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 - The Init functions load and initialize server modules and plugins, and initialize log files.

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

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

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

5. ObjectType (object typing) - Determine 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) - Select filters that will process incoming request data read by the Service step.

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

8. Service (generate the response) - Generate and return the response to the client.

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

10. Error (service) - This step is executed 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 - Call the connect function you specify.

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

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

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