Deflatemod

Usage

What is deflatemod?

Deflatemod is a module for Ocsigen that compresses content using the HTTP Content-Encoding mechanism. It supports gzip, deflate (zlib format) and zstd.

Brotli (br) is not supported yet: at the time of writing there is no maintained OCaml binding to libbrotli that builds on OCaml 5.

What do I need to use deflatemod?

You need the bytesrw library (with its zlib and zstd backends, which require the system zlib and libzstd libraries) and a working Ocsigen installation.

How do I use deflatemod?

To use that extension, load OCamlfind package ocsigenserver.ext.deflatemod, either from your Dune file (if you are using static linking), or from the configuration file:

<extension findlib-package="ocsigenserver.ext.deflatemod" />

This page describes the configuration file options. If you are building a statically linked executable without configuration file, use the corresponding functions from module Deflatemod.

How do I configure deflatemod?

Again, the options are in ocsigen.conf. You can set a few options globally, in the extension tag:

• the compress level: from 0 (no compression) to 9. The higher, the better compression rate you achieve. Conversely, the lower, the faster it is. Default is 6. This level applies to gzip and deflate; zstd uses the library default level.
• the buffer size: default is 8192. You shouldn't need to change this one, but you can still try a few other values (any feedback welcomed).

For example:

<extension module="/home/gabriel/ocsigen/extensions/deflatemod.cmo">
<compress level="6" />
<buffer size="1024" />
</extension>

Next, you '''have to''' specify which pages you whish to deflate, in which host/site (otherwise, deflatemod won't compress anything). See next question to do that.

I want to deflate only some files. Is it possible?

To some extent, yes. You can '''exclude''' some files and deflate every other, according to their mime-type or extension (''ie.'' the end of the '''url''' in fact, not really the file name on the disk).

Here is an example:

<host>
<site>
<!-- ... -->
</site>

<deflate compress="allbut">
<!-- deflate everything but *.tar.gz files and image/* files -->
    <extension>.tar.gz</extension>
    <type>image/*</type>
</deflate>
</host>

As you can see, you must put the <deflate> tag at the very end of the <host> element. Indeed, Ocsigen deals with extensions sequentially, so if you put <site> or other elements '''after''' <deflatemod>, they won't be compressed.

Conversely, you can choose to deflate '''only''' some files, based on their mime-types or extension:

<host>
<site>
<!-- ... -->
</site>

<deflate compress="only">
<!-- deflate only text/html files -->
    <type>text/html</type>
</deflate>
</host>

Warning: you can use only one contenttype tag! So you must choose, either the "only" or the "allbut" way.

Limitations: you cannot filter by directory or by filename extension (remember extension is the url's extension). If you really need it, please fill a bug report or send a patch.

Technical questions

How can I choose the content-encoding (gzip, deflate or zstd)?

You can't. Deflatemod follows the RFC and chooses automatically the right encoding, based upon the Accept-Encoding header sent by the client. When the client offers several codecs at the same quality, zstd is preferred, then gzip, then deflate.

Is compression enabled in the one-command serve mode?

Yes. When you run ocsigenserver ./public (or ocsigenserver --serve ...), responses with a text-based content type are compressed by default, with no configuration needed, just like a static file server such as Caddy.

Does deflatemod support transfert-encoding?

No, it doesn't. Content-encoding is definitely a better solution, providing end to end compression at the content-level.

How does deflatemod deal with the content-length header?

As it cannot compute the new content-length, deflatemod uses chunked-encoding. This is the recommended way to go.

Page written by Gabriel Kerneis