Toolserver:ZWS

Currently, we're testing a new web server (ZWS) on the toolserver. If you'd like to help test your tools using ZWS, just change toolserver.org in the URL to toolserver.org:81. Of particular interest are pages using .htaccess, PHP and CGI scripts, and FastCGI scripts.

(Warning: toolserver.org:81 URLs will stop working once testing is finished. While you should feel free to invite people to test things with these URLs, don't make permanent links to them.)

If you encounter any problems while testing (which are not explained below), please post on the mailing list.

Compared to Apache, ZWS has some benefits:


 * It's much more efficient (in terms of concurrent users),
 * It has the functionality of switchboard integrated in a more efficient form

ZWS supports nearly all of the Apache features we use, including most .htaccess rules.

There's one main disadvantage:


 * mod_rewrite is not supported

However, equivalent functionality is supported in a different form. To use rewrites with ZWS, you need to create a rewrite script. Some documentation on this is available here:


 * http://support.zeus.com/zws/examples/2005/12/16/converting_apache_rules_to_zws
 * http://support.zeus.com/zws/examples
 * http://support.zeus.com/zws/media/docs/4.3/ZWSUserGuide.pdf (section 8.7)

Your rewrite script should be placed in $HOME/rewrite.script. Unlike Apache rewrite rules, there is only one script for your entire public_html, not one per directory.

If your rewrite rules are fairly simple, you can convert them using the convert_rewrite utility on hemlock:

$ /opt/zeus/webadmin/bin/convert_rewrite $HOME/public_html/.htaccess >$HOME/rewrite.script

You will want to inspect the script after running this to make sure it does what you want.