mod_lisp is an extension module for the Apache HTTP Server. It enables Apache to interface with application servers written in Common Lisp, making it possible to dynamically generate web pages and provide

web application A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection. History In earlier computing models like client-serv ...

s with Common Lisp programs. Unlike other projects, such as

mod_perl Mod, MOD or mods may refer to: Places * Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band * M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US ...

and

mod_python mod_python is an Apache HTTP Server module that integrates the Python programming language with the server. It is intended to provide a Python language binding for the Apache HTTP Server. When mod_python released it was one of the more efficient ...

, mod_lisp does not embed a Common Lisp interpreter in Apache. In concept it is closer to

FastCGI FastCGI is a binary protocol for interfacing interactive programs with a web server. It is a variation on the earlier Common Gateway Interface (CGI). FastCGI's main aim is to reduce the overhead related to interfacing between web server and CGI ...

, handling requests by serializing them into a textual representation and sending that over a socket to a persistent Common Lisp program, and then sending the Common Lisp system's response to a client. The client may be a web browser, but is more likely to be a

reverse proxy In computer networks, a reverse proxy is the application that sits in front of back-end applications and forwards client (e.g. browser) requests to those applications. Reverse proxies help increase scalability, performance, resilience and securi ...

server. It is this server that interacts with the user's browser. The source ( FreeBSD style license), Common Lisp examples and pre-compiled binaries for FreeBSD,

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

and

Win32 The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is Microsoft's core set of application programming interfaces (APIs) available in the Microsoft Windows operating systems. The name Windows API collectively refers to several different platform implementations th ...

are available on the mod_lisp web site.

References

{{Web interfaces Apache httpd modules Lisp (programming language) Articles with underscores in the title