[Web-SIG] [extension] x-wsgiorg.flush

[Phillip J. Eby]

At 08:24 PM 10/3/2007 +0200, Manlio Perillo wrote:
>WSGI already
>states that the WSGI gateway should not buffer the data).

It does not state that at all.  It states that a gateway *must not 
delay the transmission of any block*.  That requirement is not a 
"should" but a "must", and it does not directly state anything about 
buffering, one way or the other.

It *does*, however, imply that buffering is only acceptable if the 
buffer is being asynchronously emptied, via another thread or the OS 
emptying its own OS-level buffers. (e.g. if you're using synchronous sockets)


>Note that in Nginx, unlike Apache, an output buffer can process a
>partial buffer, so, for a WSGI application like:
>
>     start_response('200 OK', [...])
>
>     yield 'xxx'
>     yield 'yyy'
>     yield 'zzz'
>
>
>the 'xxx' string is sent to the next output buffer, and, finally it is
>sent to the client.
>
>Now can happens that the socket is not ready to send further data, so
>the application must be paused until the socket is ready.
>
>When the socket is ready, the next buffer can be sent to the next outpup
>buffer, and so on.

In the above code, when "yield 'yyy'" is invoked, one of two 
conditions must apply.  Either:

1. the 'xxx' has been sent to the OS, OR
2. it is still being sent in the background by another thread

If it is possible to execute the "yield 'yyy'" line without one of 
these conditions applying, the gateway is *not* WSGI compliant.