Waitress -------- Waitress is meant to be a production-quality pure-Python WSGI server with very acceptable performance. It has no dependencies except ones which live in the Python standard library. It runs on CPython on Unix and Windows under Python 2.7+ and Python 3.3+. It is also known to run on PyPy 1.6.0 on UNIX. It supports HTTP/1.0 and HTTP/1.1. Usage ----- Here's normal usage of the server: .. code-block:: python from waitress import serve serve(wsgiapp, listen='*:8080') This will run waitress on port 8080 on all available IP addresses, both IPv4 and IPv6. .. code-block:: python from waitress import serve serve(wsgiapp, host='0.0.0.0', port=8080) This will run waitress on port 8080 on all available IPv4 addresses. If you want to serve your application on all IP addresses, on port 8080, you can omit the ``host`` and ``port`` arguments and just call ``serve`` with the WSGI app as a single argument: .. code-block:: python from waitress import serve serve(wsgiapp) Press Ctrl-C (or Ctrl-Break on Windows) to exit the server. The default is to bind to any IPv4 address on port 8080: .. code-block:: python from waitress import serve serve(wsgiapp) If you want to serve your application through a UNIX domain socket (to serve a downstream HTTP server/proxy, e.g. nginx, lighttpd, etc.), call ``serve`` with the ``unix_socket`` argument: .. code-block:: python from waitress import serve serve(wsgiapp, unix_socket='/path/to/unix.sock') Needless to say, this configuration won't work on Windows. Exceptions generated by your application will be shown on the console by default. See :ref:`logging` to change this. There's an entry point for :term:`PasteDeploy` (``egg:waitress#main``) that lets you use Waitress's WSGI gateway from a configuration file, e.g.: .. code-block:: ini [server:main] use = egg:waitress#main listen = 127.0.0.1:8080 Using ``host`` and ``port`` is also supported: .. code-block:: ini [server:main] host = 127.0.0.1 port = 8080 The :term:`PasteDeploy` syntax for UNIX domain sockets is analagous: .. code-block:: ini [server:main] use = egg:waitress#main unix_socket = /path/to/unix.sock You can find more settings to tweak (arguments to ``waitress.serve`` or equivalent settings in PasteDeploy) in :ref:`arguments`. Additionally, there is a command line runner called ``waitress-serve``, which can be used in development and in situations where the likes of :term:`PasteDeploy` is not necessary: .. code-block:: bash # Listen on both IPv4 and IPv6 on port 8041 waitress-serve --listen=*:8041 myapp:wsgifunc # Listen on only IPv4 on port 8041 waitress-serve --port=8041 myapp:wsgifunc For more information on this, see :ref:`runner`. .. _logging: Logging ------- ``waitress.serve`` calls ``logging.basicConfig()`` to set up logging to the console when the server starts up. Assuming no other logging configuration has already been done, this sets the logging default level to ``logging.WARNING``. The Waitress logger will inherit the root logger's level information (it logs at level ``WARNING`` or above). Waitress sends its logging output (including application exception renderings) to the Python logger object named ``waitress``. You can influence the logger level and output stream using the normal Python ``logging`` module API. For example: .. code-block:: python import logging logger = logging.getLogger('waitress') logger.setLevel(logging.INFO) Within a PasteDeploy configuration file, you can use the normal Python ``logging`` module ``.ini`` file format to change similar Waitress logging options. For example: .. code-block:: ini [logger_waitress] level = INFO Using Behind a Reverse Proxy ---------------------------- Often people will set up "pure Python" web servers behind reverse proxies, especially if they need SSL support (Waitress does not natively support SSL). Even if you don't need SSL support, it's not uncommon to see Waitress and other pure-Python web servers set up to "live" behind a reverse proxy; these proxies often have lots of useful deployment knobs. If you're using Waitress behind a reverse proxy, you'll almost always want your reverse proxy to pass along the ``Host`` header sent by the client to Waitress, in either case, as it will be used by most applications to generate correct URLs. For example, when using Nginx as a reverse proxy, you might add the following lines in a ``location`` section:: proxy_set_header Host $host; The Apache directive named ``ProxyPreserveHost`` does something similar when used as a reverse proxy. Unfortunately, even if you pass the ``Host`` header, the Host header does not contain enough information to regenerate the original URL sent by the client. For example, if your reverse proxy accepts HTTPS requests (and therefore URLs which start with ``https://``), the URLs generated by your application when used behind a reverse proxy served by Waitress might inappropriately be ``http://foo`` rather than ``https://foo``. To fix this, you'll want to change the ``wsgi.url_scheme`` in the WSGI environment before it reaches your application. You can do this in one of three ways: 1. You can pass a ``url_scheme`` configuration variable to the ``waitress.serve`` function. 2. You can configure the proxy reverse server to pass a header, ``X_FORWARDED_PROTO``, whose value will be set for that request as the ``wsgi.url_scheme`` environment value. Note that you must also conigure ``waitress.serve`` by passing the IP address of that proxy as its ``trusted_proxy``. 3. You can use Paste's ``PrefixMiddleware`` in conjunction with configuration settings on the reverse proxy server. Using ``url_scheme`` to set ``wsgi.url_scheme`` ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can have the Waitress server use the ``https`` url scheme by default.: .. code-block:: python from waitress import serve serve(wsgiapp, listen='0.0.0.0:8080', url_scheme='https') This works if all URLs generated by your application should use the ``https`` scheme. Passing the ``X_FORWARDED_PROTO`` header to set ``wsgi.url_scheme`` ------------------------------------------------------------------- If your proxy accepts both HTTP and HTTPS URLs, and you want your application to generate the appropriate url based on the incoming scheme, also set up your proxy to send a ``X-Forwarded-Proto`` with the original URL scheme along with each proxied request. For example, when using Nginx:: proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme; or via Apache:: RequestHeader set X-Forwarded-Proto https .. note:: You must also configure the Waitress server's ``trusted_proxy`` to contain the IP address of the proxy in order for this header to override the default URL scheme. Using ``url_prefix`` to influence ``SCRIPT_NAME`` and ``PATH_INFO`` ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can have the Waitress server use a particular url prefix by default for all URLs generated by downstream applications that take ``SCRIPT_NAME`` into account.: .. code-block:: python from waitress import serve serve(wsgiapp, listen='0.0.0.0:8080', url_prefix='/foo') Setting this to any value except the empty string will cause the WSGI ``SCRIPT_NAME`` value to be that value, minus any trailing slashes you add, and it will cause the ``PATH_INFO`` of any request which is prefixed with this value to be stripped of the prefix. This is useful in proxying scenarios where you wish to forward all traffic to a Waitress server but need URLs generated by downstream applications to be prefixed with a particular path segment. Using Paste's ``PrefixMiddleware`` to set ``wsgi.url_scheme`` ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If only some of the URLs generated by your application should use the ``https`` scheme (and some should use ``http``), you'll need to use Paste's ``PrefixMiddleware`` as well as change some configuration settings on your proxy. To use ``PrefixMiddleware``, wrap your application before serving it using Waitress: .. code-block:: python from waitress import serve from paste.deploy.config import PrefixMiddleware app = PrefixMiddleware(app) serve(app) Once you wrap your application in the the ``PrefixMiddleware``, the middleware will notice certain headers sent from your proxy and will change the ``wsgi.url_scheme`` and possibly other WSGI environment variables appropriately. Once your application is wrapped by the prefix middleware, you should instruct your proxy server to send along the original ``Host`` header from the client to your Waitress server, as well as sending along a ``X-Forwarded-Proto`` header with the appropriate value for ``wsgi.url_scheme``. If your proxy accepts both HTTP and HTTPS URLs, and you want your application to generate the appropriate url based on the incoming scheme, also set up your proxy to send a ``X-Forwarded-Proto`` with the original URL scheme along with each proxied request. For example, when using Nginx:: proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme; It's permitted to set an ``X-Forwarded-For`` header too; the ``PrefixMiddleware`` uses this to adjust other environment variables (you'll have to read its docs to find out which ones, I don't know what they are). For the ``X-Forwarded-For`` header:: proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; Note that you can wrap your application in the PrefixMiddleware declaratively in a :term:`PasteDeploy` configuration file too, if your web framework uses PasteDeploy-style configuration: .. code-block:: ini [app:myapp] use = egg:mypackage#myapp [filter:paste_prefix] use = egg:PasteDeploy#prefix [pipeline:main] pipeline = paste_prefix myapp [server:main] use = egg:waitress#main listen = 127.0.0.1:8080 Note that you can also set ``PATH_INFO`` and ``SCRIPT_NAME`` using PrefixMiddleware too (its original purpose, really) instead of using Waitress' ``url_prefix`` adjustment. See the PasteDeploy docs for more information. Extended Documentation ---------------------- .. toctree:: :maxdepth: 1 design.rst differences.rst api.rst arguments.rst filewrapper.rst runner.rst glossary.rst Change History -------------- .. include:: ../CHANGES.txt .. include:: ../HISTORY.txt Known Issues ------------ - Does not support SSL natively. Support and Development ----------------------- The `Pylons Project web site `_ is the main online source of Waitress support and development information. To report bugs, use the `issue tracker `_. If you've got questions that aren't answered by this documentation, contact the `Pylons-devel maillist `_ or join the `#pyramid IRC channel `_. Browse and check out tagged and trunk versions of Waitress via the `Waitress GitHub repository `_. To check out the trunk via ``git``, use this command: .. code-block:: text git clone git@github.com:Pylons/waitress.git To find out how to become a contributor to Waitress, please see the `contributor's section of the documentation `_. Why? ---- At the time of the release of Waitress, there are already many pure-Python WSGI servers. Why would we need another? Waitress is meant to be useful to web framework authors who require broad platform support. It's neither the fastest nor the fanciest WSGI server available but using it helps eliminate the N-by-M documentation burden (e.g. production vs. deployment, Windows vs. Unix, Python 3 vs. Python 2, PyPy vs. CPython) and resulting user confusion imposed by spotty platform support of the current (2012-ish) crop of WSGI servers. For example, ``gunicorn`` is great, but doesn't run on Windows. ``paste.httpserver`` is perfectly serviceable, but doesn't run under Python 3 and has no dedicated tests suite that would allow someone who did a Python 3 port to know it worked after a port was completed. ``wsgiref`` works fine under most any Python, but it's a little slow and it's not recommended for production use as it's single-threaded and has not been audited for security issues. At the time of this writing, some existing WSGI servers already claim wide platform support and have serviceable test suites. The CherryPy WSGI server, for example, targets Python 2 and Python 3 and it can run on UNIX or Windows. However, it is not distributed separately from its eponymous web framework, and requiring a non-CherryPy web framework to depend on the CherryPy web framework distribution simply for its server component is awkward. The test suite of the CherryPy server also depends on the CherryPy web framework, so even if we forked its server component into a separate distribution, we would have still needed to backfill for all of its tests. The CherryPy team has started work on `Cheroot `_, which should solve this problem, however. Waitress is a fork of the WSGI-related components which existed in ``zope.server``. ``zope.server`` had passable framework-independent test coverage out of the box, and a good bit more coverage was added during the fork. ``zope.server`` has existed in one form or another since about 2001, and has seen production usage since then, so Waitress is not exactly "another" server, it's more a repackaging of an old one that was already known to work fairly well.