan S. wrote: > > > Now it starts .rb for me, although I’m not able to write any good cgi > > right now 😉 maybe it’s because I’m on windows… > > Doesn’t work for me. With even the simplest .rb file it gives me the > following error: > > ERROR Premature end of script headers: This is a classic CGI header error, caused by the absence of a recognizable emitted header like: print “Content-type: text/html\r\n\r\n” As the first text emitted by the script. Remember, if you can get the server to read the filetype and treat it as a well-behaved source, and if you can get the Ruby scripts to emit the expected header information, your server requirements become much simpler to meet. ---
**Author:** ![zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zerohalo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 10:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376/16 "2006-09-20T22:31:59Z")
Paul L. wrote: > This is a classic CGI header error, caused by the absence of a recognizable > emitted header like: > > print “Content-type: text/html\r\n\r\n” > > As the first text emitted by the script. Got it. That works, thanks, Paul, and Jan, for your patience with my ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zerohalo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 10:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376/17 "2006-09-20T22:01:53Z")
zerohalo wrote: > > usual CGI conventions. That seems simple enough. And it might not be what > > you are asking for. > > That’s the part I’m missing. I find Apache extremely difficult to > configure (beyond the basics). How would I tell Apache to serve Ruby > scripts? Others have offered good advice. The simplest way is to give the server what it expects to see: * * * #!/usr/bin/ruby -w print “Content-type: text/html\r\n\r\n” print “ # Hello world! ” * * * Put this file in a directory where executable content is expected to be, like /serverpath/cgi-bin, and chances are Apache will treat it as you would expect, without any special configuration. ---
**Author:** ![zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zerohalo)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 2:20am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376/18 "2006-09-21T02:20:18Z")
zerohalo wrote: > Hi. Hi. > She’s just starting out, so Rails is much too complicated > for her. She’s not ready for the whole MVC concept yet. FWIW, I have the brain of an 8yr old in when it comes to web-aps, and I managed to write a /couple/ Camping aps the other evening. Regards, ---
**Author:** ![zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zerohalo)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 3:40am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376/19 "2006-09-21T03:40:39Z")
François Montel wrote: > Got it. That works, thanks, Paul, and Jan, for your patience with my > ignorance. It seems like I am at the same level as your daughter [although a whole 9 years older] and am trying to do the same thing you are. I could not get anything working from what I gathered in this thread, but it seems you have. Can you tell me what you ended up doing so I can do that too? thanks ---
**Author:** ![zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/5fc32e/32.png) [@zerohalo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zerohalo)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2006, 3:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376/20 "2006-09-21T03:56:23Z")
Jonathan D. wrote: > François Montel wrote: > > > Got it. That works, thanks, Paul, and Jan, for your patience with my > > ignorance. > > It seems like I am at the same level as your daughter [although a whole > 9 years older] and am trying to do the same thing you are. I could not > get anything working from what I gathered in this thread, but it seems > you have. Can you tell me what you ended up doing so I can do that too? It’s very simple, really. Apache requires that executable pages (pages that have to be processed by an interpreter like Ruby) by placed in a special directory. The default for this is usually /sitedirectry/cgi-bin. Write an ordinary Ruby script, but make sure the first thing it prints is a CGI header, like this: print “Content-type: text/html\r\n\r\n” After this first line, just output HTML, as in my prior example, and the page will appear to all intents and purposes as though it contains the text it is printing. Therefore your Ruby code decides what the page content is, and it is obviously dynamic. A Ruby interpreter must be installed on the server machine. Apart from that, it should work without any fuss. [Next page](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/super-simple-serving-of-ruby-pages/69376.md?page=2)