server

vb server|ui [OPTIONS] [REPOSITORY]

Description

Open a socket and begin listening and responding to HTTP requests on TCP port 8080, or on any other TCP port defined by the -P or --port option. The optional REPOSITORY argument is the name of the VisionByte repository to be served. The REPOSITORY argument may be omitted if the working directory is within an open check-out, in which case the repository associated with that check-out is used.

The ui command automatically starts a web browser after initializing the web server. The ui command also binds to 127.0.0.1 and so will only process HTTP traffic from the local machine.

If REPOSITORY is a directory name which is the root of a check-out, then use the repository associated with that check-out. This only works for the vb ui command, not the vb server command.

If REPOSITORY begins with a HOST: or USER@HOST: prefix, then the command is run on the remote host specified and the results are tunneled back to the local machine via SSH. This feature only works for the vb ui command, not the vb server command. The name of the vb executable on the remote host is specified by the --vbcmd option, or if there is no --vbcmd, it first tries vb and if it is not found in the default $PATH set by SSH on the remote, it then adds $HOME/bin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/homebrew/bin to the PATH and tries again to run vb.

REPOSITORY may also be a directory (aka folder) that contains one or more repositories with names ending in .vbyte. In this case, a prefix of the URL pathname is used to search the directory for an appropriate repository. To thwart mischief, the pathname in the URL must contain only alphanumerics, _, /, -, and ., and no - may occur after /, and every . must be surrounded on both sides by alphanumerics. Any pathname that does not satisfy these constraints results in a 404 error. Files in REPOSITORY that match the comma-separated list of glob patterns given by --files and that have known suffixes such as .txt or .html or .jpeg and do not match the pattern *.vbyte* will be served as static content. With the ui command, the REPOSITORY can only be a directory if the --notfound option is also present.

For the special case REPOSITORY name of /, the global configuration database is consulted for a list of all known repositories. The --repolist option is implied by this special case. The vb ui / command is equivalent to vb all ui. To see all repositories owned by user on machine remote via ssh, run vb ui user@remote:/.

By default, the ui command provides full administrative access without having to log in. This can be disabled by turning off the localauth setting. Automatic login for the server command is available if the --localauth option is present and the localauth setting is off and the connection is from localhost. The ui command also enables --repolist by default.

Options

--acme

Deliver files from the .well-known subdirectory

--baseurl URL

Use URL as the base (useful for reverse proxies)

--cert FILE

Use TLS (HTTPS) encryption with the certificate (the fullchain.pem) taken from FILE.

--chroot DIR

Use directory for chroot instead of repository path

--ckout-alias NAME

Treat URIs of the form /doc/NAME/… as if they were /doc/ckout/…

--create

Create a new REPOSITORY if it does not already exist

--errorlog FILE

Append HTTP error messages to FILE

--extpage FILE

Shortcut for “--extroot DIR --page ext/TAIL” where DIR is the directory holding FILE and TAIL is the filename at the end of FILE. Only works for ui.

--extroot DIR

Document root for the /ext extension mechanism

--files GLOBLIST

Comma-separated list of glob patterns for static files

--vbcmd PATH

The pathname of the vb executable on the remote system when REPOSITORY is remote.

--from PATH

Use PATH as the diff baseline for the /ckout page

--localauth

Enable automatic login for requests from localhost

--localhost

Listen on 127.0.0.1 only (always true for ui)

--https

Indicates that the input is coming through a reverse proxy that has already translated HTTPS into HTTP.

--jsmode MODE

Determine how JavaScript is delivered with pages. Mode can be one of:

inline      All JavaScript is inserted inline at
            the end of the HTML file.
separate    Separate HTTP requests are made for
            each JavaScript file.
bundled     One single separate HTTP fetches all
            JavaScript concatenated together.

Depending on the needs of any given page, inline and bundled modes might result in a single amalgamated script or several, but both approaches result in fewer HTTP requests than the separate mode.

--mainmenu FILE

Override the mainmenu config setting with the contents of the given file

--max-latency N

Do not let any single HTTP request run for more than N seconds (only works on unix)

-B, --nobrowser

Do not automatically launch a web-browser for the vb ui command

--nocompress

Do not compress HTTP replies

--nojail

Drop root privileges but do not enter the chroot jail

--nossl

Do not force redirects to SSL even if the repository setting redirect-to-https requests it. This is set by default for the ui command.

--notfound URL

Redirect to URL if a page is not found.

-p, --page PAGE

Start ui on PAGE. ex: –page timeline?y=ci

--pkey FILE

Read the private key used for TLS from FILE

-P, --port [IP:]PORT

Listen on the given IP (optional) and port

--repolist

If REPOSITORY is dir, URL / lists repos

--scgi

Accept SCGI rather than HTTP

--skin LABEL

Use override skin LABEL, or the site’s default skin if LABEL is an empty string.

--socket-mode MODE

File permissions to set for the unix socket created by the --socket-name option.

--socket-name NAME

Use a unix-domain socket called NAME instead of a TCP/IP socket.

--socket-owner USR

Try to set the owner of the unix socket to USR. USR can be of the form USER:GROUP to set both user and group.

--th-trace

Trace TH1 execution (for debugging purposes)

--usepidkey

Use saved encryption key from parent process. This is only necessary when using SEE on Windows or Linux.

See Also

See also

cgi, http, winsrv Windows only