Apache Configuration Info

NEWER INFO

See setup and config file in ahapache.

Apache config Quickstart

NOTE: OLD, OUT OF DATE INFO

This works as of Dec 29, 2011 with Apache 2.2 as installed via Ubuntu 11.10 server.

Do this to setup apache2 after installing apache2 on Ubuntu or Debian.

Create a directory in your home dir for the document root. For example:
```
    mkdir -p /home/acorn/bcorn.com/www
```
Add in that directory a file named index.html with something like the following contents.
```
    <html><body><h1>My server works!</h1></body></html>
```
Also create a ~/public_html and (optionally) a ~/public_html/cgi-bin for webpages under http://bcorn.com/~acorn
```
    mkdir -p ~/public_html/cgi-bin
    chmod 755 ~/public_html ~/public_html/cgi-bin
```
Add ~/public_html/index.html with something like the following contents.
```
    <html><body><h1>Acorn's personal page.!</h1></body></html>
```

Edit /etc/apache2/sites-available/default as follows.
NOTE: Replace bcorn.com with the domain name of your server.

Add this line at the top of the file, *outside* the VirtualHost tag:
```
    ServerName bcorn.com
```
*ALSO* add the same line near the top of the file, just *inside* the VirtualHost tag:
```
    ServerName bcorn.com
```
Comment out the DocumentRoot directive and replace it with
```
    DocumentRoot /home/acorn/bcorn.com/www
```

Comment out the <Directory /var/www> section and replace it with (NOTE: THIS SYNTAX NO LONGER WORKS(?) SEE ahapache)

    <Directory "/home/acorn/bcorn.com/www">
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
        AllowOverride None
        Order allow,deny
        allow from all
    </Directory>

(Note: leave the ScriptAlias directory set to /usr/lib/cgi-bin/ but do not use this directory for cgi scripts. Instead put cgi scripts in your ~/public_html/cgi-bin/... dir.)

Add the following near the end (inside the VirtualHost tag): (NOTE: THIS SYNTAX NO LONGER WORKS(?) SEE ahapache)

    # run cgi scripts in /usr/lib/cgi-bin/... as user=nobody group=nogroup
    SuexecUserGroup nobody nogroup

    # look for user webpages in ~/public_html/...
    <IfModule userdir>
        UserDir public_html
    </IfModule>

    # options for user webpages
    <Directory /home/*/public_html>
        Options FollowSymLinks Indexes MultiViews
        AllowOverride None
        Order deny,allow
        allow from all
    </Directory>

    # options for user cgi scripts
    <Directory /home/*/public_html/cgi-bin>
        Options ExecCGI
        SetHandler cgi-script
    </Directory>

install suexec to allow cgi programs in /home/*/public_html/cgi-bin to run as the user who owns them
```
    sudo apt-get install apache2-suexec
```

Enable the mod_userdir and suexec module

    sudo a2enmod suexec
    sudo a2enmod userdir

Test the config for syntax errors
```
    apachectl configtest
```
Restart the server to use the new config
```
    sudo service apache2 restart
```

Apache configuration details

Applying changes to config files

Anytime you change config files first check the change with

    apachectl configtest

This checks the file syntax. If it reports "Syntax OK" then restart the server with

    sudo service apache2 restart

Config files

Apache default config file location is /etc/apache2/httpd.conf but Debian (and Ubuntu) do not use this. In Debian/Ubuntu the main config file is /etc/apache2/apache2.conf and this file includes all the other config files. To see all config files that get included:

    grep -r -a -i '^ *include' /etc/apache2

/etc/apache2/envvars - environment variables & values used in config
/etc/apache2/apache2.conf - main config file (includes others)
/etc/apache2/mods-enabled/*.load - load modules (see a2enmod below)
/etc/apache2/mods-enabled/*.conf - configure modules
/etc/apache2/httpd.conf - empty (leave it empty)
/etc/apache2/ports.conf - where it listens (leave this alone)
/etc/apache2/conf.d/* - other config stuff (leave this alone)
/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/* - one file for each virtual host
/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default - symlink to sites-available/default
/etc/apache2/sites-available/default - the default virtual host - EDIT THIS

The file you should edit is

    suvw /etc/apache2/sites-available/default

which configures the default virtual host.

Modules

You can enable modules with

    sudo a2enmod <module-name>

This creates symlinks in /etc/apache2/mods-enabled dir.

Apache Authentication

Important notes

password file <pwdfile> should NOT be in the www folder
I usually call it ~/Mine/web_password
Owner should be me.
Permissions should be read/write by owner, read by others (chmod 604)

Adding a user to password file

type: htpasswd <pwdfile> <username>
password file named <pwdfile> will be modified
user <username> will be added to the file
You will be prompted for passowrd

Creating a password file (only if it does not exist)

type: htpasswd -c <pwdfile> <username>
password file named <pwdfile> will be CREATED (OVERWRITTEN) (-c option)
user <username> will be added to the file
You will be prompted for passowrd

Securing a directory in the website

(Note: see next section too)

Create (edit) a file in the directory named .htaccess

The contents of the file should be:

        AuthType        Basic
        AuthName        "Acorn's Private Stuff"
        AuthUserFile    <pwdfile>
        Require         user <username>

AuthType should always be "Basic"
AuthName can be any title (displayed in the authentication popup box)
AuthUserFile is the name (full path) of the password file created with htpasswd
Require is a list of requirements for access to files in the directory
- <username> is a space separated list of usernames from password file. Each username must be preceded by "user"

Here is an example file

        AuthType        Basic
        AuthName        "Acorn's Private Stuff"
        AuthUserFile    /home/acorn/Mine/web_password
        Require         user acorn user joe user susan

For this to work the main apache config file (usually /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf) must have a line:
The word "All" can be used in place of "AuthConfig". This allows apache to read the local .htaccess files. Also, if a "AccessFileName" line exists it must be set to ".htaccess" like this:
There may be several AllowOverride statements in the file, each in a separate <Directory> section. The one in the <Directory> section corresponding to the directory where the .htaccess file is located is the one which must be set to "All" or "AuthConfig."

Alternate Method: Securing a directory in the website

In place of the .htaccess file as described above the described-above contents of the .htaccess file may be placed directly into the main config file (/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf). The entire contents of the .htaccess file, as described above, should be placed in the main config file inside the markers <Directory "/path/to/my/dir"> and </Directory>, where /path/to/my/dir is the directory of the files in question (the full path of the directory where the .htaccess file would have been located). For example:

    <Directory "/path/to/my/dir">
        AuthType        Basic
        AuthName        "Acorn's Private Stuff"
        AuthUserFile    /home/acorn/Mine/web_password
        Require         user acorn user joe user susan
    </Directory>

When using this method the .htaccess file should be removed, and the "AllowOverride" directive is not needed - it can be set to "None" like this:

        AllowOverride None

This method is faster than using the .htaccess file when "AllowOverride" is "None" because apache does not need to read the .htaccess file each time.

Notes

Use the following command to get apache to re-read the main config file (this is required when modifying the main config file, but not when modifying the .htaccess files):

CGI Quickstart

Look in /etc/apache2/sites-available/default for ScriptAlias line. Shows where to put the file.

Here is an example scriptalias that allows running scripts named /usr/lib/cgi-bin/myscript as http://localhost/cgi-bin/myscript

    ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
    <Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin">
        AllowOverride None
        Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>

Sample CGI script

Sample cgi script. Put in /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mydate.

#!/bin/bash

echo "Content-type: text/html"
echo ""

echo "<html><body>"
echo "<h1>Today's date: `date`</h1>"
echo "</body></html>"

Be sure to
chmod a+x /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mydate
chmod go-w /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mydate
the script.

Sample CGI form

Sample cgi form. Put in /usr/lib/cgi-bin/myform.

 
#!/bin/bash

echo 'Content-type: text/html'
echo ''

_from_form()
{
    echo "$1" \
        | sed \
            -e 's|&|\&amp;|g' \
            -e 's|<|\&lt;|g' \
            -e 's|>|\&gt;|g' \
            -e 's|+| |g' \
            -e 's|%09| |g' \
            -e 's|%20| |g' \
            -e 's|%21|!|g' \
            -e 's|%22|"|g' \
            -e 's|%23|#|g' \
            -e 's|%24|$|g' \
            -e 's|%26|\&amp;|g' \
            -e "s|%27|'|g" \
            -e 's|%28|(|g' \
            -e 's|%29|)|g' \
            -e 's|%2[Aa]|*|g' \
            -e 's|%2[Bb]|+|g' \
            -e 's|%2[Cc]|,|g' \
            -e 's|%2[Dd]|-|g' \
            -e 's|%2[Ee]|.|g' \
            -e 's|%2[Ff]|/|g' \
            -e 's|%3[Aa]|:|g' \
            -e 's|%3[Bb]|;|g' \
            -e 's|%3[Cc]|\&lt;|g' \
            -e 's|%3[Dd]|=|g' \
            -e 's|%3[Ee]|\&gt;|g' \
            -e 's|%3[Ff]|?|g' \
            -e 's|%40|@|g' \
            -e 's|%5[Bb]|[|g' \
            -e 's|%5[Cc]|\\|g' \
            -e 's|%5[Dd]|]|g' \
            -e 's|%5[Ee]|^|g' \
            -e 's|%5[Ff]|_|g' \
            -e 's|%60|`|g' \
            -e 's|%7[Bb]|{|g' \
            -e 's@%7[Cc]@|@g' \
            -e 's|%7[Dd]|}|g' \
            -e 's|%7[Ee]|~|g' \
            -e 's|%7[Ff]||g' \
            -e 's|@|@a|g' \
            -e 's|%25|@b|g' \
            -e 's|%[0-9a-fA-F][0-9a-fA-F]||g' \
            -e 's|%||g' \
            -e 's|@b|%|g' \
            -e 's|@a|@|g' \
            -e 's|[^ -~]|?|g'
}
_escape()
{
    sed \
        -e 's|&|\&amp;|g' \
        -e 's|<|\&lt;|g' \
        -e 's|>|\&gt;|g' \
        -e 's|\t| |g' \
        -e 's|[^ -~]|?|g'
}

_to_csv()
{
    echo "$1" \
        | sed \
            -e 's|&lt;|<|g' \
            -e 's|&gt;|>|g' \
            -e 's|&amp;|\&|g' \
            -e 's|\\|\\\\|g' \
            -e 's|"|\\"|g' \
            -e 's|.*|"&"|g'
}

echo '<html><body>'
echo '<form action="myform" method="post">'

all='&'`cat`'&'

fname=`echo "$all" | sed -n -e 's|.*&fname=\([^&]*\)&.*|\1|p'`
lname=`echo "$all" | sed -n -e 's|.*&lname=\([^&]*\)&.*|\1|p'`

fname=`_from_form "$fname"`
lname=`_from_form "$lname"`

fname_csv=`_to_csv "$fname"`
lname_csv=`_to_csv "$lname"`

if [[ -n "$fname" || -n "$lname" ]] ; then

    if [[ -n $fname && -n $lname ]] ; then
        echo "$fname_csv,$lname_csv" >> /tmp/mydata.csv
        echo "<p>Successfully added entry: fname=$fname lname=$lname</p>"
        echo "<p>Contents of /tmp/mydata.csv:"
        echo "<pre>"
        cat /tmp/mydata.csv | _escape
        echo "</pre>"
    else
        echo "Bad entry:<br/>"
        echo "  fname='$fname'<br/>"
        echo "  lname='$lname'<br/>"
    fi
    echo "<hr>"
fi

echo "First name: <input type="text" name="fname" /><br/>"
echo "Last name: <input type="text" name="lname" /><br/>"
echo "<input type="submit" value="Submit" />"

echo '</form>'
echo '</body></html>'

Be sure to chmod a+x /usr/lib/cgi-bin/myform the script.