minix/commands/httpd/httpd.conf.5

.TH HTTPD.CONF 5
.SH NAME
httpd.conf httpd.mtype \- configuration files for the Minix httpd web server
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B /etc/httpd.conf
.B /etc/httpd.mtype
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B /etc/httpd.conf 
is the configuration file for the Minix httpd web server written by
Michael Temari.  A sample version is included with the distribution
archive and is unpacked in the source directory (normally
.BI /usr/local/src/httpdxxx).
Also provided is an example
.B httpd.mtype
file. This is an extension of the main configuration file which is normally
included when the main file is read.
.P
The makefile does not install 
.B httpd.conf 
and 
.B httpd.mtype
automatically. The sample files included in the distribution are only  
examples, you must copy it and edit them for the needs of your own 
installation.
.SH CONFIGURATION FILE FORMAT
.B httpd.conf
is an ascii file which consists of lines of the following form:
.P
.B directive LWS [parameters separated by LWS]
.br
NOTE: LWS denotes Linear White Space which is spaces and/or tabs
.SH CONFIGURATION FILE DIRECTIVES
The following are valid configuration file directives (listed in the order 
they appear in the sample 
.B httpd.conf 
file provided in the distribution):
.P
.B serverroot user chroot logfile dbgfile dirsend direxec vhost auth
.B proxyauth vpath include mtype 
.P
To make the file more readable, for directives which occupy multiple
lines you may eliminate the directive on lines after the first and begin 
these lines with LWS.

.SH DESCRIPTIONS OF DIRECTIVES
.P
.B serverroot path

The 
.B serverroot 
directive sets the translation for 
.B // 
to the given 
.B path.

.B user username

The 
.B user 
directive causes the server to run as the given 
.B username 
otherwise the server will run as whoever started it (normally root).

.B chroot directory

The 
.B chroot 
directive causes the server to chroot to the given directory after
the configuration and log files have been opened.  Normally this will be the
home directory of the given username in the user directive.
.br
NOTE: 
.B /~user 
will be translated to the home directory of
.B user.
.br
NOTE:
.B // 
will be translated to the serverroot directory.
.br
NOTE: if this directive is used then beware of the consequences.

.B logfile filename

The 
.B logfile 
directive tells the server where to log http transactions.
.br
NOTE: the log file must exist to enable logging.

.B dbgfile filename

The 
.B dbgfile 
directive tells the server where to log debugging of http transactions.
.br
NOTE: the debug log file must exist to enable debug logging.

.B dirsend filelist

The 
.B dirsend 
directive tells the server that when a directory is requested
that it should send the first file that it finds in the directory from the
.B filelist 
for the request.

.B direxec program

The 
.B direxec 
directive tells the server that when a directory is requested
and no file is found from the 
.B dirsend 
directive that it should run the given 
.B program.
.br
NOTE: the program normally generates a directory listing on the fly using
the 
.B dir2html
program.
.br
NOTE: the program access is considered 
.B X 
with no access restrictions.

.B vhost hostname vhostroot

The 
.B vhost 
directive is for defining access for virtual hosts.  If none are configured 
then any host is accepted.  If specified then access is only granted for 
requests for hosts which are configured here.  In the 
.B vpath 
section below the 
.B /// 
gets translated to the corresponding 
.B vhostroot.


.B auth authname authdescription access [passwdfile [users]]

The 
.B auth 
directive sets up different authorizations with the server.  The
.B authname 
is the name given to the authorization and is case insensitive.
The 
.B authdescription 
is the description of the authorization and is what
the user will see when asked to enter a username and password.  The
access is one or more of 
.B (RWX).  
.B R 
tells the server the URL can be read.  
.B W 
tells the server the URL can be overwritten.  
.B X 
tells the server
that the URL can and should be executed.  Access is in addition to normal
Unix security considerations.  For instance a file that can be written to
that does not have the 
.B W 
access will have an error returned.  The
.B passwdfile 
is the name of the password file to validate users against.  If
.B passwdfile 
is given as 
.B '.' 
then the system password file
.B (/etc/passwd)
will be used.  If no 
.B passwdfile 
is given then no authorization is allowed for anyone.  If no 
.B users 
are given then any validated user is authorized, otherwise only the given 
.B users 
are allowed.

.B proxyauth authname authdescription access [passwdfile [users]]

The 
.B proxyauth 
directive defines access authorization to be used for Proxy access.
.br
.B authname 
= Same as auth above
.br
.B authdescription 
= Same as auth above
.br
.B access 
= Must be R to allow proxy
.br
.B passwdfile 
= Same as auth above
.br
.B users 
= Same as auth above

.B vpath from to [auth [access]]

The 
.B vpath 
directive sets up URL path translations and authorizations.  A
requested  URL that matches 
.B from 
will be translated to 
.B to 
with the given 
.B auth 
and 
.B access.  
If 
.B auth 
does not exist then the URL will have no 
.B access.
If 
.B access 
is not given then the access is taken from the 
.B auth 
record (see above).  A 
.B '.' 
in place of the 
.B to 
means that the server should use a translation from another 
.B vpath 
record, but associate the given 
.B auth 
and access with the requested URL.  A 
.B '*' 
may be at the end only of the 
.B from
to provide a wildcard match.  For example if the 
.B from 
has 
.B /AB* 
then any of
.B /ABCDEF 
or 
.B /AB 
or 
.B /ABmichael 
will match, but 
.B /AD or 
.B /a 
will not.  The requested URL is first checked against each 
.B vpath 
record until an exact match (meaning URL match 
.B from 
and 
.B from 
had no 
.B '*') 
is found or the end of the list.  Therefore a wildcard match will match 
the last 
.B from in the list in which it matched.
.br
NOTE: if at the beginning of the to field
.br
      /~user will get translated to the home directory of the given user
.br
      // wile get translated to the serverroot directory

.B include filename

The 
.B include 
directive tells the server to read configuration information
from the given filename.
.br
NOTE: normally you get 
.B mtype 
directives in an included file.

.B mtype mimetype extensions

The 
.B mtype 
directive tells the server what 
.B mimetype 
to associate with files which have any of the given 
.B extensions.  
If no match is found then the file will be treated as 
.B application/octet-stream.


.SH FILES
.B /etc/httpd.conf
.B /etc/httpd.mtype
.B /etc/passwd
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR httpd (8)
.BR http_status (5)
.SH NOTES
The source directory contains a commented sample 
.B httpd.conf 
and 
.B httpd.mtype
files
P. 
You can run the server as
.B httpd -t /etc/httpd.conf
to see whether the configuration file is being parsed correctly.
.P
Although standard Minix does not have a graphical interface to support
browsers such as Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer, the 
.B lynx
browser can be used on 32-bit Minix systems with enough memory. You can point 
lynx to your own site to browse your own pages.
When debugging a web server there is nothing quite like browsing your own
pages to see whether things are working right. That said, be aware that
different web browsers may vary in how they interpet standard web page 
features, and will certainly vary in how they interpret "extensions" to
the HTML standards. So checking a page with several browsers on several 
platforms is always a good idea.
.SH BUGS
Not really a bug, but you can get in trouble if a real directory you want
to access shares the first part of its name with a 
.B vpath
definition. You just have to pay attention to the directory names you use.
.SH AUTHOR
The Minix httpd server was created by and is maintained by Michael Temari
<Michael@TemWare.Com>
.br
This man page was compiled by Al Woodhull <awoodhull@hampshire.edu>
.P
updated 2003-07-06