perl-net-server

'Net::Server' is an extensible, generic Perl server engine. 'Net::Server' attempts to be a generic server as in 'Net::Daemon' and 'NetServer::Generic'. It includes with it the ability to run as an inetd process ('Net::Server::INET'), a single connection server ('Net::Server' or 'Net::Server::Single'), a forking server ('Net::Server::Fork'), a preforking server which maintains a constant number of preforked children ('Net::Server::PreForkSimple'), or as a managed preforking server which maintains the number of children based on server load ('Net::Server::PreFork'). In all but the inetd type, the server provides the ability to connect to one or to multiple server ports. The additional server types are made possible via "personalities" or sub classes of the 'Net::Server'. By moving the multiple types of servers out of the main 'Net::Server' class, the 'Net::Server' concept is easily extended to other types (in the near future, we would like to add a "Thread" personality). 'Net::Server' borrows several concepts from the Apache Webserver. 'Net::Server' uses "hooks" to allow custom servers such as SMTP, HTTP, POP3, etc. to be layered over the base 'Net::Server' class. In addition the 'Net::Server::PreFork' class borrows concepts of min_start_servers, max_servers, and min_waiting servers. 'Net::Server::PreFork' also uses the concept of an flock serialized accept when accepting on multiple ports (PreFork can choose between flock, IPC::Semaphore, and pipe to control serialization).