Mongrel: Serving, Deploying, and Extending Your Ruby Applications

Section 2: Introduction

2.1 What Is Mongrel?

2.2 How Does Mongrel Work?

2.3 What Can Mongrel Do for Me?

In this section we introduce Mongrel, explain its origins and history, and how it is used. We have found there are some common misconceptions about how it works or what exactly it does, so we will help clear these up so we can start off on the right foot. Even if you think you know what Mongrel is all about, make sure you read this first.

2.1. What Is Mongrel?

Mongrel is a small, fast, mostly Ruby Web server.^[1] It was created to do only a few things, but to do them really well: Make the development, deployment, and extension of Ruby applications Dead Simple. That’s it.

2.1.1. A Little History

Zed Shaw started Mongrel in late December 2005. ...