dirplex: Added directory-locality to matches.

[ashd.git] / doc / dirplex.doc

dirplex(1)
==========

NAME
----
dirplex - Physical directory handler for ashd(7)

SYNOPSIS
--------
*dirplex* [*-hN*] [*-c* 'CONFIG'] 'DIR'

DESCRIPTION
-----------

The *dirplex* handler maps URLs into physical files or directories,
and, having found a matching file or directory, it performs various
kinds of pattern-matching against its physical name to determine what
handler to call in order to serve the request. The mapping procedure
and pattern matching are described below.

Having found a handler to serve a file or directory with, *dirplex*
adds the `X-Ash-File` header to the request with a path to the
physical file, before passing the request on to the handler.

*dirplex* is a persistent handler, as defined in *ashd*(7).

OPTIONS
-------

*-h*::

	Print a brief help message to standard output and exit.

*-N*::

	Do not read the global configuration file `dirplex.rc`.

*-c* 'CONFIG'::

	Read an extra configuration file. If 'CONFIG' contains any
	slashes, it is opened by that exact name. Otherwise, it is
	searched for in the same way as the global configuration file
	(see CONFIGURATION below).

URL-TO-FILE MAPPING
-------------------

Mapping URLs into physical files is an iterative procedure, each step
looking in one single physical directory, starting with 'DIR'. For
each step, a path element is stripped off the beginning of the rest
string and examined, the path element being either the leading part of
the rest string up until the first slash, or the entire rest string if
it contains no slashes. If the rest string is empty, the directory
being examined is considered the result of the mapping. Otherwise, any
escape sequences in the path element under consideration are unescaped
before examining it.

Any path element that begins with a dot is considered invalid and
results in a 404 response to the client. If the path element names a
directory in the current directory, the procedure continues in that
directory. If it names a file, that file is considered the result of
the mapping (even if the rest string has not been exhausted yet).

If the path element does not name anything in the directory under
consideration, but contains no dots, then the directory is searched
for a file whose name before the first dot matches the path
element. If there is such a file, it is considered the result of the
mapping.

If the result of the mapping procedure is a directory, it is checked
for the presence of a filed named by the *index-file* configuration
directive (see CONFIGURATION below). If there is such a file, it is
considered the final result instead of the directory itself. If the
index file name contains no dots and there is no exact match, then,
again, the directory is searched for a file whose name before the
first dot matches the index file name.

CONFIGURATION
-------------

Configuration in *dirplex* comes from several sources. When *dirplex*
starts, unless the *-N* option is given, it tries to find a global
configuration file named `dirplex.rc`. It looks in all directories
named by the *PATH* environment variable, appended with `../etc`. For
example, then, if *PATH* is `/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin`, the
directories `/usr/local/etc`, `/etc` and `/usr/etc` are searched for
`dirplex.rc`, in that order. Only the first file found is used, should
there exist several.

If the *-c* option is given to *dirplex*, it too specifies a
configuration file to load. If the name given contains any slashes, it
is opened by that exact name. Otherwise, it is searched for in the
same manner as the global configuration file.

In addition, all directories traversed by *dirplex* when mapping a URL
into a physical file may contain a file called `.htrc`, which may
specify extra configuration options for all files in and beneath that
directory.

`.htrc` files are checked periodically and reread if changed. The
global configuration file and any file named by the *-c* option,
however, are never reexamined.

When using the configuration files for deciding what to do with a
found file, they are examined in order of their "distance" from that
file. `.htrc` files found in the directory or directories containing
the file are considered "closest" to the file under consideration,
followed by any configuration file named by the *-c* option, followed
by the global configuration file.

Each configuration file is a sequence of configuration stanzas, each
stanza being an unindented starting line, followed by zero or more
indented follow-up lines adding options to the stanza. The starting
line of a stanza is referred to as a "configuration directive"
below. Each line is a sequence of whitespace-separated words. A word
may contain whitespace if such whitespace is escaped, either by
enclosing the word in double quotes, or by escaping individual
whitespace characters with a preceding backslash. Backslash quoting
may also be used to treat double quotes or another backslash literally
as part of the word. Empty lines are ignored, and lines whose first
character after leading whitespace is a hash character (`#`) are
treated as comments and ignored.

The follow configuration directives are recognized:

*index-file* ['FILENAME'...]::

	The given 'FILENAMEs' are used for finding index files (see
	URL-TO-FILE MAPPING above). Specifying *index-file* overrides
	entirely any previous specification in a more distant
	configuration file, rather than adding to it. Zero 'FILENAMEs'
	may be given to turn off index file searching completely. The
	*index-file* directive accepts no follow-up lines.

*child* 'NAME'::

	Declares a named, persistent request handler (see *ashd*(7)
	for a more detailed description of persistent handlers). It
	must contain exactly one follow-up line, *exec* 'PROGRAM'
	['ARGS'...], specifying the program to execute and the
	arguments to pass it. If given in a `.htrc` file, the program
	will be started in the same directory as the `.htrc` file
	itself. The *child* stanza itself serves as the identity of
	the forked process -- only one child process will be forked
	per stanza, and if that child process exits, it will be
	restarted the next time the stanza would be used. If a `.htrc`
	file containing *child* stanzas is reloaded, any currently
	running children are reused for *child* stanzas in the new
	file with matching names (even if the *exec* line has
	changed).

*fchild* 'NAME'::

	Declares a named, transient request handler (see *ashd*(7) for
	a more detailed description of persistent handlers). It must
	contain exactly one follow-up line, *exec* 'PROGRAM'
	['ARGS'...], specifying the program to execute and the
	arguments to pass it. In addition to the specified arguments,
	the HTTP method, raw URL and the rest string will be appended
	added as described in *ashd*(7). If given in a `.htrc` file,
	the program will be started in the same directory as the
	`.htrc` file itself.

*match* [*directory*]::

	Specifies a filename pattern-matching rule. The
	pattern-matching procedure and the follow-up lines accepted by
	this stanza are described below, under MATCHING.

*capture* 'HANDLER'::

	Only meaningful in `.htrc` files. If a *capture* directive is
	specified, then the URL-to-file mapping procedure as described
	above is aborted as soon as the directory containing the
	`.htrc` file is encountered. The request is passed, with any
	remaining rest string, to the specified 'HANDLER', which must
	by a named request handler specified either in the same
	`.htrc` file or elsewhere. The *capture* directive accepts no
	follow-up lines.

MATCHING
--------

When a file or directory has been found by the mapping procedure (see
URL-TO-FILE MAPPING above), the name of the physical file is examined
to determine a request handler to pass the request to. Note that only
the physical file name is ever considered; any logical request
parameters such as the request URL or the rest string are entirely
ignored.

To match a file, any *match* stanzas specified by any `.htrc` file or
in the global configuration files are searched in order of their
"distance" (see CONFIGURATION above) from the actual file. If it is a
directory which is being considered, only *match* stanzas with the
*directory* parameter are considered; otherwise, if it is a file, only
*match* stanzas without the *directory* parameter are considered.

A *match* stanza must contain at least one follow-up line specifying
match rules. All rules must match for the stanza as a whole to match.
The following rules are recognized:

*filename* 'PATTERN'...::

	Matches if the name of the file under consideration matches
	any of the 'PATTERNs'. A 'PATTERN' is an ordinary glob
	pattern, such as `*.php`. See *fnmatch*(3) for more
	information.

*pathname* 'PATTERN'...::

	Matches if the entire path (relative as considered from the
	root directory being served) of the file under consideration
	matches any of the 'PATTERNs'. A 'PATTERN' is an ordinary glob
	pattern, except that slashes are not matched by wildcards. See
	*fnmatch*(3) for more information.

*default*::

	Matches if and only if no *match* stanza without a *default*
	rule has matched.

*local*::

	Valid only in `.htrc` files, *local* matches if an only if the
	file under consideration resides in the same directory as the
	containing `.htrc` file.

In addition to the rules, a *match* stanza must contain exactly one
follow-up line specifying the action to take if it matches. The
following actions are recognized:

*handler* 'HANDLER'::

	'HANDLER' must be a named handler (see CONFIGURATION
	above). The named handler is searched for not only in the same
	configuration file as the *match* stanza, but in all
	configuration files that are valid for the file under
	consideration, in order of distance. As such, a more deeply
	nested `.htrc` file may override the specified handler without
	having to specify any new *match* stanzas.

*fork* 'PROGRAM' ['ARGS'...]::

	Run a transient handler for this file, as if it were specified
	by a *fchild* stanza. This action exists mostly for
	convenience.

If no *match* stanza matches, a 404 response is returned to the
client.

EXAMPLES
--------

The *sendfile*(1) program can be used to serve HTML files as follows.

--------
match
  filename *.html
  fork sendfile -c text/html
--------

Assuming the PHP CGI interpreter is installed on the system, PHP
scripts can be used with the following configuration, using the
*callcgi*(1) program.

--------
fchild php
  exec callcgi -p php-cgi
match
  filename *.php
  handler php
--------

If there is a directory without an index file, a file listing can be
automatically generated by the *htls*(1) program as follows.

--------
match directory
  default
  fork htls
--------

If you want an entire directory to be dedicated to some external SCGI
script engine, you can use the *callscgi*(1) program to serve it as
follows. Note that *callscgi*, and therefore the script engine itself,
is started in the directory itself, so that arbitrary code modules or
data files can be put directly in that directory and easily found.

--------
child foo
  exec callscgi scgi-wsgi -p . foo

capture foo
--------

AUTHOR
------
Fredrik Tolf <fredrik@dolda2000.com>

SEE ALSO
--------
*ashd*(7)