path: root/doc/configuration.txt

==================
Configuration File
==================

------------
Module: core
------------

:Author: Jan Kneschke
:Date: $Date: 2006-10-04 15:26:23 +0200 (Wed, 04 Oct 2006) $
:Revision: $Revision: 1371 $

:abstract:
  the layout of the configuration file

.. meta::
  :keywords: lighttpd, configuration

.. contents:: Table of Contents

Description
===========

Basic Syntax
------------

A BNF like notation: ::

  option   : NAME = VALUE
  merge    : NAME += VALUE
  NAME     : modulename.key
  VALUE    : ( <string> | <integer> | <boolean> | <array> | VALUE [ + VALUE ]*)
  <string> : "text"
  <integer>: digit*
  <boolean>: ( "enable" | "disable" )
  <array>  : "(" [ <string> "=>" ] <value> [, [ <string> "=>" ] <value> ]* ")"
  INCLUDE  : "include" VALUE
  INCLUDE_SHELL : "include_shell" STRING_VALUE

Example
-------

::

  # default document-root
  server.document-root = "/var/www/example.org/pages/"

  # TCP port
  server.port = 80

  # selecting modules
  server.modules = ( "mod_access", "mod_rewrite" )

  # variables, computed when config is read.
  var.mymodule = "foo"
  server.modules += ( "mod_" + var.mymodule )
  # var.PID is initialised to the pid of lighttpd before config is parsed

  # include, relative to dirname of main config file
  include "mime.types.conf"

  # read configuration from output of a command
  include_shell "/usr/local/bin/confmimetype /etc/mime.types"


Conditional Configuration
=========================

Most options can be configured conditionally by using the following syntax
(including nesting).

::

  <field> <operator> <value> {
    ...
    <field> <operator> <value> {
      ... nesting: match only when parent match
    }
  }
  else <field> <operator> <value> {
    ... the "else if" block
  }

where <field> is one of one of the following:

$HTTP["cookie"]
  match on cookie
$HTTP["host"]
  match on host
$HTTP["useragent"]
  match on useragent
$HTTP["referer"]
  match on referer
$HTTP["url"]
  match on url
$HTTP["remoteip"]
  match on the remote IP or a remote Network
$SERVER["socket"]
  match on socket. Value must be on the format "ip:port" where ip is an IP
  address and port a port number. Only equal match (==) is supported.
  It also binds the daemon to this socket. Use this if you want to do IP/port-
  based virtual hosts.

<operator> is one of:

==
  string equal match
!=
  string not equal match
=~
  perl style regular expression match
!~
  perl style regular expression not match

and <value> is either a quoted ("") literal string or regular expression.


Example
-------

::

  # disable directory-listings for /download/*
  dir-listing.activate = "enable"
  $HTTP["url"] =~ "^/download/" {
    dir-listing.activate = "disable"
  }

  # handish virtual hosting
  # map all domains of a top-level-domain to a single document-root
  $HTTP["host"] =~ "(^|\.)example\.org$" {
    server.document-root = "/var/www/htdocs/example.org/pages/"
  }

  # multiple sockets
  $SERVER["socket"] == "127.0.0.1:81" {
    server.document-root = "..."
  }

  $SERVER["socket"] == "127.0.0.1:443" {
    ssl.pemfile = "/var/www/certs/localhost.pem"
    ssl.engine = "enable"

    server.document-root = "/var/www/htdocs/secure.example.org/pages/"
  }

  # deny access for all googlebot
  $HTTP["useragent"] =~ "Google" {
    url.access-deny = ( "" )
  }

  # deny access for all image stealers
  $HTTP["referer"] !~ "^($|http://www\.example\.org)" {
    url.access-deny = ( ".jpg", ".jpeg", ".png" )
  }

  # deny the access to www.example.org to all user which
  # are not in the 10.0.0.0/8 network
  $HTTP["host"] == "www.example.org" {
    $HTTP["remoteip"] != "10.0.0.0/8" {
     url.access-deny = ( "" )
    }
  }

Using variables
===============

You can set your own variables in the configuration to simplify your config.
::

  var.basedir = "/home/www/servers/"
  $HTTP["host"] == "www.example.org" {
     server.name = "www.example.org"
     include "incl-base.conf"
  }

  in incl-base.conf:
  server.document-root = basedir + server.name + "/pages/"
  accesslog.filename   = basedir + server.name + "/logs/access.log"

You can also use environement variables or the default variables var.PID and
var.CWD: ::

  var.basedir = env.LIGHTTPDBASE

  $HTTP["host"] == "www.example.org" {
     server.name = "www.example.org"
     include "incl-base.conf"
     include "incl-fastcgi.conf"
  }

  in incl-fastcgi.conf:
  fastcgi.server = ( ... => ((
     "socket" => basedir + server.name + "/tmp/fastcgi-" + PID + ".sock"
  )) )

Or like the lighttpd script for rails does:

  var.basedir = var.CWD

  server.document-root = basedir + "/public/"

Global context
==============

::

  global {
    ...
  }

You don't need it in the main configuration file. But you might have
difficulty setting server wide configuration inside a included-file from
conditionals.

Example
-------

::

  in lighttpd.conf:
  server.modules = ()
  $HTTP["host"] == "www.example.org" {
    include "incl-php.conf"
  }

  in incl-php.conf:
  global {
    server.modules += ("mod_fastcgi")
    static-file.exclude-extensions += (".php")
  }
  fastcgi.server = "..."

Options
=======

server module
-------------

main sections
`````````````

server.document-root
  document-root of the webserver

  This variable has the specified as it will be used for all requests
  without a Host: header and for all with a know hostname which you
  might have specified with one of the above conditionals.

  Default: no default, required

server.bind
  IP address, hostname or absolute path to the unix-domain socket the server
  listen on.

  Default: bind to all interfaces

  Example: ::

    server.bind = "127.0.0.1"
    server.bind = "www.example.org"
    server.bind = "/tmp/lighttpd.socket"

server.port
  tcp-port to bind the server to

.. note:: port belows 1024 require root-permissions

  Default: 80 (443 if ssl is enabled)

server.use-ipv6
  bind to the IPv6 socket

server.tag
  set the string returned by the Server: response header

  Default: lighttpd <current-version>

server.errorlog
  pathname of the error-log

  Default: either STDERR or ``server.errorlog-use-syslog``

server.errorlog-use-syslog
  send errorlog to syslog

  Default: disabled

server.chroot
  root-directory of the server

  NOTE: requires root-permissions

server.username
  username used to run the server

  NOTE: requires root-permissions

server.groupname
  groupname used to run the server

  NOTE: requires root-permissions

server.follow-symlink
  allow to follow-symlinks

  Default: enabled

index-file.names
  list of files to search for if a directory is requested
  e.g.: ::

    index-file.names          = ( "index.php", "index.html",
                                  "index.htm", "default.htm" )

  if a name starts with slash this file will be used a index generator
  for all directories.

server.modules
  modules to load

.. note:: the order of the modules is important.

  The modules are executed in the order as they are specified. Loading
  mod_auth AFTER mod_fastcgi might disable authentication for fastcgi
  backends (if check-local is disabled).

  As auth should be done first, move it before all executing modules (like
  proxy, fastcgi, scgi and cgi).

  rewrites, redirects and access should be first, followed by auth and
  the docroot plugins.

  Afterwards the external handlers like fastcgi, cgi, scgi and proxy and
  at the bottom the post-processing plugins like mod_accesslog.

  e.g.: ::

    server.modules          = ( "mod_rewrite",
                                "mod_redirect",
				"mod_alias",
			        "mod_access",
				"mod_auth",
                                "mod_status",
				"mod_simple_vhost",
				"mod_evhost",
				"mod_userdir",
				"mod_secdownload",
				"mod_fastcgi",
				"mod_proxy",
				"mod_cgi",
                                "mod_ssi",
				"mod_compress",
                                "mod_usertrack",
				"mod_expire",
 				"mod_rrdtool",
				"mod_accesslog" )

  Starting with lighttpd 1.4.0 three default modules are loaded automaticly:

  - mod_indexfile
  - mod_dirlisting
  - mod_staticfile

server.event-handler
  set the event handler

  Default: "poll"

server.pid-file
  set the name of the .pid-file where the PID of the server should be placed.
  This option is used in combination with a start-script and the daemon mode

  Default: not set

server.max-request-size
  maximum size in kbytes of the request (header + body). Only applies to POST
  requests.

  Default: 2097152 (2GB)

server.max-worker
  number of worker processes to spawn. This is usually only needed on servers
  which are fairly loaded and the network handler calls delay often (e.g. new
  requests are not handled instantaneously).

  Default: 0

server.name
  name of the server/virtual server

  Default: hostname

server.max-keep-alive-requests
  maximum number of request within a keep-alive session before the server
  terminates the connection

  Default: 128

server.max-keep-alive-idle
  maximum number of seconds until a idling keep-alive connection is droped

  Default: 30

server.max-read-idle
  maximum number of seconds until a waiting, non keep-alive read times out
  and closes the connection

  Default: 60

server.max-write-idle
  maximum number of seconds until a waiting write call times out and closes
  the connection

  Default: 360

server.error-handler-404
  uri to call if the requested file results in a 404

  Default: not set

  Example: ::

    server.error-handler-404 = "/error-404.php"

server.protocol-http11
  defines if HTTP/1.1 is allowed or not.

  Default: enabled

server.range-requests
  defines if range requests are allowed or not.

  Default: enabled


SSL engine
``````````

ssl.pemfile
  path to the PEM file for SSL support

debugging
`````````

debug.dump-unknown-headers
  enables listing of internally unhandled HTTP-headers

  e.g. ::

    debug.dump-unknown-headers = "enable"

mimetypes
`````````

mimetype.assign
  list of known mimetype mappings
  NOTE: if no mapping is given "application/octet-stream" is used

  e.g.: ::

    mimetype.assign   = ( ".png"  => "image/png",
                          ".jpg"  => "image/jpeg",
                          ".jpeg" => "image/jpeg",
			  ".html" => "text/html",
  			  ".txt"  => "text/plain" )

  The list is compared top down and the first match is taken. This is
  important if you have matches like: ::

                          ".tar.gz" => "application/x-tgz",
			  ".gz" => "application/x-gzip",

  If you want to set another default mimetype use: ::

                          ...,
                          "" => "text/plain" )

  as the last entry in the list.

mimetype.use-xattr
  If available, use the XFS-style extended attribute interface to
  retrieve the "Content-Type" attribute on each file, and use that as the
  mime type. If it's not defined or not available, fall back to the
  mimetype.assign assignment.

  e.g.: ::

    mimetype.use-xattr = "enable"

    on shell use:

    $ attr -s Content-Type -V image/svg svgfile.svg

    or

    $ attr -s Content-Type -V text/html indexfile


debugging
`````````

debug.log-request-header
  default: disabled

debug.log-response-header
  default: disabled

debug.log-file-not-found
  default: disabled

debug.log-request-handling
  default: disabled