Skip to content

> Generated file — update `gunicorn/config.py` instead.

# Settings

This reference is built directly from `gunicorn.config.KNOWN_SETTINGS` and is regenerated during every documentation build.

Note

Settings can be provided through the `GUNICORN_CMD_ARGS` environment variable. For example:

    $ GUNICORN_CMD_ARGS="--bind=127.0.0.1 --workers=3" gunicorn app:app

Added in 19.7.

## Config File

### `config`

Command line: `-c CONFIG`, `--config CONFIG`

Default: `'./gunicorn.conf.py'`

The Gunicorn config file.

A string of the form `PATH`, `file:PATH`, or `python:MODULE_NAME`.

Only has an effect when specified on the command line or as part of an application specific configuration.

By default, a file named `gunicorn.conf.py` will be read from the same directory where gunicorn is being run.

Changed in 19.4

Loading the config from a Python module requires the `python:` prefix.

### `wsgi_app`

Default: `None`

A WSGI application path in pattern `$(MODULE_NAME):$(VARIABLE_NAME)`.

Added in 20.1.0

## Control

### `control_socket`

Command line: `--control-socket PATH`

Default: `'gunicorn.ctl'`

Unix socket path for control interface.

The control socket allows runtime management of Gunicorn via the `gunicornc` command-line tool. Commands include viewing worker status, adjusting worker count, and graceful reload/shutdown.

By default, creates `gunicorn.ctl` in the working directory. Set an absolute path for a fixed location (e.g., `/var/run/gunicorn.ctl`).

Use `--no-control-socket` to disable.

Added in 25.1.0

### `control_socket_mode`

Command line: `--control-socket-mode INT`

Default: `384`

Permission mode for control socket.

Restricts who can connect to the control socket. Default `0600` allows only the socket owner. Set to `0660` to allow group access.

Added in 25.1.0

### `control_socket_disable`

Command line: `--no-control-socket`

Default: `False`

Disable control socket.

When set, no control socket is created and `gunicornc` cannot connect to this Gunicorn instance.

Added in 25.1.0

## Debugging

### `reload`

Command line: `--reload`

Default: `False`

Restart workers when code changes.

This setting is intended for development. It will cause workers to be restarted whenever application code changes.

The reloader is incompatible with application preloading. When using a paste configuration be sure that the server block does not import any application code or the reload will not work as designed.

The default behavior is to attempt inotify with a fallback to file system polling. Generally, inotify should be preferred if available because it consumes less system resources.

Note

In order to use the inotify reloader, you must have the `inotify` package installed.

Warning

Enabling this will change what happens on failure to load the the application: While the reloader is active, any and all clients that can make requests can see the full exception and traceback!

### `reload_engine`

Command line: `--reload-engine STRING`

Default: `'auto'`

The implementation that should be used to power reload.

Valid engines are:

- `'auto'`
- `'poll'`
- `'inotify'` (requires inotify)

Added in 19.7

### `reload_extra_files`

Command line: `--reload-extra-file FILES`

Default: `[]`

Extends reload option to also watch and reload on additional files (e.g., templates, configurations, specifications, etc.).

Added in 19.8

### `spew`

Command line: `--spew`

Default: `False`

Install a trace function that spews every line executed by the server.

This is the nuclear option.

### `check_config`

Command line: `--check-config`

Default: `False`

Check the configuration and exit. The exit status is 0 if the configuration is correct, and 1 if the configuration is incorrect.

### `print_config`

Command line: `--print-config`

Default: `False`

Print the configuration settings as fully resolved. Implies check-config.

## Dirty Arbiter Hooks

### `on_dirty_starting`

Default:

    def on_dirty_starting(arbiter):
        pass

Called just before the dirty arbiter process is initialized.

The callable needs to accept a single instance variable for the DirtyArbiter.

Added in 25.0.0

### `dirty_post_fork`

Default:

    def dirty_post_fork(arbiter, worker):
        pass

Called just after a dirty worker has been forked.

The callable needs to accept two instance variables for the DirtyArbiter and new DirtyWorker.

Added in 25.0.0

### `dirty_worker_init`

Default:

    def dirty_worker_init(worker):
        pass

Called just after a dirty worker has initialized all applications.

The callable needs to accept one instance variable for the DirtyWorker.

Added in 25.0.0

### `dirty_worker_exit`

Default:

    def dirty_worker_exit(arbiter, worker):
        pass

Called when a dirty worker has exited.

The callable needs to accept two instance variables for the DirtyArbiter and the exiting DirtyWorker.

Added in 25.0.0

## Dirty Arbiters

### `dirty_apps`

Command line: `--dirty-app STRING`

Default: `[]`

Dirty applications to load in the dirty worker pool.

A list of application paths in one of these formats:

- `$(MODULE_NAME):$(CLASS_NAME)` - all workers load this app
- `$(MODULE_NAME):$(CLASS_NAME):$(N)` - only N workers load this app

Each dirty app must be a class that inherits from `DirtyApp` base class and implements the `init()`, `__call__()`, and `close()` methods.

Example::

    dirty_apps = [
        "myapp.ml:MLApp",           # All workers load this
        "myapp.images:ImageApp",    # All workers load this
        "myapp.heavy:HugeModel:2",  # Only 2 workers load this
    ]

The per-app worker limit is useful for memory-intensive applications like large ML models. Instead of all 8 workers loading a 10GB model (80GB total), you can limit it to 2 workers (20GB total).

Alternatively, you can set the `workers` class attribute on your DirtyApp subclass::

    class HugeModelApp(DirtyApp):
        workers = 2  # Only 2 workers load this app

        def init(self):
            self.model = load_10gb_model()

Note: The config format (`module:Class:N`) takes precedence over the class attribute if both are specified.

Dirty apps are loaded once when the dirty worker starts and persist in memory for the lifetime of the worker. This is ideal for loading ML models, database connection pools, or other stateful resources that are expensive to initialize.

Added in 25.0.0

Changed in 25.1.0

Added per-app worker allocation via `:N` format suffix.

### `dirty_workers`

Command line: `--dirty-workers INT`

Default: `0`

The number of dirty worker processes.

A positive integer. Set to 0 (default) to disable the dirty arbiter. When set to a positive value, a dirty arbiter process will be spawned to manage the dirty worker pool.

Dirty workers are separate from HTTP workers and are designed for long-running, blocking operations like ML model inference or heavy computation.

Added in 25.0.0

### `dirty_timeout`

Command line: `--dirty-timeout INT`

Default: `300`

Timeout for dirty task execution in seconds.

Workers silent for more than this many seconds are considered stuck and will be killed. Set to a high value for operations like model loading that may take a long time.

Value is a positive number. Setting it to 0 disables timeout checking.

Added in 25.0.0

### `dirty_threads`

Command line: `--dirty-threads INT`

Default: `1`

The number of threads per dirty worker.

Each dirty worker can use threads to handle concurrent operations within the same process, useful for async-safe applications.

Added in 25.0.0

### `dirty_graceful_timeout`

Command line: `--dirty-graceful-timeout INT`

Default: `30`

Timeout for graceful dirty worker shutdown in seconds.

After receiving a shutdown signal, dirty workers have this much time to finish their current tasks. Workers still alive after the timeout are force killed.

Added in 25.0.0

## HTTP/2

### `http_protocols`

Command line: `--http-protocols STRING`

Default: `'h1'`

HTTP protocol versions to support (comma-separated, order = preference).

Valid protocols:

- `h1` - HTTP/1.1 (default)
- `h2` - HTTP/2 (requires TLS with ALPN)
- `h3` - HTTP/3 (future, not yet implemented)

Examples::

    # HTTP/1.1 only (default, backward compatible)
    --http-protocols=h1

    # Prefer HTTP/2, fallback to HTTP/1.1
    --http-protocols=h2,h1

    # HTTP/2 only (reject HTTP/1.1 clients)
    --http-protocols=h2

HTTP/2 requires:

- TLS (--certfile and --keyfile)
- The h2 library: `pip install gunicorn[http2]`
- ALPN-capable TLS client

Note

HTTP/2 cleartext (h2c) is not supported due to security concerns and lack of browser support.

Added in 25.0.0

### `http2_max_concurrent_streams`

Command line: `--http2-max-concurrent-streams INT`

Default: `100`

Maximum number of concurrent HTTP/2 streams per connection.

This limits how many requests can be processed simultaneously on a single HTTP/2 connection. Higher values allow more parallelism but use more memory.

Default is 100, which matches common server configurations. The HTTP/2 specification allows up to 2^31-1.

Added in 25.0.0

### `http2_initial_window_size`

Command line: `--http2-initial-window-size INT`

Default: `65535`

Initial HTTP/2 flow control window size in bytes.

This controls how much data can be in-flight before the receiver sends WINDOW_UPDATE frames. Larger values can improve throughput for large transfers but use more memory.

Default is 65535 (64KB - 1), the HTTP/2 specification default. Maximum is 2^31-1 (2147483647).

Added in 25.0.0

### `http2_max_frame_size`

Command line: `--http2-max-frame-size INT`

Default: `16384`

Maximum HTTP/2 frame payload size in bytes.

This is the largest frame payload the server will accept. Larger frames reduce framing overhead but may increase latency for small messages.

Default is 16384 (16KB), the HTTP/2 specification minimum. Range is 16384 to 16777215 (16MB - 1).

Added in 25.0.0

### `http2_max_header_list_size`

Command line: `--http2-max-header-list-size INT`

Default: `65536`

Maximum size of HTTP/2 header list in bytes (HPACK protection).

This limits the total size of headers after HPACK decompression. Protects against compression bombs and excessive memory use.

Default is 65536 (64KB). Set to 0 for unlimited (not recommended).

Added in 25.0.0

## Logging

### `accesslog`

Command line: `--access-logfile FILE`

Default: `None`

The Access log file to write to.

`'-'` means log to stdout.

### `disable_redirect_access_to_syslog`

Command line: `--disable-redirect-access-to-syslog`

Default: `False`

Disable redirect access logs to syslog.

Added in 19.8

### `access_log_format`

Command line: `--access-logformat STRING`

Default: `'%(h)s %(l)s %(u)s %(t)s "%(r)s" %(s)s %(b)s "%(f)s" "%(a)s"'`

The access log format.

=========== =========== Identifier Description =========== =========== h remote address l `'-'` u user name (if HTTP Basic auth used) t date of the request r status line (e.g. `GET / HTTP/1.1`) m request method U URL path without query string q query string H protocol s status B response length b response length or `'-'` (CLF format) f referrer (note: header is `referer`) a user agent T request time in seconds M request time in milliseconds D request time in microseconds L request time in decimal seconds p process ID {header}i request header {header}o response header {variable}e environment variable =========== ===========

Use lowercase for header and environment variable names, and put `{...}x` names inside `%(...)s`. For example::

    %({x-forwarded-for}i)s

### `errorlog`

Command line: `--error-logfile FILE`, `--log-file FILE`

Default: `'-'`

The Error log file to write to.

Using `'-'` for FILE makes gunicorn log to stderr.

Changed in 19.2

Log to stderr by default.

### `loglevel`

Command line: `--log-level LEVEL`

Default: `'info'`

The granularity of Error log outputs.

Valid level names are:

- `'debug'`
- `'info'`
- `'warning'`
- `'error'`
- `'critical'`

### `capture_output`

Command line: `--capture-output`

Default: `False`

Redirect stdout/stderr to specified file in errorlog.

Added in 19.6

### `logger_class`

Command line: `--logger-class STRING`

Default: `'gunicorn.glogging.Logger'`

The logger you want to use to log events in Gunicorn.

The default class (`gunicorn.glogging.Logger`) handles most normal usages in logging. It provides error and access logging.

You can provide your own logger by giving Gunicorn a Python path to a class that quacks like `gunicorn.glogging.Logger`.

### `logconfig`

Command line: `--log-config FILE`

Default: `None`

The log config file to use. Gunicorn uses the standard Python logging module's Configuration file format.

### `logconfig_dict`

Default: `{}`

The log config dictionary to use, using the standard Python logging module's dictionary configuration format. This option takes precedence over the logconfig and logconfig-json options, which uses the older file configuration format and JSON respectively.

Format: https://docs.python.org/3/library/logging.config.html#logging.config.dictConfig

For more context you can look at the default configuration dictionary for logging, which can be found at `gunicorn.glogging.CONFIG_DEFAULTS`.

Added in 19.8

### `logconfig_json`

Command line: `--log-config-json FILE`

Default: `None`

The log config to read config from a JSON file

Format: https://docs.python.org/3/library/logging.config.html#logging.config.jsonConfig

Added in 20.0

### `syslog_addr`

Command line: `--log-syslog-to SYSLOG_ADDR`

Default:

Platform-specific:

- macOS: `'unix:///var/run/syslog'`
- FreeBSD/DragonFly: `'unix:///var/run/log'`
- OpenBSD: `'unix:///dev/log'`
- Linux/other: `'udp://localhost:514'`

Address to send syslog messages.

Address is a string of the form:

- `unix://PATH#TYPE` : for unix domain socket. `TYPE` can be `stream` for the stream driver or `dgram` for the dgram driver. `stream` is the default.
- `udp://HOST:PORT` : for UDP sockets
- `tcp://HOST:PORT` : for TCP sockets

### `syslog`

Command line: `--log-syslog`

Default: `False`

Send Gunicorn logs to syslog.

Changed in 19.8

You can now disable sending access logs by using the disable-redirect-access-to-syslog setting.

### `syslog_prefix`

Command line: `--log-syslog-prefix SYSLOG_PREFIX`

Default: `None`

Makes Gunicorn use the parameter as program-name in the syslog entries.

All entries will be prefixed by `gunicorn.<prefix>`. By default the program name is the name of the process.

### `syslog_facility`

Command line: `--log-syslog-facility SYSLOG_FACILITY`

Default: `'user'`

Syslog facility name

### `enable_stdio_inheritance`

Command line: `-R`, `--enable-stdio-inheritance`

Default: `False`

Enable stdio inheritance.

Enable inheritance for stdio file descriptors in daemon mode.

Note: To disable the Python stdout buffering, you can to set the user environment variable `PYTHONUNBUFFERED` .

### `statsd_host`

Command line: `--statsd-host STATSD_ADDR`

Default: `None`

The address of the StatsD server to log to.

Address is a string of the form:

- `unix://PATH` : for a unix domain socket.
- `HOST:PORT` : for a network address

Added in 19.1

### `dogstatsd_tags`

Command line: `--dogstatsd-tags DOGSTATSD_TAGS`

Default: `''`

A comma-delimited list of datadog statsd (dogstatsd) tags to append to statsd metrics. e.g. `'tag1:value1,tag2:value2'`

Added in 20

### `statsd_prefix`

Command line: `--statsd-prefix STATSD_PREFIX`

Default: `''`

Prefix to use when emitting statsd metrics (a trailing `.` is added, if not provided).

Added in 19.2

### `enable_backlog_metric`

Command line: `--enable-backlog-metric`

Default: `False`

Enable socket backlog metric (only supported on Linux).

When enabled, gunicorn will emit a `gunicorn.backlog` histogram metric showing the number of connections waiting in the socket backlog.

## Process Naming

### `proc_name`

Command line: `-n STRING`, `--name STRING`

Default: `None`

A base to use with setproctitle for process naming.

This affects things like `ps` and `top`. If you're going to be running more than one instance of Gunicorn you'll probably want to set a name to tell them apart. This requires that you install the setproctitle module.

If not set, the default_proc_name setting will be used.

### `default_proc_name`

Default: `'gunicorn'`

Internal setting that is adjusted for each type of application.

## SSL

### `keyfile`

Command line: `--keyfile FILE`

Default: `None`

SSL key file

### `certfile`

Command line: `--certfile FILE`

Default: `None`

SSL certificate file

### `ssl_version`

Command line: `--ssl-version`

Default: `<_SSLMethod.PROTOCOL_TLS: 2>`

SSL version to use (see stdlib ssl module's).

Deprecated in 21.0

The option is deprecated and it is currently ignored. Use ssl-context instead.

============= ============ --ssl-version Description ============= ============ SSLv3 SSLv3 is not-secure and is strongly discouraged. SSLv23 Alias for TLS. Deprecated in Python 3.6, use TLS. TLS Negotiate highest possible version between client/server. Can yield SSL. (Python 3.6+) TLSv1 TLS 1.0 TLSv1_1 TLS 1.1 (Python 3.4+) TLSv1_2 TLS 1.2 (Python 3.4+) TLS_SERVER Auto-negotiate the highest protocol version like TLS, but only support server-side SSLSocket connections. (Python 3.6+) ============= ============

Changed in 19.7

The default value has been changed from `ssl.PROTOCOL_TLSv1` to `ssl.PROTOCOL_SSLv23`.

Changed in 20.0

This setting now accepts string names based on `ssl.PROTOCOL_` constants.

Changed in 20.0.1

The default value has been changed from `ssl.PROTOCOL_SSLv23` to `ssl.PROTOCOL_TLS` when Python >= 3.6 .

### `cert_reqs`

Command line: `--cert-reqs`

Default: `<VerifyMode.CERT_NONE: 0>`

Whether client certificate is required (see stdlib ssl module's)

=========== =========================== --cert-reqs Description =========== =========================== `0` no client verification `1` ssl.CERT_OPTIONAL `2` ssl.CERT_REQUIRED =========== ===========================

### `ca_certs`

Command line: `--ca-certs FILE`

Default: `None`

CA certificates file

### `suppress_ragged_eofs`

Command line: `--suppress-ragged-eofs`

Default: `True`

Suppress ragged EOFs (see stdlib ssl module's)

### `do_handshake_on_connect`

Command line: `--do-handshake-on-connect`

Default: `False`

Whether to perform SSL handshake on socket connect (see stdlib ssl module's)

### `ciphers`

Command line: `--ciphers`

Default: `None`

SSL Cipher suite to use, in the format of an OpenSSL cipher list.

By default we use the default cipher list from Python's `ssl` module, which contains ciphers considered strong at the time of each Python release.

As a recommended alternative, the Open Web App Security Project (OWASP) offers `a vetted set of strong cipher strings rated A+ to C- <https://www.owasp.org/index.php/TLS_Cipher_String_Cheat_Sheet>`_. OWASP provides details on user-agent compatibility at each security level.

See the `OpenSSL Cipher List Format Documentation <https://www.openssl.org/docs/manmaster/man1/ciphers.html#CIPHER-LIST-FORMAT>`_ for details on the format of an OpenSSL cipher list.

## Security

### `limit_request_line`

Command line: `--limit-request-line INT`

Default: `4094`

The maximum size of HTTP request line in bytes.

This parameter is used to limit the allowed size of a client's HTTP request-line. Since the request-line consists of the HTTP method, URI, and protocol version, this directive places a restriction on the length of a request-URI allowed for a request on the server. A server needs this value to be large enough to hold any of its resource names, including any information that might be passed in the query part of a GET request. Value is a number from 0 (unlimited) to 8190.

This parameter can be used to prevent any DDOS attack.

### `limit_request_fields`

Command line: `--limit-request-fields INT`

Default: `100`

Limit the number of HTTP headers fields in a request.

This parameter is used to limit the number of headers in a request to prevent DDOS attack. Used with the limit_request_field_size it allows more safety. By default this value is 100 and can't be larger than 32768.

### `limit_request_field_size`

Command line: `--limit-request-field_size INT`

Default: `8190`

Limit the allowed size of an HTTP request header field.

Value is a positive number or 0. Setting it to 0 will allow unlimited header field sizes.

Warning

Setting this parameter to a very high or unlimited value can open up for DDOS attacks.

## Server Hooks

### `on_starting`

Default:

    def on_starting(server):
        pass

Called just before the master process is initialized.

The callable needs to accept a single instance variable for the Arbiter.

### `on_reload`

Default:

    def on_reload(server):
        pass

Called to recycle workers during a reload via SIGHUP.

The callable needs to accept a single instance variable for the Arbiter.

### `when_ready`

Default:

    def when_ready(server):
        pass

Called just after the server is started.

The callable needs to accept a single instance variable for the Arbiter.

### `pre_fork`

Default:

    def pre_fork(server, worker):
        pass

Called just before a worker is forked.

The callable needs to accept two instance variables for the Arbiter and new Worker.

### `post_fork`

Default:

    def post_fork(server, worker):
        pass

Called just after a worker has been forked.

The callable needs to accept two instance variables for the Arbiter and new Worker.

### `post_worker_init`

Default:

    def post_worker_init(worker):
        pass

Called just after a worker has initialized the application.

The callable needs to accept one instance variable for the initialized Worker.

### `worker_int`

Default:

    def worker_int(worker):
        pass

Called just after a worker exited on SIGINT or SIGQUIT.

The callable needs to accept one instance variable for the initialized Worker.

### `worker_abort`

Default:

    def worker_abort(worker):
        pass

Called when a worker received the SIGABRT signal.

This call generally happens on timeout.

The callable needs to accept one instance variable for the initialized Worker.

### `pre_exec`

Default:

    def pre_exec(server):
        pass

Called just before a new master process is forked.

The callable needs to accept a single instance variable for the Arbiter.

### `pre_request`

Default:

    def pre_request(worker, req):
        worker.log.debug("%s %s", req.method, req.path)

Called just before a worker processes the request.

The callable needs to accept two instance variables for the Worker and the Request.

### `post_request`

Default:

    def post_request(worker, req, environ, resp):
        pass

Called after a worker processes the request.

The callable needs to accept two instance variables for the Worker and the Request. If a third parameter is defined it will be passed the environment. If a fourth parameter is defined it will be passed the Response.

### `child_exit`

Default:

    def child_exit(server, worker):
        pass

Called just after a worker has been exited, in the master process.

The callable needs to accept two instance variables for the Arbiter and the just-exited Worker.

Added in 19.7

### `worker_exit`

Default:

    def worker_exit(server, worker):
        pass

Called just after a worker has been exited, in the worker process.

The callable needs to accept two instance variables for the Arbiter and the just-exited Worker.

### `nworkers_changed`

Default:

    def nworkers_changed(server, new_value, old_value):
        pass

Called just after num_workers has been changed.

The callable needs to accept an instance variable of the Arbiter and two integers of number of workers after and before change.

If the number of workers is set for the first time, old_value would be `None`.

### `on_exit`

Default:

    def on_exit(server):
        pass

Called just before exiting Gunicorn.

The callable needs to accept a single instance variable for the Arbiter.

### `ssl_context`

Default:

    def ssl_context(config, default_ssl_context_factory):
        return default_ssl_context_factory()

Called when SSLContext is needed.

Allows customizing SSL context.

The callable needs to accept an instance variable for the Config and a factory function that returns default SSLContext which is initialized with certificates, private key, cert_reqs, and ciphers according to config and can be further customized by the callable. The callable needs to return SSLContext object.

Following example shows a configuration file that sets the minimum TLS version to 1.3:

    def ssl_context(conf, default_ssl_context_factory):
        import ssl
        context = default_ssl_context_factory()
        context.minimum_version = ssl.TLSVersion.TLSv1_3
        return context

Added in 21.0

## Server Mechanics

### `preload_app`

Command line: `--preload`

Default: `False`

Load application code before the worker processes are forked.

By preloading an application you can save some RAM resources as well as speed up server boot times. Although, if you defer application loading to each worker process, you can reload your application code easily by restarting workers.

### `sendfile`

Command line: `--no-sendfile`

Default: `None`

Disables the use of `sendfile()`.

If not set, the value of the `SENDFILE` environment variable is used to enable or disable its usage.

Added in 19.2

Changed in 19.4

Swapped `--sendfile` with `--no-sendfile` to actually allow disabling.

Changed in 19.6

added support for the `SENDFILE` environment variable

### `reuse_port`

Command line: `--reuse-port`

Default: `False`

Set the `SO_REUSEPORT` flag on the listening socket.

Added in 19.8

### `chdir`

Command line: `--chdir`

Default:

`'.'`

Change directory to specified directory before loading apps.

### `daemon`

Command line: `-D`, `--daemon`

Default: `False`

Daemonize the Gunicorn process.

Detaches the server from the controlling terminal and enters the background.

### `raw_env`

Command line: `-e ENV`, `--env ENV`

Default: `[]`

Set environment variables in the execution environment.

Should be a list of strings in the `key=value` format.

For example on the command line:

    $ gunicorn -b 127.0.0.1:8000 --env FOO=1 test:app

Or in the configuration file:

    raw_env = ["FOO=1"]

### `pidfile`

Command line: `-p FILE`, `--pid FILE`

Default: `None`

A filename to use for the PID file.

If not set, no PID file will be written.

### `worker_tmp_dir`

Command line: `--worker-tmp-dir DIR`

Default: `None`

A directory to use for the worker heartbeat temporary file.

If not set, the default temporary directory will be used.

Note

The current heartbeat system involves calling `os.fchmod` on temporary file handlers and may block a worker for arbitrary time if the directory is on a disk-backed filesystem.

See blocking-os-fchmod for more detailed information and a solution for avoiding this problem.

### `user`

Command line: `-u USER`, `--user USER`

Default:

`os.geteuid()`

Switch worker processes to run as this user.

A valid user id (as an integer) or the name of a user that can be retrieved with a call to `pwd.getpwnam(value)` or `None` to not change the worker process user.

### `group`

Command line: `-g GROUP`, `--group GROUP`

Default:

`os.getegid()`

Switch worker process to run as this group.

A valid group id (as an integer) or the name of a user that can be retrieved with a call to `grp.getgrnam(value)` or `None` to not change the worker processes group.

### `umask`

Command line: `-m INT`, `--umask INT`

Default: `0`

A bit mask for the file mode on files written by Gunicorn.

Note that this affects unix socket permissions.

A valid value for the `os.umask(mode)` call or a string compatible with `int(value, 0)` (`0` means Python guesses the base, so values like `0`, `0xFF`, `0022` are valid for decimal, hex, and octal representations)

### `initgroups`

Command line: `--initgroups`

Default: `False`

If true, set the worker process's group access list with all of the groups of which the specified username is a member, plus the specified group id.

Added in 19.7

### `tmp_upload_dir`

Default: `None`

Directory to store temporary request data as they are read.

This may disappear in the near future.

This path should be writable by the process permissions set for Gunicorn workers. If not specified, Gunicorn will choose a system generated temporary directory.

### `secure_scheme_headers`

Default: `{'X-FORWARDED-PROTOCOL': 'ssl', 'X-FORWARDED-PROTO': 'https', 'X-FORWARDED-SSL': 'on'}`

A dictionary containing headers and values that the front-end proxy uses to indicate HTTPS requests. If the source IP is permitted by forwarded-allow-ips (below), and at least one request header matches a key-value pair listed in this dictionary, then Gunicorn will set `wsgi.url_scheme` to `https`, so your application can tell that the request is secure.

If the other headers listed in this dictionary are not present in the request, they will be ignored, but if the other headers are present and do not match the provided values, then the request will fail to parse. See the note below for more detailed examples of this behaviour.

The dictionary should map upper-case header names to exact string values. The value comparisons are case-sensitive, unlike the header names, so make sure they're exactly what your front-end proxy sends when handling HTTPS requests.

It is important that your front-end proxy configuration ensures that the headers defined here can not be passed directly from the client.

### `forwarded_allow_ips`

Command line: `--forwarded-allow-ips STRING`

Default: `'127.0.0.1,::1'`

Front-end's IP addresses or networks from which allowed to handle set secure headers. (comma separated).

Supports both individual IP addresses (e.g., `192.168.1.1`) and CIDR networks (e.g., `192.168.0.0/16`).

Set to `*` to disable checking of front-end IPs. This is useful for setups where you don't know in advance the IP address of front-end, but instead have ensured via other means that only your authorized front-ends can access Gunicorn.

By default, the value of the `FORWARDED_ALLOW_IPS` environment variable. If it is not defined, the default is `"127.0.0.1,::1"`.

Note

This option does not affect UNIX socket connections. Connections not associated with an IP address are treated as allowed, unconditionally.

Note

The interplay between the request headers, the value of `forwarded_allow_ips`, and the value of `secure_scheme_headers` is complex. Various scenarios are documented below to further elaborate. In each case, we have a request from the remote address 134.213.44.18, and the default value of `secure_scheme_headers`:

.. code::

    secure_scheme_headers = {
        'X-FORWARDED-PROTOCOL': 'ssl',
        'X-FORWARDED-PROTO': 'https',
        'X-FORWARDED-SSL': 'on'
    }

.. list-table:: :header-rows: 1 :align: center :widths: auto

    * - ``forwarded-allow-ips``
      - Secure Request Headers
      - Result
      - Explanation
    * - .. code::

            ["127.0.0.1"]
      - .. code::

            X-Forwarded-Proto: https
      - .. code::

            wsgi.url_scheme = "http"
      - IP address was not allowed
    * - .. code::

            "*"
      - <none>
      - .. code::

            wsgi.url_scheme = "http"
      - IP address allowed, but no secure headers provided
    * - .. code::

            "*"
      - .. code::

            X-Forwarded-Proto: https
      - .. code::

            wsgi.url_scheme = "https"
      - IP address allowed, one request header matched
    * - .. code::

            ["134.213.44.18"]
      - .. code::

            X-Forwarded-Ssl: on
            X-Forwarded-Proto: http
      - ``InvalidSchemeHeaders()`` raised
      - IP address allowed, but the two secure headers disagreed on if HTTPS was used

### `pythonpath`

Command line: `--pythonpath STRING`

Default: `None`

A comma-separated list of directories to add to the Python path.

e.g. `'/home/djangoprojects/myproject,/home/python/mylibrary'`.

### `paste`

Command line: `--paste STRING`, `--paster STRING`

Default: `None`

Load a PasteDeploy config file. The argument may contain a `#` symbol followed by the name of an app section from the config file, e.g. `production.ini#admin`.

At this time, using alternate server blocks is not supported. Use the command line arguments to control server configuration instead.

### `proxy_protocol`

Command line: `--proxy-protocol MODE`

Default: `'off'`

Enable PROXY protocol support.

Allow using HTTP and PROXY protocol together. It may be useful for work with stunnel as HTTPS frontend and Gunicorn as HTTP server, or with HAProxy.

Accepted values:

- `off` - Disabled (default)
- `v1` - PROXY protocol v1 only (text format)
- `v2` - PROXY protocol v2 only (binary format)
- `auto` - Auto-detect v1 or v2

Using `--proxy-protocol` without a value is equivalent to `auto`.

PROXY protocol v1: http://haproxy.1wt.eu/download/1.5/doc/proxy-protocol.txt PROXY protocol v2: https://www.haproxy.org/download/1.8/doc/proxy-protocol.txt

Example for stunnel config::

    [https]
    protocol = proxy
    accept  = 443
    connect = 80
    cert = /etc/ssl/certs/stunnel.pem
    key = /etc/ssl/certs/stunnel.key

Changed in 24.1.0

Extended to support version selection (v1, v2, auto).

### `proxy_allow_ips`

Command line: `--proxy-allow-from`

Default: `'127.0.0.1,::1'`

Front-end's IP addresses or networks from which allowed accept proxy requests (comma separated).

Supports both individual IP addresses (e.g., `192.168.1.1`) and CIDR networks (e.g., `192.168.0.0/16`).

Set to `*` to disable checking of front-end IPs. This is useful for setups where you don't know in advance the IP address of front-end, but instead have ensured via other means that only your authorized front-ends can access Gunicorn.

Note

This option does not affect UNIX socket connections. Connections not associated with an IP address are treated as allowed, unconditionally.

### `protocol`

Command line: `--protocol STRING`

Default: `'http'`

The protocol for incoming connections.

- `http` - Standard HTTP/1.x (default)
- `uwsgi` - uWSGI binary protocol (for nginx uwsgi_pass)

When using the uWSGI protocol, Gunicorn can receive requests from nginx using the uwsgi_pass directive::

    upstream gunicorn {
        server 127.0.0.1:8000;
    }
    location / {
        uwsgi_pass gunicorn;
        include uwsgi_params;
    }

### `uwsgi_allow_ips`

Command line: `--uwsgi-allow-from`

Default: `'127.0.0.1,::1'`

IPs allowed to send uWSGI protocol requests (comma separated).

Set to `*` to allow all IPs. This is useful for setups where you don't know in advance the IP address of front-end, but instead have ensured via other means that only your authorized front-ends can access Gunicorn.

Note

This option does not affect UNIX socket connections. Connections not associated with an IP address are treated as allowed, unconditionally.

### `raw_paste_global_conf`

Command line: `--paste-global CONF`

Default: `[]`

Set a PasteDeploy global config variable in `key=value` form.

The option can be specified multiple times.

The variables are passed to the PasteDeploy entrypoint. Example::

    $ gunicorn -b 127.0.0.1:8000 --paste development.ini --paste-global FOO=1 --paste-global BAR=2

Added in 19.7

### `permit_obsolete_folding`

Command line: `--permit-obsolete-folding`

Default: `False`

Permit requests employing obsolete HTTP line folding mechanism

The folding mechanism was deprecated by rfc7230 Section 3.2.4 and will not be employed in HTTP request headers from standards-compliant HTTP clients.

This option is provided to diagnose backwards-incompatible changes. Use with care and only if necessary. Temporary; the precise effect of this option may change in a future version, or it may be removed altogether.

Added in 23.0.0

### `strip_header_spaces`

Command line: `--strip-header-spaces`

Default: `False`

Strip spaces present between the header name and the the `:`.

This is known to induce vulnerabilities and is not compliant with the HTTP/1.1 standard. See https://portswigger.net/research/http-desync-attacks-request-smuggling-reborn.

Use with care and only if necessary. Deprecated; scheduled for removal in 25.0.0

Added in 20.0.1

### `permit_unconventional_http_method`

Command line: `--permit-unconventional-http-method`

Default: `False`

Permit HTTP methods not matching conventions, such as IANA registration guidelines

This permits request methods of length less than 3 or more than 20, methods with lowercase characters or methods containing the # character. HTTP methods are case sensitive by definition, and merely uppercase by convention.

If unset, Gunicorn will apply nonstandard restrictions and cause 400 response status in cases where otherwise 501 status is expected. While this option does modify that behaviour, it should not be depended upon to guarantee standards-compliant behaviour. Rather, it is provided temporarily, to assist in diagnosing backwards-incompatible changes around the incomplete application of those restrictions.

Use with care and only if necessary. Temporary; scheduled for removal in 24.0.0

Added in 22.0.0

### `permit_unconventional_http_version`

Command line: `--permit-unconventional-http-version`

Default: `False`

Permit HTTP version not matching conventions of 2023

This disables the refusal of likely malformed request lines. It is unusual to specify HTTP 1 versions other than 1.0 and 1.1.

This option is provided to diagnose backwards-incompatible changes. Use with care and only if necessary. Temporary; the precise effect of this option may change in a future version, or it may be removed altogether.

Added in 22.0.0

### `casefold_http_method`

Command line: `--casefold-http-method`

Default: `False`

Transform received HTTP methods to uppercase

HTTP methods are case sensitive by definition, and merely uppercase by convention.

This option is provided because previous versions of gunicorn defaulted to this behaviour.

Use with care and only if necessary. Deprecated; scheduled for removal in 24.0.0

Added in 22.0.0

### `forwarder_headers`

Command line: `--forwarder-headers`

Default: `'SCRIPT_NAME,PATH_INFO'`

A list containing upper-case header field names that the front-end proxy (see forwarded-allow-ips) sets, to be used in WSGI environment.

This option has no effect for headers not present in the request.

This option can be used to transfer `SCRIPT_NAME`, `PATH_INFO` and `REMOTE_USER`.

It is important that your front-end proxy configuration ensures that the headers defined here can not be passed directly from the client.

### `header_map`

Command line: `--header-map`

Default: `'drop'`

Configure how header field names are mapped into environ

Headers containing underscores are permitted by RFC9110, but gunicorn joining headers of different names into the same environment variable will dangerously confuse applications as to which is which.

The safe default `drop` is to silently drop headers that cannot be unambiguously mapped. The value `refuse` will return an error if a request contains any such header. The value `dangerous` matches the previous, not advisable, behaviour of mapping different header field names into the same environ name.

If the source is permitted as explained in forwarded-allow-ips, and the header name is present in forwarder-headers, the header is mapped into environment regardless of the state of this setting.

Use with care and only if necessary and after considering if your problem could instead be solved by specifically renaming or rewriting only the intended headers on a proxy in front of Gunicorn.

Added in 22.0.0

### `root_path`

Command line: `--root-path STRING`

Default: `''`

The root path for ASGI applications.

This is used to set the `root_path` in the ASGI scope, which allows applications to know their mount point when behind a reverse proxy.

For example, if your application is mounted at `/api`, set this to `/api`.

Added in 24.0.0

## Server Socket

### `bind`

Command line: `-b ADDRESS`, `--bind ADDRESS`

Default: `['127.0.0.1:8000']`

The socket to bind.

A string of the form: `HOST`, `HOST:PORT`, `unix:PATH`, `fd://FD`. An IP is a valid `HOST`.

Changed in 20.0

Support for `fd://FD` got added.

Multiple addresses can be bound. ex.::

    $ gunicorn -b 127.0.0.1:8000 -b [::1]:8000 test:app

will bind the `test:app` application on localhost both on ipv6 and ipv4 interfaces.

If the `PORT` environment variable is defined, the default is `['0.0.0.0:$PORT']`. If it is not defined, the default is `['127.0.0.1:8000']`.

### `backlog`

Command line: `--backlog INT`

Default: `2048`

The maximum number of pending connections.

This refers to the number of clients that can be waiting to be served. Exceeding this number results in the client getting an error when attempting to connect. It should only affect servers under significant load.

Must be a positive integer. Generally set in the 64-2048 range.

## Worker Processes

### `workers`

Command line: `-w INT`, `--workers INT`

Default: `1`

The number of worker processes for handling requests.

A positive integer generally in the `2-4 x $(NUM_CORES)` range. You'll want to vary this a bit to find the best for your particular application's work load.

By default, the value of the `WEB_CONCURRENCY` environment variable, which is set by some Platform-as-a-Service providers such as Heroku. If it is not defined, the default is `1`.

### `worker_class`

Command line: `-k STRING`, `--worker-class STRING`

Default: `'sync'`

The type of workers to use.

The default class (`sync`) should handle most "normal" types of workloads. You'll want to read :doc:`design` for information on when you might want to choose one of the other worker classes. Required libraries may be installed using setuptools' `extras_require` feature.

A string referring to one of the following bundled classes:

- `sync`
- `eventlet` - DEPRECATED: will be removed in 26.0. Requires eventlet >= 0.40.3
- `gevent` - Requires gevent >= 24.10.1 (or install it via `pip install gunicorn[gevent]`)
- `tornado` - Requires tornado >= 6.5.0 (or install it via `pip install gunicorn[tornado]`)
- `gthread` - Python 2 requires the futures package to be installed (or install it via `pip install gunicorn[gthread]`)

Optionally, you can provide your own worker by giving Gunicorn a Python path to a subclass of `gunicorn.workers.base.Worker`. This alternative syntax will load the gevent class: `gunicorn.workers.ggevent.GeventWorker`.

### `threads`

Command line: `--threads INT`

Default: `1`

The number of worker threads for handling requests.

Run each worker with the specified number of threads.

A positive integer generally in the `2-4 x $(NUM_CORES)` range. You'll want to vary this a bit to find the best for your particular application's work load.

If it is not defined, the default is `1`.

This setting only affects the Gthread worker type.

Note

If you try to use the `sync` worker type and set the `threads` setting to more than 1, the `gthread` worker type will be used instead.

### `worker_connections`

Command line: `--worker-connections INT`

Default: `1000`

The maximum number of simultaneous clients.

This setting only affects the `gthread`, `eventlet` and `gevent` worker types.

### `max_requests`

Command line: `--max-requests INT`

Default: `0`

The maximum number of requests a worker will process before restarting.

Any value greater than zero will limit the number of requests a worker will process before automatically restarting. This is a simple method to help limit the damage of memory leaks.

If this is set to zero (the default) then the automatic worker restarts are disabled.

### `max_requests_jitter`

Command line: `--max-requests-jitter INT`

Default: `0`

The maximum jitter to add to the max_requests setting.

The jitter causes the restart per worker to be randomized by `randint(0, max_requests_jitter)`. This is intended to stagger worker restarts to avoid all workers restarting at the same time.

Added in 19.2

### `timeout`

Command line: `-t INT`, `--timeout INT`

Default: `30`

Workers silent for more than this many seconds are killed and restarted.

Value is a positive number or 0. Setting it to 0 has the effect of infinite timeouts by disabling timeouts for all workers entirely.

Generally, the default of thirty seconds should suffice. Only set this noticeably higher if you're sure of the repercussions for sync workers. For the non sync workers it just means that the worker process is still communicating and is not tied to the length of time required to handle a single request.

### `graceful_timeout`

Command line: `--graceful-timeout INT`

Default: `30`

Timeout for graceful workers restart in seconds.

After receiving a restart signal, workers have this much time to finish serving requests. Workers still alive after the timeout (starting from the receipt of the restart signal) are force killed.

### `keepalive`

Command line: `--keep-alive INT`

Default: `2`

The number of seconds to wait for requests on a Keep-Alive connection.

Generally set in the 1-5 seconds range for servers with direct connection to the client (e.g. when you don't have separate load balancer). When Gunicorn is deployed behind a load balancer, it often makes sense to set this to a higher value.

Note

`sync` worker does not support persistent connections and will ignore this option.

### `asgi_loop`

Command line: `--asgi-loop STRING`

Default: `'auto'`

Event loop implementation for ASGI workers.

- auto: Use uvloop if available, otherwise asyncio
- asyncio: Use Python's built-in asyncio event loop
- uvloop: Use uvloop (must be installed separately)

This setting only affects the `asgi` worker type.

uvloop typically provides better performance but requires installing the uvloop package.

Added in 24.0.0

### `asgi_lifespan`

Command line: `--asgi-lifespan STRING`

Default: `'auto'`

Control ASGI lifespan protocol handling.

- auto: Detect if app supports lifespan, enable if so
- on: Always run lifespan protocol (fail if unsupported)
- off: Never run lifespan protocol

The lifespan protocol allows ASGI applications to run code at startup and shutdown. This is essential for frameworks like FastAPI that need to initialize database connections, caches, or other resources.

This setting only affects the `asgi` worker type.

Added in 24.0.0

### `asgi_disconnect_grace_period`

Command line: `--asgi-disconnect-grace-period INT`

Default: `3`

Grace period (seconds) for ASGI apps to handle client disconnects.

When a client disconnects, the ASGI app receives an http.disconnect message and has this many seconds to clean up resources (like database connections) before the request task is cancelled.

Set to 0 to cancel immediately (not recommended for apps with async database connections). Apps with long-running database operations may need to increase this value.

This setting only affects the `asgi` worker type.

Added in 25.0.0