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Networking (Apple) Businesses Apple Hardware

Rendezvous For Apache 44

Posted by pudge from the next-up-is-zeroclick dept.
sapporo writes "Eric Christopher Seidel has released mod_rendezvous. The DSO lets the Apache that comes with Mac OS X advertise its services on the local network via Rendezvous, so it will show up in Safari's Rendezvous Bookmarks section. This lets you browse all web servers on the local network very conveniently. Nice one!" I wonder, could it work on Linux too? I would think so ...
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Rendezvous For Apache More

Rendezvous For Apache

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  • Very nice idea (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Matthias Wiesmann ( 221411 ) on Friday January 10, 2003 @07:34AM (#5053912) Homepage Journal
    I was also suprised that Apple did not activate this for personal web sharing. It is nice that somebody corrected it. This said, in my case, the hack does not work correctly: it seems the advertised local address has a period after the .local domain, so the browser can't find the actual web server.

    I really hope that rendez-vous technologies get ported to other Unixes soon. For instance, multicast DNS [multicastdns.org] is really nice in LANs where IP addresses are assigned via DHCP. You can simply type something like ssh server.local and it works. When you use laptops, it is really a killer feature.

  • Works great... (Score:3, Informative)

    by djupedal ( 584558 ) on Friday January 10, 2003 @09:13AM (#5054354)
    download...unpack...run....restart apache...done
  • Ummm,
    I'm a bit disappointed that:
    1) the code has not been made available (although the author claims he will send it to you if you send him an email)
    2) no apache 2.0 support (though he claims it is coming).

    I'm tempted to rewrite it to support both 1.3 and 2.0 and open source it.
    • When I went to the site (2 days ago), there was a note that said 'If you want the source, e-mail me and I'll send it to you.' Perhaps he didn't think too many people would be interested, or has limited webspace.

    • Yes, really open sourced! (Score:4, Informative)

      by Twirlip of the Mists ( 615030 ) <twirlipofthemists@yahoo.com> on Friday January 10, 2003 @11:44AM (#5055575)
      the code has not been made available (although the author claims he will send it to you if you send him an email)

      You know that the GPL itself requires nothing more, right? A program does not have to have its source code up on a server for it to be open source. Under the GPL, it merely has to come with a written offer to provide the source at no charge or a nominal charge. Eric's following the letter of that rule, even though he's not using the GPL. Good for him, I say.

      Why don't you send him an email and see what you get back?
    • Please go to the site now. The source code is available at!

      http://homepage.mac.com/macdomeeu/dev/current/mo d_ rendezvous/

      http://homepage.mac.com/macdomeeu/dev/current/mo d_ rendezvous/mod_rendezvous%20source.tar.gz
  • Is there any technical info on Rendezvous? Does it not broadcast across subnets? I've added mod_rendezvous to 2 macs on different subnets of my network and they can't be seen...

    • Re:Rendezvous info (Score:2, Informative)

      by P. Niss ( 635300 )

      Answer to question 1: Yes [apple.com]

      Answer to question 2: No. From the Apple Developer Rendezvous FAQ [apple.com]:

      Q: Does Rendezvous work across routers (between multiple subnets)?

      A: No. The first release of DNS Service Discovery (DNS-SD) for Mac OS X concentrates on Multicast DNS (mDNS) for single-link networks because this is the environment worst served by current IP software. Future versions will add Dynamic Update and unicast query support.

      Multicast DNS is intended for use on small networks with no infrastructure support, and intentionally uses link-local multicast. If a network has two links then it needs a bridge or router to connect those links, so by definition you now have a box that is (or should be) capable of providing some level of infrastructure support.

      It is important to understand that DNS-SD is orthogonal to mDNS. You can use one without the other. In the example given above, the router that is connecting the two links should also include a DHCP server to assign addresses, and a little mini-DNS server which handles both standard DNS queries and Dynamic DNS Updates [RFC 3007]. The devices offering services on that network then advertise their services by using Dynamic Update to register their service records with the mini-DNS server in the router, and clients looking for services use normal unicast DNS queries addressed to that server to retrieve those service records.

    • Re:Rendezvous info (Score:5, Informative)

      by Twirlip of the Mists ( 615030 ) <twirlipofthemists@yahoo.com> on Friday January 10, 2003 @11:49AM (#5055638)
      Is there any technical info on Rendezvous?

      There is tons of technical info on Rendezvous. Google for it, or look at the canonical source [apple.com]. (You can also download source from there.)

      Does it not broadcast across subnets?

      This is a FAQ [apple.com]:
      Q: Does Rendezvous work across routers (between multiple subnets)?

      A: No. The first release of DNS Service Discovery (DNS-SD) for Mac OS X concentrates on Multicast DNS (mDNS) for single-link networks because this is the environment worst served by current IP software. Future versions will add Dynamic Update and unicast query support.

      Multicast DNS is intended for use on small networks with no infrastructure support, and intentionally uses link-local multicast. If a network has two links then it needs a bridge or router to connect those links, so by definition you now have a box that is (or should be) capable of providing some level of infrastructure support.

      It is important to understand that DNS-SD is orthogonal to mDNS. You can use one without the other. In the example given above, the router that is connecting the two links should also include a DHCP server to assign addresses, and a little mini-DNS server which handles both standard DNS queries and Dynamic DNS Updates [RFC 3007]. The devices offering services on that network then advertise their services by using Dynamic Update to register their service records with the mini-DNS server in the router, and clients looking for services use normal unicast DNS queries addressed to that server to retrieve those service records.
  • What I don't understand is why there is still no plugin for OmniWeb to do the same thing (or have I missed it?). Not to mention the various Navigator/Chimera spinoffs.
  • Oddly enough rendezvous reminds me a little of catch up technology, catch up to what AppleTalk used to give you. For those who never used it, AppleTalk used a name based protocol, with only one well-known port. When you opened something in the Chooser, it would send out a broadcast on the local net on that well-known port, telling the device what DeviceType it was looking for. If the DeviceType matched, it would respond with it's DeviceName, and they'd show up the the Chooser. Rendezvous seems to be trying to catch up TCP/IP to the old easy-to-find AppleTalk tech.
  • I am not a programmer, but like many users, have a homeoffice network which mixes pcs and macs. Printing from macs to non pcl network printers is still a pain (Dave is not up to it). Should we expect rendez vous / apache to bridge this cumbersome canyon? Thanks
    • Rendezvous holds some great promise in making SOHO networks a snap to set up. Apache (being a web server) isn't going to have anything to do with it. It really depends on how fully the rest of the industry accepts rendezvous, but that looks like a pretty sure bet.

      I expect Apple will soon deliver a nice easy solution to your problem.

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