Spyce supports a variety of installation methods (automated versus manual),
webserver adapters (FastCGI, mod_python, proxy, CGI and command-line) and
operating system environments (Linux and Windows), which require separate
discussion and configuration-specific tweaks. These specifics are kept to an
absolute minimum, however, and, wherever possible, the configuration of the
Spyce engine is performed through a common configuration file.
The supported adapters are:
Fast CGI:The default Spyce integration with Apache is acheived
via FastCGI, a CGI-like interface that
is relatively fast, because it does not incur the large process startup
overhead on each request.
mod_python: If you really must have the fastest Spyce
implementation (see the performance numbers), it is
currently through an Apache module called mod_python. Spyce has been tested with
mod_python version 2.7.6. You can try to find some mod_python rpms here,
but in general one must compile mod_python from sources. The reason for this
is because mod_python links with the Python library it finds on your system
at compile time. Thus, even if you have the correct Python version installed
on your system, mod_python will be using the Python library version on the
system where it was compiled. Also, note that mod_python (or rather Apache)
needs a Python that has been compiled without threading, so you may need to
recompile Python as well for this reason. The process is not very difficult
(just the usual: ./configure; make; make install dance), but
hopefully someone will suggest a better route in time. In any case, make
sure you can first get mod_python running on your system, if that is that is
your chosen Apache integration route.
Web server: Another fast alternative is to serve Spyce files via
a proxy. This involves running Spyce in web-server mode, and configuring the
main web server to forward the appropriate requests. The built-in Spyce web
server can also be used to serve requests directly, but this is highly
discouraged for production environments.
CGI: Failing these alternatives you can always process requests
via regular CGI, but this alternative is the slowest option and is intended
primarily for those who do not have much control over their web environments.
Command line: Lastly, one can use Spyce as a command-line tool
for pre-processing Spyce pages and creating static HTML files.