/ 
WebDyne-3.005
/ wdrender

wdrender

NAME

wdrender - parse and render WebDyne files

SYNOPSIS

wdrender [OPTIONS] FILE

DESCRIPTION

wdrender renders a WebDyne source file and prints the resulting response body to standard output.

By default it uses the internal WebDyne handler with the fake request backend. It can also exercise other backends such as psgi, psgi_server, pagi, and mod_perl, or use a different handler module via --handler.

Defaults:

  • request backend: fake

  • method: GET

  • root: current working directory

  • colour: enabled

  • line numbers: enabled

  • tidy formatting: enabled

  • head insertion: disabled

  • theme: light

Options can also be preloaded from ~/.wdrender.opt by creating an anonymous hash of option names and values.

OPTIONS

General

  • --help

    Show brief help output (synopsis and options).

  • --man

    Display the full manual.

  • --version

    Display the script version and WebDyne version, then exit.

  • --handler=MODULE

    Use a different WebDyne handler module, for example WebDyne::Chain.

  • --conf=FILE

    Set WEBDYNE_CONF to the specified configuration file before rendering.

  • --no_conf

    Disable normal config loading by setting WEBDYNE_CONF=..

  • --raw

    Disable config loading and skip HTML tidy/colour formatting.

  • --outfile=FILE

    Send output to nominated file. Colourisation is disabled but tidy will be performed if available.

  • --test

    Use WebDyne's built-in default test page as the source file.

  • --warn

    Enable or disable warnings about missing Tidy or Colourise modules

  • --head_insert

    Enable or disable WebDyne head insertion while rendering from the command line, including configured WEBDYNE_HEAD_INSERT content and related start_html parameters. This is disabled by default so command-line checks show the page output without head snippets normally inserted during Apache, PSGI, or PAGI request handling.

Backend Selection

  • --request=TYPE

    Select one or more backends used to execute the request. Repeat the option to run multiple backends. Valid values are fake, psgi, psgi_server, pagi, mod_perl, and all.

  • --fake

    Shortcut for --request=fake.

  • --psgi

    Shortcut for --request=psgi.

  • --psgi_server

    Shortcut for --request=psgi_server.

  • --pagi

    Shortcut for --request=pagi.

  • --mod_perl

    Shortcut for --request=mod_perl.

  • --all

    Run all supported backends instead of just one selected backend. This is equivalent to --request=all.

  • --root=DIR

    Set the document root passed to backend handlers. Defaults to the current working directory.

  • --keep_tmp

    When using the mod_perl backend, do not cleanup temporary Apache server root.

  • --apache_stdout

    When using the mod_perl backend, send Apache access/error logs to stdout/stderr where possible instead of suppressing them.

  • --dump_postamble

    Print the generated Apache postamble and exit instead of starting the Apache test instance.

  • --dump_opt

    Dump the parsed option hash for debugging and exit.

Request Construction

  • --method=VERB

    Explicitly set the HTTP method, for example GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, OPTIONS, or HEAD.

  • --get=KEY=VALUE

    Add request parameters and use GET.

  • --post=KEY=VALUE

    Add request parameters and use POST.

  • --put=KEY=VALUE

    Add request parameters and use PUT.

  • --patch=KEY=VALUE

    Add request parameters and use PATCH.

  • --options=KEY=VALUE

    Add request parameters and use OPTIONS.

Request parameter options may be repeated, and each value may contain multiple ; or & separated key/value pairs. Keys and values may be separated with = or :.

  • --head

    Use HEAD.

  • --param=KEY=VALUE

    Pass handler parameters to the WebDyne handler call. These are separate from request query/body parameters and are available to handler-side Perl code. Repeat the option or separate entries with ; or &. Duplicate keys are preserved as array values.

  • --headers_in=NAME:VALUE

    Add request headers. Multiple values may be supplied by repeating the option.

  • --htmx

    Add the request header HX-Request: true.

  • --sse

    Add the request header Accept: text/event-stream.

Response Display

  • --header

    Include the response status line and headers ahead of the rendered body.

  • --header_only

    Print only the response status line and headers.

  • --colour

    Enable or disable HTML syntax highlighting for text/html responses.

  • --lineno

    Enable or disable line numbers in colourised output.

  • --theme=light|dark

    Select the colour theme used by syntax highlighting.

  • --tidy

    Enable or disable HTML tidy formatting for text/html responses. Tidy is skipped automatically for HTMX output.

Repetition and Comparison

  • --repeat=NUM

    Repeat the render NUM times.

  • --compare

    When repeating renders, require each rendered body to match the first one. If output differs, the script aborts and shows a diff when Text::Diff is installed.

  • --loop

    Repeat forever. Intended for leak or stability testing.

  • --delay=SECONDS

    Sleep between iterations.

EXAMPLES

# Show the rendered version of time.psp
wdrender time.psp

# Show headers as well as the body
wdrender --header time.psp

# Show only the status line and headers
wdrender --header-only time.psp

# Render using a different handler
WebDyneChain=WebDyne::Session wdrender --handler WebDyne::Chain time.psp

# Simulate a GET request with query parameters
wdrender --get "test=1" checkbox.psp

# Simulate a POST request
wdrender --post "name=alice" form.psp

# Force the PSGI backend
wdrender --psgi app/example.psp

# Compare repeated renders for stability
wdrender --repeat 5 --compare page.psp

# Simulate an HTMX request with a custom header
wdrender --htmx --headers_in "X-Debug: 1" fragment.psp

NOTES

wdrender aims to reproduce WebDyne output from the command line, but it cannot perfectly duplicate every web-server runtime detail. In particular, pages that depend on a specific server environment may behave differently across fake, psgi, psgi_server, pagi, and mod_perl backends.

AUTHOR

Andrew Speer mailto:andrew.speer@isolutions.com.au

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

This file is part of WebDyne.

This software is copyright (c) 2026 by Andrew Speer mailto:andrew.speer@isolutions.com.au.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

Full license text is available at:

http://dev.perl.org/licenses/