Cypache

A fast, security-first HTTP server for Python on Linux, written in Cython (C++ mode) on top of fastepoll. Python handlers run natively in the server's worker processes; there is no CGI or FastCGI hop. It serves static files and Python apps over HTTP/1.1 and, with TLS, HTTP/2, and is strict by design: a request that a proxy in front could read differently is refused, static files are confined to their root by the kernel, and every limit and timeout has a safe default.

Install

A server, on Ubuntu or Debian, as root: Cypache as a systemd service on ports 80 and 443, serving each folder in /var/www/sites as a site named after its host:

git clone https://github.com/Source61/cypache && cypache/tools/install

Run tools/install again after git pull in the clone to upgrade.

On its own, as a library: pip install cypache in a virtual environment, which installs fastepoll too. The wheels are for CPython 3.12 to 3.15 on Linux x86-64 with glibc 2.34 or newer, OpenSSL 3 and libnghttp2 1.60 or newer (libnghttp2-14), which stay the system's, so their security updates apply.

Quick start

On a server from tools/install, a site is a folder, and each .py in its controllers/ answers the path it's named after:

mkdir -p /var/www/sites/example.com/public /var/www/sites/example.com/controllers
echo "<h1>Hello</h1>" > /var/www/sites/example.com/public/index.html
printf 'def get(request):\n  return "<h1>News</h1>"\n' > /var/www/sites/example.com/controllers/news.py

http://example.com/ is the static page and /news the handler, served a second or so after saving. For HTTPS, get a certificate with certbot (man cypache).

As a library, a config is a Python script that builds its sites and calls serve():

import cypache

def hello(request):
  return "<h1>Hello</h1>"

def user(request):
  return {"path": request.path, "query": request.query}

site = cypache.Site("example.com", "www.example.com", routes={"/": hello, "/api/user": user})
cypache.serve([site], http=8080)

python3 -I config.py

Run it as an unprivileged user: handlers run with the server's privileges. The config runs as code with them too, so it must not be writable by the server's user.

Documentation

The man pages are the reference. tools/install installs them; in a clone, read them with man -l man/<page>.

• man cypache: running it as a service: sites in /var/www/sites, HTTPS with certbot, upgrading, signals, security, logs and files.
• man cypache-config: the config: Site and serve() with every option, timeouts, HTTPS and HTTP/2, static files, reloading, the access log, and what requests are refused.
• man cypache-apps: a site's Python: handlers, the request, file-based apps and views, threads, uploads.

License

See LICENSE.txt.