NAME

Server::Control -- Flexible apachectl style control for servers

VERSION

version 0.15

SYNOPSIS

use Server::Control::Apache;

        my $apache = Server::Control::Apache->new(
            conf_file => '/my/apache/dir/conf/httpd.conf'
        );
        if ( !$apache->is_running() ) {
            $apache->start();
        }

DESCRIPTION

`Server::Control' allows you to control servers in the spirit of apachectl, where a server is any background process which listens to a port and has a pid file. It is designed to be subclassed for different types of servers.

The original motivation was to eliminate all those little annoyances that can occur when starting and stopping a server doesn't quite go right.

FEATURES

• Checks server status in multiple ways (looking for an active process, contacting the server's port)
• Detects and handles corrupt or out-of-date pid files
• Tails the error log when server fails to start
• Uses sudo by default when using restricted (< 1024) port
• Reports what is listening to a port when it is busy (with Unix::Lsof)

AVAILABLE SUBCLASSES

The following subclasses are currently available as part of this

distribution

• Server::Control::Apache - Apache httpd
• Server::Control::HTTPServerSimple - HTTP::Server::Simple server
• Server::Control::NetServer - Net::Server server

These will probably be moved into their own distributions once the implementation stabilizes.

RELATED MODULES

• App::Control - Same basic idea for any application with a pid file. No features specific to a server listening on a port, and not easily subclassable, as all commands are handled in a single case statement.
• MooseX::Control - A Moose role for controlling applications with a pid file. Nice extendability. No features specific to a server listening on a port, and assumes server starts via a command-line (unlike pure-Perl servers, say). May end up using this role.
• Nginx::Control, Sphinx::Control, Lighttpd::Control - Modules which use MooseX::Control

TO DO

• Plugin to check a URL after start and make sure it comes back ok
• Plugin to dynamically generate conf files
• Consult global serverctlrc file as well, for common host settings
• Add persistent shell mode, to eliminate startup cost for repeated restarts

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This module was developed for the Digital Media group of the Hearst Corporation, a diversified media company based in New York City. Many thanks to Hearst management for agreeing to this open source release.

SEE ALSO

serverctlp, Server::Control::Apache

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2011 by Jonathan Swartz.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.