daphne
TLDR
Run a Django Channels application
SYNOPSIS
daphne [options] application
DESCRIPTION
Daphne is an HTTP, HTTP2, and WebSocket protocol server for ASGI (Asynchronous Server Gateway Interface) applications, particularly Django Channels. It enables Django applications to handle WebSocket connections and other asynchronous protocols.
Unlike WSGI servers (Gunicorn, uWSGI) that handle synchronous HTTP requests, Daphne supports long-lived connections required for real-time features: WebSockets, Server-Sent Events, and HTTP long polling.
Daphne is built on Twisted's networking engine. It's typically used with Django Channels for chat applications, live notifications, and other real-time features. In production, it's often run behind a reverse proxy like nginx.
PARAMETERS
-b, --bind address
IP address to bind (default: 127.0.0.1).-p, --port port
Port to listen on (default: 8000).-u, --unix-socket path
Unix socket path (alternative to TCP).--fd fd
File descriptor to listen on.-e, --endpoint spec
Twisted endpoint specification.--threads n
Number of worker threads.-v, --verbosity level
Logging verbosity (0-2).--access-log path
Access log file path.--proxy-headers
Enable X-Forwarded-For handling.--proxy-headers-host header
Header for host detection behind proxy.
CAVEATS
Not suitable for serving static files; use nginx or whitenoise. Production deployments should use multiple workers (via process manager). WebSocket connections consume resources while idle. SSL termination is better handled by a reverse proxy in most deployments.
HISTORY
Daphne was created by Andrew Godwin as part of the Django Channels project, first released around 2016. It was developed to bring WebSocket support to Django, enabling the framework to handle real-time applications. Django Channels became an official Django project, with Daphne as its reference ASGI server.
