1tclhttpd(1) TclPro Applications tclhttpd(1)
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6 tclhttpd - Tcl Web Server
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10 tclsh httpd.tcl ?options?
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14 -help Displays usage information, then exit without doing any‐
15 thing.
16 -config filename
18 Name of the configuration file (e.g. tcl‐
19 pro/bin/tclhttpd.rc).
20 -main filename Name of the per-thread main script (e.g. tcl‐
22 pro/bin/httpdthread.tcl).
23 -docRoot directory
25 The root directory of your web pages (e.g., tcl‐
26 pro/tclhttpd/htdocs).
27 -port value HTTP listening port. Defaults to 8015.
29 -host value The hostname for the HTTP listening socket.
31 -ipaddr value Interface the server should bind to.
33 -webmaster email
35 Email contact for webmaster.
36 -uid userid User name or ID for server process user ID.
38 -gid groupid Group name or ID for server process group ID.
40 -threads num Run with num worker threads. Requires a thread safe Tcl
42 shell.
43 -library directory
45 Directory to add to the auto_path.
46 -verbose Causes extra print statements during startup.
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51 TclHttpd is a simple, extensible, embeddable Web Server. The best
52 source of documentation is in HTML distributed with the server.
53 To start the server, simply run the httpd.tcl script with tclsh or
55 wish. For example, this starts the server on the standard Web server
56 port, 80. tclsh <installdir>/bin/httpd.tcl -port 80 Note that you must
57 start the server as root if you use port numbers less than 1024 on UNIX
58 systems. If you want the server process to run under a different user
59 than root, which is strongly recommended, then use the -uid and -gid
60 options. This way the server can start as root, open the socket, and
61 then switch to a less privileged account.
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65 The main script depends on a per-thread Tcl script, httpdthread.tcl,
66 and a configuration file, tclhttpd.rc. These have configuration set‐
67 tings and the start up code for the web server.
68 The configuration file can be used to set the port, user ID, and other
70 values described in the Options list above. You can configure addi‐
71 tional features such as log file location, and more, by editting the
72 configuration file. There is an explanation about each option, so you
73 can make a copy of the configuration file and try out new settings.
74 tclsh httpd.tcl -config myserver.rc
75 If you plan to extend Tcl Httpd with your own code, you may need to add
77 initialization code to bin/httpd.tcl and bin/httpdthread.tcl. This
78 code is typically a "package require" for your module and one or two
79 calls to initialize it. For example, this code the httpdthread.tcl
80 enables a /debug URL implementation that lets you examine the state of
81 the server. package require httpd::debug Debug_Url /debug Debug
82 The web server should have access to any Tcl package installed along
84 with your Tcl installation. Consult the on-line HTML documentation for
85 a more indepth discussion of programming the server.
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89 TclHttpd supports a flexible template system that embeds Tcl code into
90 your HTML pages. The Web Server processes the Tcl, which typically
91 generates bits and pieces of your HTML page, and delivers the result to
92 the client transparently. You can cache the results of processing your
93 templates, or you can have pages that are processed dynamically on each
94 access.
95 Any page that ends in ".tml" is treated like an HTML+Tcl template page.
97 The Web Server uses the Tcl subst command to replace commands within
98 brackets, [ and ], and variable references, like $Phone, with their
99 value. Backslash processing is also done. The main thing you need to
100 watch out for is putting literal dollar amounts in your templates.
101 You'll need to protect your $ with a backslash: The price is \$10.00.
102 The ".tml" files in the sample htdocs directory structure should give
103 you examples to work from.
104 Try to limit the Tcl code in your pages to simple procedure calls, and
106 put the procedure definitions in per-directory files named ".tml". The
107 name of this file is confusing: each directory can contain a file named
108 "dot-t-m-l" (.tml) that should contain Tcl code. These files are auto‐
109 matically loaded before any templates in that directory (or subdirecto‐
110 ries) is processed.
111 For example, first create a new directory of the htdocs directory that
113 comes with TclHttpd. mkdir htdocs/mystuff Next, put the following into
114 htdocs/mystuff/.tml package require htmlutils
115 # A procedure to format the date the way you like it proc MyDate {{sec‐
117 onds {}}} {
118 if {[string length $seconds] == 0} { set seconds [clock sec‐
119 onds]
120 }
121 return [clock format $seconds -format "%B %m, %Y"] } # Some page
122 settings set bgcolor pink Now, any page in the htdocs/mystuff directory
123 can use the MyDate procedure in a template. Finally, put the following
124 into htodcs/mystuff/index.tml <title>My Stuff</title> <body text=black
125 bgcolor=$bgcolor> <h2>My Stuff</h2> [MyDate] <br> Page content here.
126 <p> Send email to [Mailto [Doc_Webmaster]]. The bgcolor variable is
127 set in the .tml file and used in the BODY tag. The Mailto is part of
128 the htmlutils package that was required by the .tml file. The Doc_Web‐
129 master procedure is built into TclHttpd. The MyDate procedure was
130 added by you, and is shared by any page in or below the htdocs/mystuff
131 directory.
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135 Web Server, HTTP, TclHttpd
136TclPro tclhttpd(1)