Apache HTTP Server Version 2.4
Apache HTTP Server Version 2.4
| Description: | Provides for dynamically configured mass virtual hosting |
|---|---|
| Status: | Extension |
| Module Identifier: | vhost_alias_module |
| Source File: | mod_vhost_alias.c |
This module creates dynamically configured virtual hosts, by
allowing the IP address and/or the Host: header of
the HTTP request to be used as part of the pathname to
determine what files to serve. This allows for easy use of a
huge number of virtual hosts with similar configurations.
If mod_alias or mod_userdir are
used for translating URIs to filenames, they will override the
directives of mod_vhost_alias described below. For
example, the following configuration will map
/cgi-bin/script.pl to
/usr/local/apache2/cgi-bin/script.pl in all cases:
ScriptAlias "/cgi-bin/" "/usr/local/apache2/cgi-bin/" VirtualScriptAlias "/never/found/%0/cgi-bin/"
All the directives in this module interpolate a string into
a pathname. The interpolated string (henceforth called the
"name") may be either the server name (see the UseCanonicalName
directive for details on how this is determined) or the IP
address of the virtual host on the server in dotted-quad
format. The interpolation is controlled by specifiers inspired
by printf which have a number of formats:
%% |
insert a % |
%p |
insert the port number of the virtual host |
%N.M |
insert (part of) the name |
N and M are used to specify
substrings of the name. N selects from the
dot-separated components of the name, and M
selects characters within whatever N has selected.
M is optional and defaults to zero if it isn't
present; the dot must be present if and only if M
is present. The interpretation is as follows:
0 |
the whole name |
1 |
the first part |
2 |
the second part |
-1 |
the last part |
-2 |
the penultimate part |
2+ |
the second and all subsequent parts |
-2+ |
the penultimate and all preceding parts |
1+ and -1+ |
the same as 0 |
If N or M is greater than the number
of parts available a single underscore is interpolated.
For simple name-based virtual hosts you might use the following directives in your server configuration file:
UseCanonicalName Off VirtualDocumentRoot "/usr/local/apache/vhosts/%0"
A request for
https://www.example.com/directory/file.html will be
satisfied by the file
/usr/local/apache/vhosts/www.example.com/directory/file.html.
For a very large number of virtual hosts it is a good idea
to arrange the files to reduce the size of the
vhosts directory. To do this you might use the
following in your configuration file:
UseCanonicalName Off VirtualDocumentRoot "/usr/local/apache/vhosts/%3+/%2.1/%2.2/%2.3/%2"
A request for
https://www.domain.example.com/directory/file.html
will be satisfied by the file
/usr/local/apache/vhosts/example.com/d/o/m/domain/directory/file.html.
A more even spread of files can be achieved by hashing from the end of the name, for example:
VirtualDocumentRoot "/usr/local/apache/vhosts/%3+/%2.-1/%2.-2/%2.-3/%2"
The example request would come from
/usr/local/apache/vhosts/example.com/n/i/a/domain/directory/file.html.
Alternatively you might use:
VirtualDocumentRoot "/usr/local/apache/vhosts/%3+/%2.1/%2.2/%2.3/%2.4+"
The example request would come from
/usr/local/apache/vhosts/example.com/d/o/m/ain/directory/file.html.
A very common request by users is the ability to point multiple domains to multiple
document roots without having to worry about the length or number of parts of the
hostname being requested. If the requested hostname is sub.www.domain.example.com
instead of simply www.domain.example.com, then using %3+ will result in the document
root being /usr/local/apache/vhosts/domain.example.com/... instead of the
intended example.com directory. In such cases, it can be beneficial to use
the combination %-2.0.%-1.0, which will always yield the domain name and the
tld, for example example.com regardless of the number of subdomains appended
to the hostname. As such, one can make a configuration that will direct all first, second
or third level subdomains to the same directory:
VirtualDocumentRoot "/usr/local/apache/vhosts/%-2.0.%-1.0"
In the example above, both www.example.com as well as www.sub.example.com
or example.com will all point to /usr/local/apache/vhosts/example.com.
For IP-based virtual hosting you might use the following in your configuration file:
UseCanonicalName DNS VirtualDocumentRootIP "/usr/local/apache/vhosts/%1/%2/%3/%4/docs" VirtualScriptAliasIP "/usr/local/apache/vhosts/%1/%2/%3/%4/cgi-bin"
A request for
https://www.domain.example.com/directory/file.html
would be satisfied by the file
/usr/local/apache/vhosts/10/20/30/40/docs/directory/file.html
if the IP address of www.domain.example.com were
10.20.30.40. A request for
https://www.domain.example.com/cgi-bin/script.pl would
be satisfied by executing the program
/usr/local/apache/vhosts/10/20/30/40/cgi-bin/script.pl.
If you want to include the . character in a
VirtualDocumentRoot directive, but it clashes with
a % directive, you can work around the problem in
the following way:
VirtualDocumentRoot "/usr/local/apache/vhosts/%2.0.%3.0"
A request for
https://www.domain.example.com/directory/file.html
will be satisfied by the file
/usr/local/apache/vhosts/domain.example/directory/file.html.
The LogFormat
directives %V and %A are useful
in conjunction with this module.
| Description: | Dynamically configure the location of the document root for a given virtual host |
|---|---|
| Syntax: | VirtualDocumentRoot interpolated-directory|none |
| Default: | VirtualDocumentRoot none |
| Context: | server config, virtual host |
| Status: | Extension |
| Module: | mod_vhost_alias |
The VirtualDocumentRoot directive allows you to
determine where Apache HTTP Server will find your documents based on the
value of the server name. The result of expanding
interpolated-directory is used as the root of the
document tree in a similar manner to the DocumentRoot directive's argument.
If interpolated-directory is none then
VirtualDocumentRoot is turned off. This directive
cannot be used in the same context as VirtualDocumentRootIP.
VirtualDocumentRoot will override any DocumentRoot directives you may have put in the same
context or child contexts. Putting a VirtualDocumentRoot
in the global server scope will effectively override DocumentRoot directives in any virtual hosts defined later
on, unless you set VirtualDocumentRoot to None
in each virtual host.
| Description: | Dynamically configure the location of the document root for a given virtual host |
|---|---|
| Syntax: | VirtualDocumentRootIP interpolated-directory|none |
| Default: | VirtualDocumentRootIP none |
| Context: | server config, virtual host |
| Status: | Extension |
| Module: | mod_vhost_alias |
The VirtualDocumentRootIP directive is like the
VirtualDocumentRoot
directive, except that it uses the IP address of the server end
of the connection for directory interpolation instead of the server
name.
| Description: | Dynamically configure the location of the CGI directory for a given virtual host |
|---|---|
| Syntax: | VirtualScriptAlias interpolated-directory|none |
| Default: | VirtualScriptAlias none |
| Context: | server config, virtual host |
| Status: | Extension |
| Module: | mod_vhost_alias |
The VirtualScriptAlias directive allows you to
determine where Apache httpd will find CGI scripts in a similar
manner to VirtualDocumentRoot does for other documents. It matches
requests for URIs starting /cgi-bin/, much like ScriptAlias
/cgi-bin/ would.
| Description: | Dynamically configure the location of the CGI directory for a given virtual host |
|---|---|
| Syntax: | VirtualScriptAliasIP interpolated-directory|none |
| Default: | VirtualScriptAliasIP none |
| Context: | server config, virtual host |
| Status: | Extension |
| Module: | mod_vhost_alias |
The VirtualScriptAliasIP directive is like the
VirtualScriptAlias
directive, except that it uses the IP address of the server end
of the connection for directory interpolation instead of the server
name.