1VARNISHD(1) BSD General Commands Manual VARNISHD(1)
2
4 varnishd — HTTP accelerator daemon
5
7 varnishd [-a address[:port]] [-b host[:port]] [-d] [-F] [-f config]
8 [-g group] [-h type[,options]] [-n name] [-P file]
9 [-p param=value] [-s type[,options]] [-T address[:port]]
10 [-t ttl] [-u user] [-V] [-w min[,max[,timeout]]]
11
13 The varnishd daemon accepts HTTP requests from clients, passes them on to
14 a backend server and caches the returned documents to better satisfy
15 future requests for the same document.
16 The following options are available:
18 -a address[:port]
20 Listen for client requests on the specified address and port.
21 The address can be a host name (“localhost”), an IPv4 dotted-
22 quad (“127.0.0.1”), or an IPv6 address enclosed in square
23 brackets (“[::1]”). If address is not specified, varnishd
24 will listen on all available IPv4 and IPv6 interfaces. If
25 port is not specified, the default HTTP port as listed in
26 /etc/services is used.
27 -b host[:port]
29 Use the specified host as backend server. If port is not
30 specified, the default is 8080.
31 -d Enables debugging mode. This causes varnishd to fork; the
33 child process daemonizes and runs as usual, while the parent
34 process remains attached to the console and will accept man‐
35 agement commands from stdin. If the parent process receives
36 EOF, it will terminate, but the child process will continue
37 to run.
38 The child process will not start accepting client connections
40 until the start command is given.
41 If the -d flag is specified twice, the child process will not
43 daemonize, and terminating the parent process will also ter‐
44 minate the child.
45 -F Run in the foreground.
47 -f config Use the specified VCL configuration file instead of the
49 builtin default. See vcl(7) for details on VCL syntax.
50 -g group Specifies the name of an unprivileged group to which the
52 child process should switch before it starts accepting con‐
53 nections. This is a shortcut for specifying the group run-
54 time parameter.
55 -h type[,options]
57 Specifies the hash algorithm. See Hash Algorithms for a list
58 of supported algorithms.
59 -n Specify a name for this instance. Amonst other things, this
61 name is used to construct the name of the directory in which
62 varnishd keeps temporary files and persistent state. If the
63 specified name begins with a forward slash, it is interpreted
64 as the absolute path to the directory which should be used
65 for this purpose.
66 -P file Write the process's PID to the specified file.
68 -p param=value
70 Set the parameter specified by param to the specified value.
71 See Run-Time Parameters for a list of parameters.
72 -s type[,options]
74 Use the specified storage backend. See Storage Types for a
75 list of supported storage types.
76 -T address[:port]
78 Offer a management interface on the specified address and
79 port. See Management Interface for a list of management com‐
80 mands.
81 -t ttl Specifies a hard minimum time to live for cached documents.
83 This is a shortcut for specifying the default_ttl run-time
84 parameter.
85 -u user Specifies the name of an unprivileged user to which the child
87 process should switch before it starts accepting connections.
88 This is a shortcut for specifying the user run-time parame‐
89 ter.
90 If specifying both a user and a group, the user should be
92 specified first.
93 -V Display the version number and exit.
95 -w min[,max[,timeout]]
97 Start at least min but no more than max worker threads with
98 the specified idle timeout. This is a shortcut for specify‐
99 ing the thread_pool_min, thread_pool_max and
100 thread_pool_timeout run-time parameters.
101 If only one number is specified, thread_pool_min and
103 thread_pool_max are both set to this number, and
104 thread_pool_timeout has no effect.
105 Hash Algorithms
107 The following hash algorithms are available:
108 simple_list
110 A simple doubly-linked list. Not recommended for production use.
111 classic[,buckets]
113 A standard hash table. This is the default.
114 The hash key is the CRC32 of the object's URL modulo the size of
116 the hash table. Each table entry points to a list of elements
117 which share the same hash key.
118 The buckets parameter specifies the number of entries in the hash
120 table. The default is 16383.
121 Storage Types
123 The following storage types are available:
124 malloc
126 Storage for each object is allocated with malloc(3). Not recom‐
127 mended for production use.
128 file[,path[,size]]
130 Storage for each object is allocated from an arena backed by a
131 file. This is the default.
132 The path parameter specifies either the path to the backing file or
134 the path to a directory in which varnishd will create the backing
135 file. The default is /tmp.
136 The size parameter specifies the size of the backing file. The
138 size is assumed to be in bytes, unless followed by one of the fol‐
139 lowing suffixes:
140 K, k The size is expressed in kibibytes.
142 M, m The size is expressed in mebibytes.
144 G, g The size is expressed in gibibytes.
146 T, t The size is expressed in tebibytes.
148 % The size is expressed as a percentage of the free space on
150 the file system where it resides.
151 The default size is 50%.
153 If the backing file already exists, it will be truncated or
155 expanded to the specified size.
156 Note that if varnishd has to create or expand the file, it will not
158 pre-allocate the added space, leading to fragmentation, which may
159 adversely impact performance. Pre-creating the storage file using
160 dd(1) will reduce fragmentation to a minimum.
161 Management Interface
163 If the -T option was specified, varnishd will offer a command-line man‐
164 agement interface on the specified address and port. The following com‐
165 mands are available:
166 dump.pool
168 help Display a list of available commands.
170 param.set param value
172 Set the parameter specified by param to the specified value. See
173 Run-Time Parameters for a list of parameters.
174 param.show param
176 Display the value of the parameter specified by param. See
177 Run-Time Parameters for a list of parameters.
178 param.show [-l]
180 Display a list of run-time parameters and their values. If the -l
181 option is specified, the list includes a brief explanation of each
182 parameter.
183 ping [timestamp]
185 Ping the child process.
186 start
188 Start the child process if it is not already running.
189 stats
191 Display server statistics. All the numbers presented are totals
192 since server startup; for a better idea of the current situation,
193 use the varnishstat(1) utility.
194 status
196 Check the status of the child process.
197 stop Stop the child process.
199 url.purge regexp
201 Immediately invalidate all documents whos URL matches the specified
202 regular expression.
203 vcl.discard configname
205 Discard the configuration specified by configname. This will have
206 no effect if the specified configuration has a non-zero reference
207 count.
208 vcl.inline configname vcl
210 Create a new configuration named configname with the VCL code spec‐
211 ified by vcl, which must be a quoted string.
212 vcl.list
214 List available configurations and their respective reference
215 counts. The active configuration is indicated with an asterisk
216 ("*").
217 vcl.load configname filename
219 Create a new configuration named configname with the contents of
220 the specified file.
221 vcl.show configname
223 Display the source code for the specified configuration.
224 vcl.use configname
226 Start using the configuration specified by configname for all new
227 requests. Existing requests will continue using whichever configu‐
228 ration was in use when they arrived.
229 Run-Time Parameters
231 auto_restart
232 Whether to automatically restart the child process if it dies.
233 The default is on.
235 backend_http11
237 Whether to force the use of HTTP/1.1 when requesting documents from
238 the server, or just use the same protocol version as the client
239 which triggered the retrieval.
240 The default is off.
242 client_http11
244 Whether to force the use of HTTP/1.1 when responding to client
245 requests, or just use the same protocol version as that used by the
246 backend server which delivered the requested document.
247 The default is off.
249 default_ttl
251 The default time-to-live assigned to objects if neither the backend
252 nor the configuration assign one. Note that changes to this param‐
253 eter are not applied retroactively.
254 The default is 120 seconds.
256 fetch_chunksize
258 The default chunk size used when retrieving documents for which the
259 backend server does not specify a content length.
260 The default is 128 kilobytes.
262 group
264 The name of an unprivileged group to which the child process should
265 switch before it starts accepting connections. Note that setting
266 user will automatically set group to the primary group of the spec‐
267 ified user, so if both user and group are specified, the latter
268 should be specified last.
269 The default is "nogroup".
271 http_workspace
273 The size of the per-session workspace for HTTP protocol data. For
274 performance reasons, this space is preallocated, so any change to
275 this parameter will only apply to new client sessions.
276 The default is 8192 bytes.
278 listen_address
280 The address at which to listen for client connections. Changes to
281 this parameter will only take effect when the child process is
282 restarted.
283 The default is 0.0.0.0:80.
285 listen_depth
287 The depth of the TCP listen queue.
288 The default is 512.
290 overflow_max
292 The maximum depth of the overflow queue as a percentage of
293 thread_pool_max. The overflow queue holds requests waiting for a
294 worker thread to become available. If the overflow queue fills up,
295 varnishd will start dropping new connections.
296 The default is 100%.
298 ping_interval
300 The interval at which the parent process will ping the child
301 process to ascertain that it is still present and functioning.
302 The default is 3 seconds.
304 pipe_timeout
306 The time to wait before dropping an idle pipe mode connection.
307 The default is 60 seconds.
309 sendfile_threshold
311 The size threshold beyond which documents are sent to the client
312 using sendfile(2) instead of writev(2). This is not likely to have
313 any effect unless the working set is too large to fit in physical
314 memory.
315 Note that several operating systems have known bugs which make it
317 inadvisable to use this.
318 The default is -1, which disables the use of sendfile altogether.
320 send_timeout
322 The time to wait before dropping the connection to a client which
323 is not accepting data sent to it.
324 The default is 600 seconds.
326 sess_timeout
328 The time to wait before dropping an idle client session.
329 The default is 5 seconds.
331 srcaddr_hash
333 The size of the hash table used to store per-client accounting
334 data. This should preferably be a prime number.
335 The default is 1049.
337 srcaddr_ttl
339 The length of time to keep per-client accounting records. Setting
340 this to 0 will disable per-client accounting.
341 thread_pool_max
343 The maximum total number of worker threads. If the number of con‐
344 current requests rises beyond this number, requests will start
345 queueing up waiting for a worker thread to pick them up. Higher
346 values may improve response time but will increase pressure on the
347 scheduler.
348 The default is 1000.
350 thread_pool_min
352 The minimum total number of worker threads. Higher values may
353 allow varnishd to respond faster to a sudden increase in traffic.
354 The default is 1.
356 thread_pools
358 The number of worker thread pools. Higher values reduce lock con‐
359 tention but increase pressure on the scheduler. Note that a
360 decrease of this parameter will only take effect after a restart.
361 The default is 1.
363 thread_pool_timeout
365 The amount of time a worker thread can be idle before it is killed,
366 when the number of worker threads exceeds thread_pool_min.
367 The default is 120 seconds.
369 user The name of an unprivileged user to which the child process should
371 switch before it starts accepting connections. Note that setting
372 user will automatically set group to the primary group of the spec‐
373 ified user, so if both user and group are specified, the latter
374 should be specified last.
375 The default is "nobody".
377 vcl_trace
379 Whether to issue log entries for calls to VCL code and their
380 results. Note that this will generate large amounts of log data.
381 The default is off.
383
385 varnishlog(1), varnishhist(1), varnishncsa(1), varnishstat(1),
386 varnishtop(1), vcl(7)
387
389 The varnishd daemon was developed by Poul-Henning Kamp
390 <phk@phk.freebsd.dk> in cooperation with Verdens Gang AS and Linpro AS.
391 This manual page was written by Dag-Erling Smørgrav <des@linpro.no>.
392BSD July 5, 2007 BSD