How to Run Mono XSP4 (ASP.NET Testing Server) on Ubuntu

Many .NET programmers seem to have less exposure to Linux simply because mostly they have to work on a Microsoft technology (.NET) that is not available on Linux. That Is Not True. On Linux there is a well known free alternative (or "clone" if you may) of Visual Studio called MonoDevelop.

MonoDevelop Logo

This project supports almost complete .NET framework support up to version 2.0 (I am not sure but it might be up to ver3.5). But you can explore it's possibilities by yourself by installing it on Ubuntu using this command:

sudo apt-get install monodevelop

What we are interested in here is XSP4 Web Server that comes packaged with it. It is like the testing web server available with Visual Studio to test ASP.NET web applications you develop. It can be run with the following command:

xsp4 --port 1234 --address 127.0.0.1 --root /path/of/your/website/folder --nonstop

Here, all options are obvious except the last one, that is, --nonstop that means the server should not stop on pressing ENTER key on the terminal where you ran the command (as it normally does). To stop it in this case just CTRL+C combination on the terminal where you are running it.

I would not recommend novice .NET web developers to develop applications totally on MonoDevelop since there are no advanced WYSIWYG features for ASPX pages, etc., in it like Visual Studio. Once you have gained good knowledge in working on VS you can start working in Mono on Linux!

It is also good for running local test website for practicing coding in ASP.NET :)