Request-Handling Process

At startup, the server performs some initialization and then waits for a request from a client, such as a browser.

The obj.conf file for the server specifies how the request is handled.

1. Init - Loads and initializes server modules and plugins, and initializes log files.

2. AuthTrans (authorization translation) - Verifies any authorization information (such as name and password) sent in the request.

3. NameTrans (name translation) - Translates the logical URI into a local file system path.

4. PathCheck (path checking) - Checks the local file system path for validity and checks that the requestor has access privileges to the requested resource on the file system.

5. ObjectType (object typing) - Determines the MIME-type (Multi-purpose Internet Mail Encoding) of the requested resource (for example, text/html, image/gif, and so on).

6. Input (prepare to read input) - Selects filters that will process incoming request data read by the Service step.

7. Output (prepare to send output) - Selects filters that will process outgoing response data generated by the Service step.

8. Service (generate the response) - Generates and returns the response to the client.

9. AddLog (adding log entries) - Adds entries to log file(s).

10. Error (service) - Executes only if an error occurs in the previous steps. If an error occurs, the server logs an error message and aborts the process.

11. Connect - Calls the connect function you specify.

12. DNS - Calls either the dns-config built-in function or a DNS function that you specify.

13. Filter - Runs an external command and then sends the data through the external command before processing that data in the proxy.

14. Route - Specifies information about where the proxy server should route requests.