Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1999 12:40:01 -0400 From: Lamar Owen <lamar.owen@wgcr.org> Subject: AOLserver 3.0 open source To: letters@lwn.net While I'm sure you have received e-mails about this news, here goes: Friday, July 9 is a date that many people running high-performance, database-backed web sites have been dreaming of. America OnLine (AOL) released their flagship web server, AOLserver, version 3.0 under not one, but two open source licenses. AOL ammended the Mozilla Public License (MPL) and called the result the AOLserver Public License (APL). One of the clauses states that derived works can be released either under the APL or under the GPL -- programmer's discretion. AOLserver has a long and convoluted history, starting out as -- get this -- the first commercial web server -- NaviServer, released by a small company called Navisoft back in 1995. AOL liked the server so much that they bought the company. Renamed GNNserver, it was released for no cost by AOL -- then AOL renamed it to AOLserver a little over two years ago. AOLserver is the server behind www.aol.com, www.digitalcity.com, and many other high-traffic sites. AOLserver is, and was: 1.) Multithreaded -- it was one of the, if not THE, first of the multithreaded web servers; 2.) Database-centric, with persistent, pooled, database connections, allowing high performance db access; 3.) Extensible, with both a C and a TCL API -- its TCL API has a large set of extensions for database connectivity in a multithreaded fashion; 4.) Powerful, yet lightweight -- a PPro 200 is capable of saturating a 10Mbps Ethernet with dynamic content; 5.) Easy to use -- you can use the built-in dynamic pages (adp's) to access a set-up database pool in minutes; 6.) While previous versions had a web-based admin tool (written in tcl), version 3.0 introduces a powerful CLI called the "control port." For remote administration in a secure manner, the control port interface excels -- however, it would not be difficult to write a web-based config tool in tcl -- in fact, the config file itself is written in tcl. The control port can execute any tcl commands, shell commands, edit with vi, and directly query the database with an SQL command line mode. The C code is some of the cleanest you will ever have the pleasure to read. Comprising a small 160,000 or so lines of code, AOLserver is a valuable addition to the open source stable. AOLserver 3.0 is currently in beta and is available through http://www.aolserver.com , or http://aolserver.lcs.mit.edu Thanks! Lamar Owen WGCR Internet Radio