Looking for a high performance web server written in Python, and supports CGI/FastCGI

[Jack]

Basically I am trying to find a high performance web server. Since
Python is installed on all of the servers, It'll be great if the web
server is written in Python as well. Otherwise, I will have to install
lighttpd or other web servers.

Then the largest issue with Python-based web servers is performance.
That's why I start to look into medusa or twisted-based servers. Twisted
seems too big and complicated for what I really want to do and the
original medusa web server only has very basic functionality.

And I'd like the web server to have CGI/FastCGI and possible SCGI
support for flexibility in application development. My applications
here are really internal testing or data provider tools. Am I asking
a lot? I think this is basic requirement for a web server these days

What it looks like is that, although there seem to be many Python http
servers available, there isn't really one that's simple, fast and
feature-rich (cgi/fcgi/scgi) - I guess I am asking too much ;-p
It seems that the only candidate that meetings the requirements but
"written in Python" is lighttpd.

Any recommendations?

 

[Istvan Albert]

I will have to install lighttpd or other web servers.

do that.

If all you need is a webserver there's little reason to have it in
python. Just use one of the several high quality open source webservers.

 

[Jack]

I will have to install lighttpd or other web servers.

do that.

If all you need is a webserver there's little reason to have it in
python. Just use one of the several high quality open source webservers.

lighttpd is a great web server. I just didn't want to bother download the
source,
configure, make and make install, and have a bunch of files installed into
the system
(The binaries are mostly not the latest version.) If a server can be set up
with a few
python files, it sounds like a cleaner approach

lighttpd does have an option to make a monilithic build that has everything
in
one file but somehow I couldn't make the scons-based build work. (Any tips?)

 

[Jack]

do that.

If all you need is a webserver there's little reason to have it in
python. Just use one of the several high quality open source webservers.

If it is a Python web server, it would be nice to extend it by putting code
right into the web server. The performance should be better than FastCGI
because it removes the cost to send the requests/replies back and forth.

 

[Istvan Albert]

I will have to install lighttpd or other web servers.

If it is a Python web server, it would be nice to extend it by putting code
right into the web server. The performance should be better than FastCGI
because it removes the cost to send the requests/replies back and forth.

you'll need to make a distinction between a webserver written in python
(primary purpose to serve data) and a web framework that integrates
python and allows you to generate said data with python

as for the so called load test that you mention above, those "tests"
are pointless and provide no insight whatsoever to the realistic
behavior of the server ... unless of course all your users are expected
to connect from the same machine while asking for the same 2 byte file
at the maximum speed the system allows them to.

 

[Jack]

You are right. Load test can be complicated because of the various patterns
of web applications and usages. The simple tests I mentioned and conducted
just
give myself some idea about the performance. Given the same set up, some
numbers should be comparable and reveal some aspects on web servers'
performance. They are by no means formal load tests, but they are helpful to
me

 

[thorley]

Just thought I'd mention it. As stated in some posts I put on the list
in the last few days, I'm working on a FastCGI server for python. Of
course its not as fast as lighttpd, but I think it still has many
applications. I've currently got a *very* simple prototype, but I
expect the finished module to subclass BaseHTTPRequestHandler and work
similar to the CGIHTTPServer module.

I'll let everyone know when its ready, and you can try it out if you
like