lighty's life

The idea is to modularize the configfile and only include the parts of the config for a vhost that it needs.

But first we define our setup:

1. All vhosts are under _ /var/www/servers//pages/ _
2. you have some vhost that have protected folders
3. some may have PHP support, some may use pre-installed rails apps

$HTTP["host"] == "www.example.org" {
  server.document-root = "/var/www/servers/www.example.org/pages/" 
  auth.backend = "htpasswd" 
  auth.backend.htpasswd.userfile = "/var/www/servers/www.example.org/htpasswd" 
  auth.require = ... 
}

We specify the path in the full lenth both times. Let’s tackle this one first:

$HTTP["host"] == "www.example.org" {
  var.basedir = "/var/www/servers/www.example.org/" 
  server.document-root = basedir + "pages/" 
  auth.backend = "htpasswd" 
  auth.backend.htpasswd.userfile = basedir + "/htpasswd" 
  auth.require = ... 
}

But this is just one host, let’s add another one, just serving static files:

$HTTP["host"] == "www.example.com" {
  var.basedir = "/var/www/servers/www.example.com/" 
  server.document-root = basedir + "pages/" 
}

Both have the same directory root _ /var/www/servers/ _ let’s move it out.

var.basedir = "/var/www/servers/" 
$HTTP["host"] == "www.example.org" {
  var.servername = "www.example.org" 

  server.document-root = basedir + servername + "/pages/" 
  auth.backend = "htpasswd" 
  auth.backend.htpasswd.userfile = basedir + servername + "/htpasswd" 
  auth.require = ... 
}
$HTTP["host"] == "www.example.com" {
  var.servername = "www.example.com" 

  server.document-root = basedir + servername + "/pages/" 
}

The server.document-root setting is now exactly the same for both servers, let’s move it out again, this time into a include file called _ incl-docroot.conf _:

## set the docroot based on basedir and servername 
## both have to be defined before
  server.document-root = basedir + servername + "/pages/" 

and here is our new configfile:

var.basedir = "/var/www/servers/" 
$HTTP["host"] == "www.example.org" {
  var.servername = "www.example.org" 

  include "incl-docroot.conf" 

  auth.backend = "htpasswd" 
  auth.backend.htpasswd.userfile = basedir + servername + "/htpasswd" 
  auth.require = ( "/download" => ... )
}
$HTTP["host"] == "www.example.com" {
  var.servername = "www.example.com" 

  include "incl-docroot.conf" 
}

Last step is moving the auth part into a include-file too called _ incl-auth-htpasswd.conf _:

## set authentificate for a directory
auth.backend = "htpasswd" 
auth.backend.htpasswd.userfile = basedir + servername + "/htpasswd" 
auth.require = ( authdir => ... )

and our configfile:

var.basedir = "/var/www/servers/" 
$HTTP["host"] == "www.example.org" {
  var.servername = "www.example.org" 
  var.authdir = "/download/" 

  include "incl-docroot.conf" 
  include "incl-auth-htpasswd.conf" 
}
$HTTP["host"] == "www.example.com" {
  var.servername = "www.example.com" 

  include "incl-docroot.conf" 
}

Ok, last step is FastCGI for a host. We create a include-file from the start called _ incl-fastcgi-php.conf _:

fastcgi.server = ( ".php" => ((
  "bin-path" => "/usr/bin/php-cgi",
  "socket" => basedir + servername + "/tmp/php-" + PID + ".socket" 
)))

If a host wants PHP support we just include this file:

var.basedir = "/var/www/servers/" 
$HTTP["host"] == "www.example.org" {
  var.servername = "www.example.org" 
  var.authdir = "/download/" 

  include "incl-docroot.conf" 
  include "incl-auth-htpasswd.conf" 
}
$HTTP["host"] == "www.example.com" {
  var.servername = "www.example.com" 

  include "incl-docroot.conf" 
  include "incl-fastcgi-php.conf" 
}

Which leads to the last issue: than one name for a vhost. Let’s say _ www.example.org _ and _ example.org _ are the same vhost with different names.

var.basedir = "/var/www/servers/" 
$HTTP["host"] =~ "^(www\.)?example\.org$" {
  var.servername = "www.example.org" 
  var.authdir = "/download/" 

  include "incl-docroot.conf" 
  include "incl-auth-htpasswd.conf" 
}
$HTTP["host"] == "www.example.com" {
  var.servername = "www.example.com" 

  include "incl-docroot.conf" 
  include "incl-fastcgi-php.conf" 
}

Now I leave it up to you to write a web-frontend to generate these modular configfiles for your setup.

Include and variables work since 1.4.0, the PID variable is available since 1.4.6 IIRC.