The Virtual Hosts File

The Virtual Hosts file stores the configuration info for the rhdaemon. You can open this file from the "File" menu of RHConsole or by opening /boot/home/config/settings/virtual_hosts. Changes made to the Virtual Hosts file do not take effect until the server is restarted. The elements defined in the Virtual Hosts file includes the following: Servers, Virtual Hosts, Virtual Resources, and Realms.

• Server
  An independant web server with its own collection of virtual hosts. Each server runs on its own TCP port; the default TCP port for HTTP is port 80. Other ports may be accessed by using the following syntax from your browser:
  http://host-name:port/path
  Example: http://www.foo-bar.org:2100/
• Virtual Host
  It is possible for one web server to service multiple domain names. For example, you may own the domains www.foo-bar.org and www.mr-happy.com and wish to host both on the same machine. Virtual Hosts provides the mechanism by which this can be done. If the host was not specified in the request or the host specified does not exist in the Virtual Hosts file, the Virtual Host named Default-Host is used.
• Webroot
  Each Virtual Host has its own virtual root directory. For example, if the Webroot of the Virtual Host www.foo-bar.org was "/boot/home/public_html/", the URL http://www.foo-bar.org/foo/bar.html would refer to the file "/boot/home/public_html/foo/bar.html" on your computer. It is not possible to access files outside of the virtual root directory without using a symbolic link.
• Index
  This is the Index Document to be used for each Virtual Host. It will be appended to the URL before parsing if a directory URL was requested. For example, if the Webroot of the Virtual Host www.foo-bar.org was "/boot/home/public_html/" and the Index Document was "index.shtml", the URL http://www.foo-bar.org/ would return the file "/boot/home/public_html/index.shtml" on your computer. The Index Document is set to "index.html" by default if not specified.
• Virtual Resource
  Each Virtual Host maintains its own list of Virtual Resources. Virtual Resources provides the means to define resouces which don't actually exist as a file on your computer. A virtual resource is created dynamically by one of the loaded add-on modules as needed. For example, the RHDirectoryHandler can create a directory listing when the "index.html" file is missing and it can create PNG images for Tracker icons.
  
  Virtual Resources are also used to define Virtual MIME types. A Virtual MIME type changes the MIME type of a file for the purpose of selecting which add-on module to use. For example, all files ending in ".cgi" could be treated as CGIs instead of their native MIME types.
• Realm
  Each Virtual Host has a list of Realms associated with it. When a resource is requested for which public access has not been granted, the resource's Realm defines the user name and password required to access the resource. Realm membership is defined by one or more file patterns. If no Realms are defined for a Virtual Host, all files belong to the Realm "Sherwood." "Sherwood" has the same user name and password as set in the Network Preferences panel.

The elements have the following type of hiearchal structure:

• Server 1
• Virtual Host 1
• Virtual Resource 1
• Virtual Resource 2
• Virtual Resource 3
• Realm 1
• Realm 2
• Virtual Host 2
• Virtual Resource 1
• Virtual Resource 2
• Realm 1
• Server 2
• Virtual Host 1
• Virtual Resource 1
• Realm 1

The file is composed of a series of lines with one element on each line. Lines starting with the '#' character are treated as comments and are ignored. Each line has the following format:

command: fieldName1=fieldValue1 fieldName2=fieldValue2 ...;

When Virtual Resources or Realms are searched for a match, they are searched in the same order as they appear in the virtual hosts file. Each command has a set of fields which it accepts. Virtual Resources store any undefined fields in a list of Extras, which are passed to the invoked add-on module.

Commands

• Server - Define a new server.
  • port - The TCP port on which the server is to listen.
• Host - Define a new Virtual Host.
  
  • host - The host name of the virtual host.
  • webroot - The root directory of this host; an absolute directory on your computer.
  • index - Name of the file to be used as directory index. If not defined, "index.html" will be used.
• VRes - Define a new Virtual Resource.
  • pattern - One or more patterns may be defined for each virtual resource. The pattern may contain the wild-card characters '*' and '?'.
  • type - The MIME type of the virtual resource.
  • real - When set to true, pattern is only matched if a real file was found. This is used to set the virtual MIME type of a resource. When set to false, the pattern is only checked if a real resource was not found. Such a resource must be created by an add-on module.
  • extras - Any field which is not one of the above is considered an extra field. Such fields are passed to the invoked add-on module and are treated in a module specific manner.
• Realm - Define a new Realm.
  • name - The unique name of the realm.
  • pattern - One or more patterns may be defined. If the path of a resource matches the pattern, it is considered within this realm. The pattern may contain the wild-card characters '*' and '?'.
  • user - The user name for this realm.
  • passwd - The password for this realm.

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