dgsh-httpval − data store HTTP server
dgsh-httpval [−a] [−b query:command] [−m MIME-type] [−n] [−p port]
dgsh-httpval allows other programs to access dgsh data stores through the HTTP protocol. This simplifies the interfacing between web-based front-ends and dgsh programs. When dgsh-httpval receives a REST request with the name of a data store whose endpoint is located in the directory where dgsh-httpval was launched (e.g. http://localhost:8081/mystore), it will establish a connection with the store specified in the request, send a command to read the store’s value, obtain the value, and respond with it as the document sent with the HTTP response.
Requests for files located in the directory where dgsh-httpval was launched will also be satisfied. The correct MIME type will be sent for files with a suffix of html, js, json, png, and css.
A request for the resource .server?quit, will cause the server to terminate processing and exit.
dgsh-httpval is normally executed from within dgsh-generated scripts, rather than through end-user commands. This manual page serves mainly to document its operation and the flags that can be passed to dgsh for modifying its behavior.
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−a |
Allow any Internet host to obtain a value from the server. By default the server will only respond to requests arriving from the local host’s loop-back IP address (127.0.0.1). |
−b query:command
The colon-separated pair specifies a dynamic query than can be sent to the server, so that it will execute the specified command and return its output. The query and the command can contain up to ten matching scanf(3) and printf(3) specifications for C integer-sized arguments, which can be used to pass data from the query to the command. An unlimited number of dynamic queries can be specified through multiple -b options. The type of the data returned is specified using the -m option.
−m MIME-type
Specify the MIME-type that the server will provide on the Content-type HTTP header for data coming from data stores and dynamic queries. By default this value is text/plain. Other reasonable types are application/json, text/CSV, text/xml, or application/octet-stream.
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−n |
Read values from stores using a non-blocking read command. This means that the server will return an empty record, if no complete record is available. |
−p port
Specify the TCP port on which the server will listen for incoming HTTP requests. If no port is specified, then the server will listen on an arbitrary, system-assigned, port, and will print that port’s number on its standard output. That value can be conveniently piped into dgsh-writeval to be made available to other processes.
Specify that a query, such as http://localhost:63001/server-bin/pstatus?id=4892, will run the ps(1) command for the specified process-id.
dgsh-httpval -b ’server-bin/pstatus?id=%d:ps -p %d’
dgsh(1), dgsh-writeval(1), dgsh-readval(1)
The server is single-threaded and will block if a value is not available on a specified store.
The server only supports IPv4 and the HTTP 1.0 protocols. Some clients may require special configuration to connect to it. For instance, curl(1) requires the specification of the --ipv4 and --http1.0 flags.
Diomidis Spinellis — <http://www.spinellis.gr>. Jef Poskanzer — <jef@mail.acme.com> — wrote micro_httpd on which this server is based.
The possibilities for mallicious attacks through code injection and buffer overflows offered by the dynamic query option are too numerous to list. Use this feature only in setups where you restrict and control what is being sent to the server.