About Spootnik

Spootnik is a name that embraces several OpenSource software packages. The initial name was given to a mail system comprised of an SMTP server, an IMAP server and a POP3 server which was an end-term CS school project. The name and a part of the team stuck.

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A small by Pierre-Yves Ritschard on 2005.10.21

What was once call conf/libconf is soon to become the data representation model for OpenWebSuite. I added a simple description of the syntax used, check it here: Warp9 Data Representation.

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OpenSCGI will actually be included in Warp9

by Pierre-Yves Ritschard on 2005.10.21

While thinking about the different things i would expect from a web developpment environment I quickly came to the conclusion that there are several things besides the persistent CGI solutions that could be needed. A bunch of ideas are presented here and are being worked on, these will end up in what's bound to be called Warp9.

Simple, fast and language independant templating
Templating is often required by dynamic sites it allows for separation of logic and presentation. For instance warp9 actually suffers from this very problem, there is no templating.
Along with the templating, a data representation format will be used, which will be either generated from a file following the same syntax than the one implemented in libconf (view it from CVS) or directly programmed.

Simple, fast wiki syntax parser
Many sites demand a simple text data format to represent static content without the hassle of formating using the lengthy and error-prone HTML or XHTML format. A simple wiki syntax parser that is language independant will be integrated in the OWS library.

Web server independent connectors
In order to work with most web servers in a secure fashion, the dynamic content handling is best kept out of the webserver. Development will thus focus on connectors such as the persistent CGI solutions to keep fast and secure.
Persistent CGI solutions include:

  • FastCGI
  • SCGI

Why would persistent CGI be fast ?
SCGI or FastCGI, unlike CGI do not require a process spawning for each dynamic request. Instead they are started at the same time than the web server and then listen on a UNIX or INET socket for incoming connections which they serve.
This allows the common initialisation routines (like maybe starting up an interpreter) to be done only once at startup.

Why would persistent CGI be secure ?
Unlike webserver modules, Persisent CGI solutions do not reside in the webserver's memory. They are completely independent and a break in a persistent CGI server would only mean access to the persistent CGI's data.
A typical secure configuration would be to run a chrooted webserver and a chrooted SCGI server both in different jails. Thus reducing at maximum the impact of a break in.

Introducing OpenSCGI

by Pierre-Yves Ritschard on 2005.10.18

SCGI is the one of the recent alternatives to CGI. The protocol allows for two things:

  • Prevent a process spawn for each dynamic request like CGI does.
  • Do not run the dynamic request code inside the web server's address space like Apache's mod_php.

With SCGI the web server needs to be an SCGI client. This is at least true for Apache and lighttpd. The communication between the client and server may take place over a UNIX or INET socket.

The current SCGI implementation has several flaws in our opinion:

  • it is language dependant because closely tied to python.
  • it has a restrictive license.

Warp9 needs a clean unobfuscated way of communicating dynamically with a web server. This is the reason of the birth of OpenSCGI.
If time allows it is possible that OpenSCGI might become a dual SCGI/FastCGI server since FastCGI is also a very widely used CGI replacement.

New Website

by Pierre-Yves Ritschard on 2005.10.18

It's been a while since we communicated the status of the different projects we are working on. The pace of development has picked up and hopefully new staff will join the team soon. We now sport a new and improved website which is generated by the purpose-written CMS: Warp9 The current design is a derivation of the one made by the fine folks at http://openweb.eu.org.

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Recent articles:

Warp9 data modelby Pierre-Yves Ritschard on 2005.10.21. category: warp9

This is a description of the syntax that will be used for Warp9's base configuration and data representation files.

The future of warp9by Pierre-Yves Ritschard on 2005.10.18. category: warp9

Warp9's functionnality is currently limited. This is a look at what is coming and what will soon be available in our CMS.

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