Rack 0.9, a modular Ruby webserver interface

Ruby
1

Hello,

Today we are proud to release Rack 0.9.

= 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.

== Changes

  • January 6th, 2009: Fifth public release 0.9.
    • Rack is now managed by the Rack Core Team.
    • Rack::Lint is stricter and follows the HTTP RFCs more closely.
    • Added ConditionalGet middleware.
    • Added ContentLength middleware.
    • Added Deflater middleware.
    • Added Head middleware.
    • Added MethodOverride middleware.
    • Rack::Mime now provides popular MIME-types and their extension.
    • Mongrel Header now streams.
    • Added Thin handler.
    • Official support for swiftiplied Mongrel.
    • Secure cookies.
    • Made HeaderHash case-preserving.
    • Many bugfixes and small improvements.

== Where can I get it?

You can download Rack 0.9 at

    http://chneukirchen.org/releases/rack-0.9.0.tar.gz
              http://rubyforge.org/projects/rack

Alternatively, you can checkout from the development repository with:

git clone git://github.com/rack/rack.git
cd rack && git checkout rack-0.9   # for this release

== Supported web servers

The included handlers connect all kinds of web servers to Rack:

  • Mongrel
  • EventedMongrel
  • SwiftipliedMongrel
  • WEBrick
  • FCGI
  • CGI
  • SCGI
  • LiteSpeed
  • Thin

These web servers include Rack handlers in their distributions:

  • Ebb
  • Fuzed
  • Phusion Passenger (which is mod_rack for Apache)

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
  • Ruby on Rails
  • Sinatra
  • Sin
  • Vintage
  • Waves

Current links to these projects can be found at

== rack-contrib

The plethora of useful middleware created the need for a project that
collects fresh Rack middleware. rack-contrib includes a variety of
add-on components for Rack and it is easy to contribute new modules.

== 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:[email protected].

Mailing list archives are available at
http://groups.google.com/group/rack-devel.

There is a bug tracker at http://rack.lighthouseapp.com/.

Git repository (patches rebased on master are most welcome):

You are also welcome to join the #rack channel on irc.freenode.net.

== Thanks

The Rack Core Team, consisting of

  • Christian N. (chneukirchen)
  • James T. (raggi)
  • Josh P. (josh)
  • Michael F. (manveru)
  • Ryan T. (rtomayko)
  • Scytrin dai Kinthra (scytrin)

would like to thank:

  • 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, Ben A., Dan K., Daniel Roethlisberger, Matt T., and
    Phil H. for bug fixing and other improvements.
  • 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 announcement
    again.
  • 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, 2009 Christian N.
http://purl.org/net/chneukirchen

Rack is freely distributable under the terms of an MIT-style license.

== Links

Rack:: http://rack.rubyforge.org/
Rack’s Rubyforge project:: http://rubyforge.org/projects/rack
Official Rack repositories:: http://github.com/rack
rack-devel mailing list:: http://groups.google.com/group/rack-devel

Happy hacking and have a nice day,
Christian N.
on behalf of the Rack Core Team.

445f542ed89308b9352d7653f33fe63c50453e3e rack-0.9.0.tar.gz
06e68087a0b650b0fcc6219cb43dc86a9939d457 rack-0.9.0.gem

2

Christian N. wrote:

These web servers include Rack handlers in their distributions:

  • Ebb
  • Fuzed
  • Phusion Passenger (which is mod_rack for Apache)

Pretty much all the JRuby-based deployment options support Rack through
Nick S.'s JRuby-Rack project as well.

  • Charlie