Bauk HTTP Server

Bauk is a free, open-source, HTTP/1.1 high performance Web server which provides advanced features such as complete ASP-like scripting environment for Server-Side JavaScript, PHP, Perl, Python and Tcl, portability to wide range of Unix-like operating systems (Linux, *BSD and POSIX-compliant OS's), easy installation and management, security, configurability, efficiency, flexibility, and many other. 

Bauk's advanced architecture and unique design provide high performance and many original features, ie. ability to serve unlimited number of Virtual Hosts/simultaneous HTTP connections per single server process without performance loss.

Bauk HTTP Server has techologically advanced design and memory management (always returns memory to system) with integrated load balancing, which allow it to always operate at same, extreme speed, regardless of what load HTTP clients generate.

Features include:

• Full HTTP/1.1 and CGI/1.1 standard compliance
• Static and Dynamic Content — Bauk provides complete ASP-like scripting environment for Server-Side JavaScript, PHP, Perl, Python and Tcl. Ie. easy just like working with HTML files, scripts placed in Web directory automatically executed by Web server/interpreter
• Extreme Speed — Does not relay/depend on any OS-specific features, ie. TCP based etc. to increase speed. Uses only standard/advanced program techniques to create extreme performance. Faster, reliable, portable
• Extreme Power — Maintains same performance with any load and never degrades. Bauk is not only faster and more efficient than other Web servers, it always operates with same extreme performance rate. Ie. no matter what load HTTP clients create, properly configured it never reduces speed. No other Web server provides this kind of performance. See BaukBench HTTP/1.1 benchmark tool and compare/verify yourself
• OS Support and Portability — Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, and all POSIX compliant operating systems
• Support for 32bit/64bit — Support for 32bit and 64bit architectures. Optimized for Single and Multi-Core CPU's. No configuration required, compiles directly out of the box in a single "make bauk" command. No dependancies to chase, versions, etc.
• Single-Process Architecture — Architecture with most effective resource utilization. Uses only a single process
• Advanced Memory Management — Bauk always returns memory to system. Does not hold unused memory but returns it to system for further use. Ie. you can notice Bauk process returns to initial size as it releases memory. Unique Bauk feature, extremely efficient, it simply does not waste memory. This feature allows agressive and most effective usage of memory. For example, set 20MB for FileCashe and Bauk serves files ie. images/icons, HTML, CSS, etc. directly from memory for extreme performance
• Unlimited number of HTTP connections / clients — Serving thousands of simultaneous HTTP connections on single machine without any performance penalty. For example, Bauk serves 4000 simultaneous connections with ease, ie. just a matter of config parameter adjustment, simply set desired number. In some cases admins using Apache disable KeepAlive to avoid clients holding connections. With Bauk you never have to revert to such primitive means
• SSL/TLS Support — Support for SSL/TLS secure/encrypted HTTP connections
• Virtual Host Support — Allows serving unlimited number of Virtual Hosts on a single machine without any performance penalty
• Virtual Host Aliases — Allows setting additional names for a single Virtual Host, ie. host "domain.com" with aliases "www.domain.com", "www.domain.net", "www.otherdomain.org", etc.
• Host / Domain Name Matching — Using wildcards "*" for matching host names ie. "*.domain.com", "www.*.domain.com", "*.domain.*", etc.
• Dynamic Virtual Hosts — Add/remove hosts on-the-fly simply by adding/removing a directory, ie. www.domain.com → /path/to/www.domain.com/ without server stopping/restarting and config change
• RDP (Reverse Domain Path) Dynamic Virtual Hosts — Ie. www.domain.com → /path/to/com/domain/www/
• URL Path — Define URL and path with type of access, ie. read, write, browse, execute, require HTTP authentication, define precisely type of access to server resources
• Clean URLs — Passing arguments by URL in form ie. "http://www.domain.com/arg1/arg2/arg3"
• Persistent/KeepAlive HTTP connections
• GZIP compression — Automatic on-the-fly content and file compression. Bauk's own GZIP library
• HTTP authentication — VirtualHost main and directory based authorization scripts
• Content negotiation — By client language and charset
• MIME types configuration
• Configurable HTTP headers — Configurable HTTP headers per MIME type
• Configurable error documents — Configurable error HTML pages, Web scripts and CGI scripts
• Styled directory listings — Server generated directory listings with custom HTML header/footer and icons. Highly customizable, craft your own style and visual identity of site's dynamic directory listings
• Built-in suexec wrapper — CGI scripts and interpreters, ie. PHP, Server-Side JavaScript, Perl, Python, Tcl
• Secure CGI scripts execution — Identity, path, workdir verification, additional security options and limits
• 3 security layers for CGI execution — By URL limit to X-only ie. CGI dir, for RX-URL imply X-only for executable files, and limit to X-only by extension
• Limits — Set limits and control resource utilization:
  • CGI scripts — Max simultaneous CGI processes, priority, max CGI execution time (duration), max CPU time, max memory
  • Network traffic — VirtualHost I/O bandwidth control
  • Max connections per VirtualHost
  • Max connections per Client
• Access restriction by IP address — Forbid and allow-only
• FileCache — Set limit for FileCache and up to configured amount of ram Bauk retains recent files in cache and serves directly from memory
• Fully configurable HTTP-log format — Info available from over 50 variables, ie. URL, path, served path, data length, client header variables, host specific info ie. connections, traffic, reply status, server status/errors, etc.
• Easy HTTP-log management — Ie. VirtualHost's log move, remove, replace, without server stopping/restarting
• User/group server identity change
• Chroot feature
• Extensive configurability — Bauk is one of the most configurable Web servers available, it's configuration includes several hundreds config options
• Bauk's Configuration Script Language — See example Bauk configuration script syntax
• HTTP authentication scripts — Configure URL's and realms with authenticated users/passwords and IP's in VirtualHost's main and directory based authorization scripts, see more info
• Forbid-IP scripts — Restrict access for listed IP's using VirtualHost's forbid-IP scripts, see more info
• Easy administration
• Flexibility

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Last Updated Monday, December 24 2012 @ 09:09 AM EST