On 09.08.2011 08:49, Greg Wilkins wrote: > Is there any plans to implement websocket support in mod_proxy. I > would think that it could be done pretty simply as a variation of > mod_proxy_connect, as once the HTTP upgrade is done mod_proxy can > treat the connection as a simple byte tunnel. > > I develop the jetty HTTP client/server which supports websocket and > would be happy to work with anybody developing mod_proxy_websocket to > provide a test environment.
Another option would be something like mod_proxy_fdpass, namely once we observe a websocket is started, hand over the full connection via the file descriptor to some other dedicated websocket server. I haven't checked though, whether the mod_proxy_fdpass way of doing it would interoperate with a Java based websocket server. Note that mod_proxy_fdpass is part of the dev version Apache 2.3 which is currently in beta status, but we all think GA of 2.4 is not far away. When solving the problem similar to mod_proxy_connect, the web server would stay in the loop for the whole communication and it seems questionable whether there's any benefit for that - at least if a websocket server is running on the same system. If the websocket server is only available remotely from the proxy, then of course there's a need for a proxy for the whole duration of the communication, but again it is questionable, what the benefit of using Apache for it is. We could as well hand off to a general port forwarding mechanism. Greg: since you are part of the hybi discussion: do you see any benefit of having Apache in the loop after the initial websocket handshake? Regards, Rainer
