Simple Virtual-Hosting¶

Module: mod_simple_vhost

Description¶

Simple assumption:

Every virtual host is in a directory below a base directory in a path that is the same as the name of the vhost. Below this vhost path might be an extra directory which is the document root of the vhost.

The document root for each vhost is built from three values:

- server-root
- hostname
- document-root

The complete document root is constructed either by

server-root + hostname + document-root

or if this path does not exist by

server-root + default-host + document-root

A small example should make this idea clear:

/var/www/
/var/www/logs/
/var/www/servers/
/var/www/servers/example.org/
/var/www/servers/example.org/lib/
/var/www/servers/example.org/pages/
/var/www/servers/mail.example.org/
/var/www/servers/mail.example.org/lib/
/var/www/servers/mail.example.org/pages/

simple-vhost.server-root = "/var/www/servers/" 
simple-vhost.default-host = "example.org" 
simple-vhost.document-root = "pages" 

With this setup, requests for "example.org" or "something-else.example.org" will go to /var/www/server/example.org/pages, while requests for "mail.example.org" will go to /var/www/server/mail.example.org/pages. You can use symbolic links to map several hostnames to the same directory.

Conditionals vs. simple-vhost¶

You have to keep in mind that conditionals and simple-vhost interfere with one another.

simple-vhost.server-root = "/var/www/servers/" 
simple-vhost.default-host = "example.org" 
simple-vhost.document-root = "pages" 

$HTTP["host"] == "news.example.org" {
    server.document-root = "/var/www/servers/news2.example.org/pages/" 
} 

When news.example.org is requested, the server.document-root will be set to /var/www/servers/news2.example.org/pages/, but simple-vhost will overwrite it shortly afterwards.

If /var/www/servers/news.example.org/pages/ exists, that will be used. If not, /var/www/servers/example.org/pages/ will be taken because it is the default.

To use conditionals together with simple-vhost, you should do this:

$HTTP["host"] != "news.example.org" {
    simple-vhost.server-root = "/var/www/servers/" 
    simple-vhost.default-host = "example.org" 
    simple-vhost.document-root = "pages" 
}

$HTTP["host"] == "news.example.org" {
    server.document-root = "/var/www/servers/news2.example.org/pages/" 
} 

It will enable simple vhosting for all hosts other than news.example.org.

For two or more hosts:

$HTTP["host"] !~ "^(test1\.example\.org|test2\.example\.org)$" {
    simple-vhost.server-root         = "/var/www" 
    simple-vhost.document-root       = "/html/" 
    ## the default host if no host is sent
    simple-vhost.default-host        = "example.org" 
}

$HTTP["host"] == "test1.example.org" {
    server.document-root = "/home/user/sites/test1.example.org/" 
    accesslog.filename = "/home/user/sites/logs/test1.example.org.access.log" 
}

$HTTP["host"] == "test2.example.org" {
    server.document-root = "/home/user/sites/test2.example.org" 
    accesslog.filename = "/home/user/sites/logs/test2.example.org.access.log" 
}

It will enable simple virtual hosting for all hosts other than test1.example.org and test2.example.org.

Of course you will need to setup permissions for folders (change owner to the user running lighttpd) if you do it like in that example.

Options¶

simple-vhost.server-root¶

The root of the virtual host

simple-vhost.default-host¶

Use this hostname if the requested hostname does not have its own directory

simple-vhost.document-root¶

The path below the vhost directory

Tips¶

Make sure mod_simple_vhost is the first mod in 'server.modules' list,when you are using mod_simple_vhost with mod_cache and mod_proxy.

You can configure a virtual host with multiple domain names by using 'or' syntax such as:

$HTTP["host"] =~ "^(hosta\.example\.org|hostb\.example\.net)$" {
    ... virtualhost configuration here ...
}

WWW¶

You do not need to use two entries for example.com and www.example.com. The following syntax will act as a catch all for both example.com and any subdomains under it:

$HTTP["host"] =~ "(^|\.)example\.com$" {
    ...
}

(Doesn't work for you? If you're not running on the default port, $HTTP["host"] will have the port number appended and the above reg-ex won't match it, since the trailing "$" means "the-string-ends-this-way".)