KFCGI(8)

💅 KFCGI(8) — the FastCGI server for kcgi apps, bestie

okay so this is the manual for kfcgi, from the System Manager's Manual section. yes we're reading a system manager page and yes it's actually kinda iconic. buckle up 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

kfcgi — FastCGI server for kcgi applications. that's it, that's the whole name section. short, sweet, ate. 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

kfcgi [-drv] [-l backlog] [-n workers] [-N maxworkers] [-p chroot]
      [-s sockpath] [-u sockuser] [-U procuser] [-w waittime] prog
      [arg0...]

look at all those flags. she's got range. 👑

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so the kfcgi server spin up worker processes of prog to handle FastCGI connections. and here's the slay part — it can handle any FastCGI worker that implements the FastCGI v1.0 Specification, and the ones implementing the FastCGI Extensions for Management Control (that's the -r, -N, and -w ones, iykyk).

now the defaults, because defaults are literally the whole vibe check here: by default it opens the socket /var/www/run/httpd.sock in mode 0660 under the current user and group, changes to a file-system jail in /var/www, daemonises and opens its system log, then starts 3 workers executing prog — and ngl prog must exist relative to the file-system jail root, no cap. the back-log is twice the worker pool size (-n) or, in the event of variable-sized pools, twice the maximum worker size (-N). math! she did the math! 🧮✨

the arguments are as follows, and yes i'm listing every single one, because we don't skip. periodt.

💖 OPTIONS 💖

• -d — do not daemonise, and on top of syslog, print messages to standard error. very "i want to see what's happening" of you. 🙈
• -v — be more verbose in output. and bestie, this can produce a lot of output. like. a lot a lot. 🔥
• -l backlog — the connection backlog. if this is too small, connections get refused and the request errors out 😭. the operating system will usually truncate this, so don't come for the OS when it does.
• -n workers — the initial number of workers >1. gotta be more than one, that's the rule. 🫶
• -N maxworkers — the maximum number of workers in a variable-sized pool. by default this is twice -n. 🎀
• -p chroot — location of the file-system jail. this one's mandatory 💀: use the root directory if you insist on being insecure. (dramatic? yes. accurate? also yes.)
• -r — use a variable-sized pool of workers. ⚠️ this can only be used for workers implementing the FastCGI Extensions for Management Control. the pool will be at least (and initially) size -n, maximum size -N, with a release policy dictated by -w. it's giving elastic. it's giving scalable. it's giving main character energy. ✨
• -s sockpath — alternative socket path. pick your own adventure. 🦋
• -u sockuser — the user in whose name (user and group) the socket is created. 🌸
• -U procuser — the user in whose name the process is dropped. yes, dropped. like a hot new single. 💜
• -w waittime — the amount of time in seconds a worker must be idle before being released from a variable-sized pool. by default this is five minutes. patience is a virtue fr fr. ⏳

🫶 stopping and restarting (very important, don't skip!!)

to properly stop a kfcgi server, send it a SIGTERM. 🛑

and if you send a SIGHUP to the process, it will restart all workers. 🔁 lowkey the glow-up button.

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⭐ EXIT STATUS ⭐

the kfcgi utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs. classic. iconic. consistent. 💅

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

on OpenBSD, the default user for the web server is “www”. assuming we have a server that doesn't need any files, we can run the following to keep it in a safe jail:

# kfcgi -u www -U www -- /fcgi-bin/prog

this will execute /fcgi-bin/prog within the default file-system jail of /var/www as user “www”. it will create the default socket /var/www/run/httpd.sock in mode 0660 as user “www”. safe, cozy, jailed, slay. 🏠✨

this can also be extended to run a variable-sized pool of workers that responds to system load:

# kfcgi -r -n 2 -N 100 -w 10 -u www -U www -- /fcgi-bin/prog

this will start with only two servers, but scale it to 100 in the event of a burst of communication. workers started to handle the burst will be terminated after 10 seconds. she scales! she shrinks! she does both! 🦋🔥

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• kcgi(3) — go read it bestie, it's the whole reason we're here.

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💜 STANDARDS 💜

kfcgi implements the “FastCGI Specification”, version 1.0, published 29 April 1996, for properly passing connections to the workers. it also implements the FastCGI Extensions for Management Control, right here: https://kristaps.bsd.lv/kcgi/extending01.html — that's the one for variable-sized worker pools. standards compliant AND cute. we love to see it. 🎀

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ok i'm done, go forth and serve some FastCGI, you absolute legend 🫶

this page came from Debian, dated $Mdocdate$, and it's KFCGI(8) — mwah, bye bestie! 💖✨