Add dev mode for local non-root development

NEWS

@@ -1,3 +1,16 @@
+shiny-server 1.5.24
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+* Added `:PROCESS_USER:` token for the `run_as` directive, which resolves to the
+  user running the shiny-server process. This enables running without root.
+
+* Added `Path` config type so that filesystem path directives (`site_dir`,
+  `app_dir`, `log_dir`, `bookmark_state_dir`, etc.) now resolve relative paths
+  to absolute at config parse time.
+
+* Added `npm run dev` for local development. Starts the server on port 3838 with
+  sample R and Python apps, no root required.
+
 shiny-server 1.5.23
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

config/shiny-server-rules.config

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ run_as {
   desc "The user the app should be run as. This user should have the minimal amount of privileges necessary to successfully run the application (i.e. read-only access to the Shiny application directory). Note that this directive cannot be used with `user_apps`, as `user_apps` always run as the user who owns the application.";
 
   # required parameter
-  param String users... "The username that should be used to run the app. If using home_dirs, this can also be the special keyword `:HOME_USER:` which will instruct `home_dirs` to run as the user in whose home directory the application exists. If using a special keyword like `:HOME_USER:`, you can specify additional usernames afterwards which will be used when this directive is applied to hosting models other than `home_dirs`.";
+  param String users... "The username that should be used to run the app. If using home_dirs, this can also be the special keyword `:HOME_USER:` which will instruct `home_dirs` to run as the user in whose home directory the application exists. The special keyword `:PROCESS_USER:` resolves to the user running the shiny-server process, useful for development without root privileges or for containerized environments where the server runs as a single non-root user. If using a special keyword like `:HOME_USER:`, you can specify additional usernames afterwards which will be used when this directive is applied to hosting models other than `home_dirs`.";
 
   # List of parent node names that are valid for this directive ($ means root)
   at $ server location;
@@ -15,14 +15,14 @@ run_as {
 
 socket_dir {
   desc "The path to the (empty) directory within which Shiny worker processes should create domain sockets. The directory should be owned by root with permissions set to `0333`. Defaults to `/var/shiny-server/sockets` if this directive is not present.";
-  param String path "The domain socket directory path (should be absolute).";
+  param Path path "The domain socket directory path (should be absolute).";
   at $;
   undocumented;
 }
 
 access_log {
   desc "The file path of the HTTP access log.";
-  param String path "The file path where the access log should be written";
+  param Path path "The file path where the access log should be written";
   param String [format] "The log file format; see [Connect documentation](http://www.senchalabs.org/connect/logger.html) under \"Formats\"" default;
   at $;
 }
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ location {
 
 site_dir {
   desc "Configures the enclosing location scope to be a website that can contain both Shiny applications and unrelated static assets in a single directory tree.";
-  param String rootPath "The path to the root directory of the website";
+  param Path rootPath "The path to the root directory of the website";
   at location;
   maxcount 1;
   precludes user_apps app_dir redirect user_dirs;
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ user_dirs {
 
 app_dir {
   desc "Configures the enclosing location scope to serve up the specified Shiny application.";
-  param String path "The path to the Shiny application directory";
+  param Path path "The path to the Shiny application directory";
   at location;
   maxcount 1;
   precludes redirect user_apps site_dir user_dirs;
@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ redirect {
 
 log_dir {
   desc "Directs the application to write error logs to the specified directory. Only applies to location scopes that are configured with `app_dir` or `site_dir`, as `user_apps` (autouser) always writes error logs to `~/ShinyApps/log`. In addition, starting in v1.5.13 you can set the environment variable `SHINY_LOG_STDERR` to any non-empty value to instruct Shiny Server to emit stderr output from Shiny apps to the main process's own stderr.";
-  param String path "The path to which application log files should be written";
+  param Path path "The path to which application log files should be written";
   at $ server location;
   maxcount 1;
 }
@@ -198,7 +198,7 @@ application {
 
 template_dir {
   desc "A directory containing custom templates to be used when generating pages in Shiny Server.";
-  param String dir "The directory containing HTML templates.";
+  param Path dir "The directory containing HTML templates.";
   at $ server location;
   maxcount 1;
 }
@@ -212,7 +212,7 @@ python {
 
 bookmark_state_dir {
   desc "A directory for storing persisted application state. If Shiny Server is running without root privileges, then the `run_as` account must have read/write access to this directory. If no `bookmark_state_dir` directive is provided, `/var/lib/shiny-server/bookmarks` will be used.";
-  param String dir "The directory where bookmark data should be stored.";
+  param Path dir "The directory where bookmark data should be stored.";
   at $ server location;
   maxcount 1;
 }

dev/.gitignore

@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+# Runtime artifacts -- do not commit
+bookmarks/
+log/
+sockets/
+
+# App runtime caches
+**/app_cache/
+**/__pycache__/
+**/.venv/

dev/apps/py-hello/.python-version

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+3.13

dev/apps/py-hello/app.py

@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+import numpy as np
+from shiny import App, reactive, render, ui
+
+app_ui = ui.page_sidebar(
+    ui.sidebar(
+        ui.input_slider("n", "Number of points", min=10, max=500, value=100),
+        ui.input_select("dist", "Distribution", choices={
+            "norm": "Normal",
+            "unif": "Uniform",
+            "exp": "Exponential",
+        }),
+        ui.input_slider("bins", "Histogram bins", min=5, max=50, value=20),
+    ),
+    ui.layout_columns(
+        ui.card(
+            ui.card_header("Histogram"),
+            ui.output_plot("hist"),
+        ),
+        ui.card(
+            ui.card_header("Density Estimate"),
+            ui.output_plot("density"),
+        ),
+    ),
+    ui.card(
+        ui.card_header("Summary Statistics"),
+        ui.output_text_verbatim("summary"),
+    ),
+    title="Shiny Server Dev Mode (Python)",
+)
+
+
+def server(input, output, session):
+    @reactive.calc
+    def data():
+        rng = np.random.default_rng()
+        if input.dist() == "norm":
+            return rng.standard_normal(input.n())
+        elif input.dist() == "unif":
+            return rng.uniform(size=input.n())
+        else:
+            return rng.exponential(size=input.n())
+
+    @render.plot
+    def hist():
+        import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
+
+        fig, ax = plt.subplots()
+        ax.hist(data(), bins=input.bins(), color="#2c7bb6", edgecolor="white")
+        ax.set_xlabel("Value")
+        return fig
+
+    @render.plot
+    def density():
+        from scipy.stats import gaussian_kde
+        import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
+
+        d = data()
+        kde = gaussian_kde(d)
+        x = np.linspace(d.min() - 0.5, d.max() + 0.5, 200)
+
+        fig, ax = plt.subplots()
+        ax.plot(x, kde(x), color="#d7191c", linewidth=2)
+        ax.fill_between(x, kde(x), alpha=0.2, color="#d7191c")
+        ax.set_xlabel("Value")
+        return fig
+
+    @render.text
+    def summary():
+        d = data()
+        return (
+            f"Min:    {d.min():.4f}\n"
+            f"Q1:     {np.percentile(d, 25):.4f}\n"
+            f"Median: {np.median(d):.4f}\n"
+            f"Mean:   {d.mean():.4f}\n"
+            f"Q3:     {np.percentile(d, 75):.4f}\n"
+            f"Max:    {d.max():.4f}\n"
+            f"Std:    {d.std():.4f}"
+        )
+
+
+app = App(app_ui, server)

dev/apps/py-hello/pyproject.toml

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+[project]
+name = "py-hello"
+version = "0.1.0"
+description = "Add your description here"
+readme = "README.md"
+requires-python = ">=3.13"
+dependencies = [
+    "matplotlib>=3.10.8",
+    "numpy>=2.4.4",
+    "scipy>=1.17.1",
+    "shiny>=1.6.0",
+]