cowboy(7)

Name

cowboy - Small, fast, modern HTTP server for Erlang/OTP

Description

Cowboy is an HTTP server for Erlang/OTP with support for the HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2 and Websocket protocols.

Cowboy aims to provide a complete HTTP stack. This includes the implementation of the HTTP RFCs but also any directly related standards, like Websocket or Server-Sent Events.

Modules

Functions:

• cowboy(3) - Listener management
• cowboy_req(3) - Request and response
• cowboy_router(3) - Router
• cowboy_constraints(3) - Constraints

Protocols:

• cowboy_http(3) - HTTP/1.1
• cowboy_http2(3) - HTTP/2
• cowboy_websocket(3) - Websocket

Handlers:

• cowboy_static(3) - Static file handler

Behaviors:

• cowboy_handler(3) - Plain HTTP handlers
• cowboy_loop(3) - Loop handlers
• cowboy_middleware(3) - Middlewares
• cowboy_rest(3) - REST handlers
• cowboy_stream(3) - Stream handlers
• cowboy_websocket(3) - Websocket handlers

Middlewares:

• cowboy_router(3) - Router middleware
• cowboy_handler(3) - Handler middleware

Dependencies

• ranch(7) - Socket acceptor pool for TCP protocols
• cowlib(7) - Support library for manipulating Web protocols
• ssl - Secure communication over sockets
• crypto - Crypto functions

All these applications must be started before the cowboy application. To start Cowboy and all dependencies at once:

{ok, _} = application:ensure_all_started(cowboy).

Environment

The cowboy application does not define any application environment configuration parameters.

See also

ranch(7), cowlib(7)