Add server:connections()

[sparked435]

Adds :connections() method to http.server objects, so that external code can see how many client connections are actively being handled.

A project needed this for statistics and load balancing.

[coveralls]

Coverage increased (+0.004%) to 87.785% when pulling aaae464 on sparked435:master into 47225d0 on daurnimator:master.

[daurnimator]

The method name :connections() to me suggests an iterator over connections, rather than something that returns a count.

Maybe the existing field .n_connections could just be documented as part of public API?

[sparked435]

That works fine for me.

I assumed that it was a private field that shouldn't be utilized out of fear breaking encapsulation. If that's not a concern, and n_connections can be assumed to be part of the public API going forward, I've already got everything I need in the existing release. I can amend this to just a documentation change.

I'm also okay with renaming it to something like :connection_count(), or just about anything else, if encapsulation is something to worry about.

[daurnimator]

Upon reflection, I think its a bad idea to make the field public and there should be a getter method.

However, I don't like the function :connections() as it suggests an iterator to me.
Can you think of a different name?

[sparked435]

I'm not particularly concerned about the name. I probably would call it active_connections() but, to your point, that still sounds somewhat like an iterator.

Any of these work for you?
number_connections()
connection_count()
total_connections()