inspired by the web server in Samba 4

[Michael Ströder]

Andrew Tridgell wrote:
> 
> Using mod_python+apache would also present a considerable license
> problem. Our web management interface needs deep access to smbd
> structures, and that means linking to a lot of Samba code.

If going the Python route I'd propose to implement a persistent web app
with wrappers for being embedded into various web server installations.
This is what some Python web application frameworks are already doing.
Simplest route is to use Python's built-in web server.

> Finally, I think it would be quite tricky to get the same ease of use
> features in a apache+python+smbd setup. The current web server
> auto-detects https versus http on the same port, auto-creates TLS
> certificates, and works with no config file at all and no sam database
> at all.

Frankly for security reasons this really scares me.

Well, you could just start Apache's httpd with your own httpd.conf
(command-line option -f) on a separate port.

> Complex
> instructions about setting up apache with a modified mod_python to
> talk to smbd internals,

Why do you expect having to modify mod_python?

> plus setting up apache https would increase
> the barrier to entry a lot.

E.g. Linux distributions already come with that (yes, this scares me too
but it's another story. ;-).

Ciao, Michael.