HTTPD.CONF(5)HTTPD.CONF(5)NAMEhttpd.conf httpd.mtype - configuration files for the Minix httpd web
server
SYNOPSIS
/etc/httpd.conf /etc/httpd.mtype
DESCRIPTION
/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 (nor‐
mally /usr/local/src/httpdxxx). Also provided is an example
httpd.mtype file. This is an extension of the main configuration file
which is normally included when the main file is read.
The makefile does not install httpd.conf and httpd.mtype automatically.
The sample files included in the distribution are only examples, you
must copy and edit them for the needs of your own installation.
CONFIGURATION FILE FORMAThttpd.conf is an ascii file which consists of lines of the following
form:
directive LWS [parameters separated by LWS]
NOTE: LWS denotes Linear White Space which is spaces and/or tabs
CONFIGURATION FILE DIRECTIVES
The following are valid configuration file directives (listed in the
order they appear in the sample httpd.conf file provided in the distri‐
bution):
serverroot redirect user chroot logfile dbgfile dirsend direxec vhost
auth proxyauth vpath include mtype
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.
DESCRIPTIONS OF DIRECTIVES
serverroot path
The serverroot directive sets the translation for // to the given path.
redirect url
The redirect directive will redirect the entire website via error code
"301 MOVED PERM" to specified url and original path of request.
user username
The user directive causes the server to run as the given username oth‐
erwise the server will run as whoever started it (normally root).
chroot directory
The 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.
NOTE: /~user will be translated to the home directory of user.
NOTE: // will be translated to the serverroot directory.
NOTE: if this directive is used then beware of the consequences.
logfile filename
The logfile directive tells the server where to log http transactions.
NOTE: the log file must exist to enable logging.
dbgfile filename
The dbgfile directive tells the server where to log debugging of http
transactions.
NOTE: the debug log file must exist to enable debug logging.
dirsend filelist
The 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 filelist for the request.
direxec program
The direxec directive tells the server that when a directory is
requested and no file is found from the dirsend directive that it
should run the given program.
NOTE: the program normally generates a directory listing on the fly
using the dir2html program.
NOTE: the program access is considered X with no access restrictions.
vhost hostname vhostroot
The 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
vpath section below the /// gets translated to the corresponding vhost‐
root.
auth authname authdescription access [passwdfile [users]]
The auth directive sets up different authorizations with the server.
The authname is the name given to the authorization and is case insen‐
sitive. The authdescription is the description of the authorization
and is what the user will see when asked to enter a username and pass‐
word. The access is one or more of (RWX). R tells the server the URL
can be read. W tells the server the URL can be overwritten. X tells
the server that the URL can and should be executed. Access is in addi‐
tion to normal Unix security considerations. For instance a file that
can be written to that does not have the W access will have an error
returned. The passwdfile is the name of the password file to validate
users against. If passwdfile is given as '.' then the system password
file (/etc/passwd) will be used. If no passwdfile is given then no
authorization is allowed for anyone. If no users are given then any
validated user is authorized, otherwise only the given users are
allowed.
proxyauth authname authdescription access [passwdfile [users]]
The proxyauth directive defines access authorization to be used for
Proxy access.
authname = Same as auth above
authdescription = Same as auth above
access = Must be R to allow proxy
passwdfile = Same as auth above
users = Same as auth above
vpath from to [auth [access]]
The vpath directive sets up URL path translations and authorizations.
A requested URL that matches from will be translated to to with the
given auth and access. If auth does not exist then the URL will have
no access. If access is not given then the access is taken from the
auth record (see above). A '.' in place of the to means that the
server should use a translation from another vpath record, but asso‐
ciate the given auth and access with the requested URL. A '*' may be
at the end only of the from to provide a wildcard match. For example
if the from has /AB* then any of /ABCDEF or /AB or /ABmichael will
match, but /AD or /a will not. The requested URL is first checked
against each vpath record until an exact match (meaning URL match from
and from had no '*') is found or the end of the list. Therefore a
wildcard match will match the last from in the list in which it
matched.
NOTE: if at the beginning of the to field
/~user will get translated to the home directory of the given
user
// will get translated to the serverroot directory
include filename
The include directive tells the server to read configuration informa‐
tion from the given filename.
NOTE: normally you get mtype directives in an included file.
mtype mimetype extensions
The mtype directive tells the server what mimetype to associate with
files which have any of the given extensions. If no match is found
then the file will be treated as application/octet-stream.
FILES
/etc/httpd.conf /etc/httpd.mtype /etc/passwd
SEE ALSOhttpd(8)http_status(5)NOTES
The source directory contains a commented sample httpd.conf and
httpd.mtype files.
You can run the server as httpd -t /etc/httpd.conf to see whether the
configuration file is being parsed correctly.
Although standard Minix does not have a graphical interface to support
browsers such as Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer, the 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 plat‐
forms is always a good idea.
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 vpath defini‐
tion. You just have to pay attention to the directory names you use.
AUTHOR
The Minix httpd server was created by and is maintained by Michael
Temari <Michael@TemWare.Com>
Man page was compiled by Al Woodhull <asw@woodhull.com>
HTTPD.CONF(5)
