[ANNOUNCE] Apache::ASP v2.07

[Joshua Chamas <jo...@chamas.com>]

Hey,

The latest Apache::ASP 2.07 has made its way into CPAN, and is 
also available at:

  http://download.sourceforge.net/mirrors/CPAN/modules/by-module/Apache/
  ftp://ftp.duke.edu/pub/perl/modules/by-module/Apache/

The Apache::ASP web site is at http://www.apache-asp.org/

This release solves some import $Session manager race conditions,
increases ASP PerlScript compatibility with the CollectionItem
feature, and has general performance enhancements.  Upgrade to 
this version while your site is idle, see CHANGES below for details.

Apache::ASP provides an Active Server Pages port to the Apache Web Server
with Perl scripting only, and enables the development of dynamic web 
applications with session management and embedded perl code. There are 
also many powerful extensions, including XML taglibs, XSLT rendering, and 
new events not originally part of the ASP API! 

The CHANGES for this release are below.

-- Josh
_________________________________________________________________
Joshua Chamas			        Chamas Enterprises Inc.
NodeWorks >> free web link monitoring	Huntington Beach, CA  USA 
http://www.nodeworks.com                1-714-625-4051

 + = improvement; - = bug fix

 -+-+ Session Manager
  empty state group directories are not removed, thus alleviating
  one potential race condition.  This impacted performance
  on idle sites severely as there were now 256 directories
  to check, so made many performance enhancements to the 
  session manager.  The session manager is built to handle
  up to 20,000 client sessions over a 20 minute period.  It
  will slow the system down as it approaches this capacity.

  One such enhancement was session-ids now being 11 bytes long 
  so that its .lock file is only 16 characters in length.  
  Supposedly some file systems lookup files 16 characters or 
  less in a fast hashed lookup.  This new session-id has
  4.4 x 10^12 possible values.  I try to keep this space as
  large as possible to prevent a brute force attack.

  Another enhancement was to limit the group directories
  to 64 by only allowing the session-id prefix to be [0-3][0-f]
  instead of [0-f][0-f], checking 64 empty directories on an
  idle site takes little time for the session manager, compared
  to 256 which felt significant from the client end, especially
  on Win32 where requests are serialized.  

  If upgrading to this version, you would do well to delete
  empty StateDir group directories while your site is idle.
  Upgrading during an idle time will have a similar effect,
  as old Apache::ASP versions would delete empty directories.

 -$Application->GetSession($session_id) now creates
  an session object that only lasts until the next
  invocation of $Application->GetSession().  This is 
  to avoid opening too many file handles at once,
  where each session requires opening a lock file.

 +added experimental support for Apache::Filter 1.013 
  filter_register call

 +make test cases for $Response->Include() and 
  $Response->TrapInclude()

 +Documented CollectionItem config.

 +New $Request->QueryString('multiple args')->Count()
  interface implemented for CollectionItem config.
  Also $Request->QueryString('multiple args')->Item(1) method.
  Note ASP collections start counting at 1.

 --fixed race condition, where multiple processes might 
  try creating the same state directory at the same time, with
  one winning, and one generating an error.  Now, web process
  will recheck for directory existence and error if 
  it doesn't. 

 -global.asa compilation will be cached correctly, not
  sure when this broke.  It was getting reloaded every request.

 -StateAllWrite config, when set creates state files
  with a+rw or 0666 permissions, and state directories
  with a+rwx or 0777 permissions.  This allows web servers
  running as different users on the same machine to share a 
  common StateDir config.  Also StateGroupWrite config
  with perms 0770 and 0660 respectively.

 -Apache::ASP->Loader() now won't follow links to 
  directories when searching for scripts to load.

 +New RegisterIncludes config which is on by default only
  when using Apache::ASP->Loader(), for compiling includes
  when precompiling scripts.

 +Apache::ASP::CompileInclude path optimized, which underlies
  $Response->Include()

 +$Request->QueryString->('foo')->Item() syntax enabled
  with CollectionItem config setting.  Default syntax
  supported is $Request->QueryString('foo') which is
  in compatible.  Other syntax like $Request->{Form}{foo}
  and $Request->Form->Item('foo') will work in either case.

 +New fix suggested for missing Apache reference in 
  Apache::ASP handler startup for RedHat RPMs.  Added
  to error message.

 --Backup flock() unlocking try for QNX will not corrupt the 
  normal flock() LOCK_UN usage, after trying to unlock a file
  that doesn't exist.  This bug was uncovered from the below 
  group deletion race condition that existed. 

 -Session garbage collection will not delete new group
  directories that have just been created but are empty.
  There was a race condition where a new group directory would
  be created, but then deleted by a garbage collector before
  it could be initialized correctly with new state files.

 +Better random session-id checksums for $Session creation.
  per process srand() initialization, because srand() 
  may be called once prefork and never called again.
  Call without arguments to rely on perl's decent rand
  seeding.  Then when calling rand() in Secret() we have
  enough random data, that even if someone else calls srand()
  to something fixed, should not mess things up terribly since
  we checksum things like $$ & time, as well as perl memory
  references.

 +XMLSubs installation make test.

 -Fix for multiline arguments for XMLSubs

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Apache::ASP v2.07

["joel w. reed" <jr...@support.ddiworld.com>]

On Dec 06, joshua@chamas.com contorted a few electrons to say...
Joshua> Hey,
Joshua> 
Joshua> The latest Apache::ASP 2.07 has made its way into CPAN, and is 
Joshua> also available at:

Just thought i'd say a BIG THANKS to Joshua for Apache::ASP.
Its been a great help in developing cross platform web products.
Its been rather stable & Joshua is usually pretty responsive
when you need some help.

jr

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joel W. Reed                                                412-257-3881
--------------All the simple programs have been written.----------------