I am planning to use a single .htaccess file which may be deployed on multiple servers. In the process I am setting environment variables in the .htaccess file and there are a couple of cases where I would like to read the IP address into the settings. For instance, in one case I am setting an environment variable for the local database connection:
SetEnv DBL "mysql:dbname=oars;host=192.168.101.1;port=3306"
Then in PHP I would read the variable for use by the database interactions:
define('DBL', getenv('DBL'));
Since I am planning to deploy on multiple servers is there a way to get the IP address automagically rather than maintaining separate .htaccess files for each server?
You can use a Rule to set the Env variable:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^ - [E=DBL:mysql\:dbname=oars\;host=%{SERVER_ADDR}\;port=3306]
print getenv("DBL");
mysql:dbname=oars;host=1.2.3.4.5;port=3306
I have a environment variable called DISTANT_APP_ADDR:
$ echo $DISTANT_APP_ADDR
$ 172.17.0.102
I want to use this variable in my vhost, so I've added in the /etc/apache2/envvars file :
export DISTANT_APP_ADDR=${DISTANT_APP_ADDR}
In my vhost :
FastCgiExternalServer /var/www/cgi-bin/php5.external -host ${DISTANT_APP_ADDR}:9000
But when I restart apache, I've the error :
$ service apache2 restart
$ FastCgiExternalServer /var/www/cgi-bin/php5.external: failed to resolve "" to exactly one IP address
By replacing ${DISTANT_APP_ADDR} in the envvars file with the real value it's working.
I've also to to put a PassEnv DISTANT_APP_ADDR in my vhost file, but the result is the same.
How can I pass my env vars to my vhost file ?
export DISTANT_APP_ADDR=${DISTANT_APP_ADDR}
is nonsense. It does nothing if DISTANT_APP_ADDR is already set, and if it isn't set -- how does it know what to set?
You don't WANT the start script pulling your environment variable either. Suppose you, or someone else, does an apachectl restart one time, and you've forgotten you changed your env variable for some reason, 30 minutes ago. This is an administrator's nightmare - your web app "suddenly" stops working, but there's no change to any config file. It will be very very difficult to find out what went wrong.
So, by all means, set the DISTANT_APP_ADDR to something constant. Or use the SetEnv directive in httpd.conf or in some vhost config file. But never make a server service dependent on the environment the user happened to have when he started the service. (And when your system boots up, and apache gets started, the startup code doesn't know you're setting the variable in your .profile anyway).
If you really really want to shoot yourself in your foot, add
echo "DISTANT_APP_ADDR='$DISTANT_APP_ADDR'" > /tmp/apachefile
to the end of your .profile, and include that file into your envvars file.
My dev setup: Mac OSX 10.7.4 / Apache 2.2.21 / PHP 5.3.10
I wish to add conditional logic to my .htaccess files depending on dev vs live environment. for example i want to have authentication on the live server but not on the dev server. i have in my httpd.conf
SetEnv DEV 1
I have confirmed that this var is set by checking the output from phpinfo(). then in my .htaccess file
<IfDefine !DEV>
AuthType Basic
AuthName "password protected"
AuthUserFile /path/to/.htpasswd
Require valid-user
</IfDefine>
...but I am still prompted for password on my local dev. it appears that the DEV variable is not available to .htaccess. I do have AllowOverride All set in my httpd.conf for my doc root. Any ideas?
I am fresh off of about 4 hours into this problem, and I believe I have the final answer and can summarize for everyone how to solve this particularly painfull problem.
I am using Windows 7 Home Premium with Apache 2.2x and Php 5.3 as my dev machine.
I too want to have a DEV environment variable, which I can use in my .htaccess files to turn off Rewriting and other directives which are not valid on my develpment environment but are critical to my production environment.
My .htaccess file looks like this;
<IfDefine !__DEV__>
AddType application/x-httpd-php53 .php
</IfDefine>
HostGator informed me that in order to have php 5.3 I needed to modify my htaccess file like this to enable it or I'd only have php 5.2. But I already have it on my dev machine so, this directive was causing my customer website to crash when I viewed it locally. Everything I'm about to explain has allowed me to keep ONE .htaccess file in my Git Repository, which works in both locations.
First, let me clear/sum up all the things I learned while scouring the internet for the way to use IfDefine and SetEnv to solve this issue;
The IfDefine directive in Apache, Only , ONLY and when I say only i mean ONLY, responds to parameters passed at the command line. Let me emphasize that a little. ONLY COMMAND LINE!
SetEnv and SetEnvIf, are two entirely different things. One (SetEnv) is for use in the conf files, setting environment variables (specific to apache) which are set at SERVER START TIME. SetEnfIf is used at REQUEST TIME and is only used to determine what to set based on REQUEST variables.
The IfDefine directive does not read variables set by SetEnv or SetEnvIf. Period. There's no argument, there's no question, there's no "but i thought..." NO. It doesn't, so get over it.
The short answer is NO, you can't just use "SetEnv DEV 1" in httpd.conf and then use IfDefine to detect it in your .htaccess file, which would seem intuitive and reasonable based on the syntax and nature of programming logic any of us are used to. Recall that we are not in fact programming anything, that these are config files and of course they don't conform to this expectation simply because it seems like they should.
The Answer
So this means that I have to figure out how to add a startup parameter to Apache, well for the Linux Guys, that answer is readily available, you just have to add the right stuff to the envvars file, but what about us poor windows junkies?
Well for windows users it gets more fun for the following reasons:
Windows does not allow you to permanently add startup parameters in the services configuration for Apache2.2 (it doesn't work, don't try it, I've done it a million times, trust me). This is true, if you go in there and try to put in your own parameters, it will only work one time and then the parameter field is empty the next time you open the dialog. I don't know why this is the case, but it seems that those parameters are intended for testing, not a permanent modification.
When Apache is installed it creates "Start", "Stop" and "Restart" shortcuts in the start menu, as well as installs the Apache Services Monitor. BUT the shortcuts in the start menu use different startup parameters than those used by apache services monitor. So if you start/stop apache using a combination of these methods you will get different results depending on what method you used. However, you can put the -D "__DEV__" in the start menu shortcut and it will work!
Steps to Solve It
To permanently and universally setup a __DEV__ environment variable which you can reference using IfDefine in .htaccess files, on a Windows Development environment which will work whether you start Apache using a service or the shortcuts in the start menu or using NET START/STOP on the command line, do the following:
Open the properties for the start menu shortcut and extract the command you find for starting Apache there. Mine was; "C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\bin\httpd.exe" -w -n "Apache2.2" -k start
Modify it to include the new -D __DEV__ variable, which MUST go at the start immediately following httpd.exe; "C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\bin\httpd.exe" -D "__DEV__" -w -n "Apache2.2" -k start
Your start menu shortcut will now start apache with your dev variable in place.
Go to a command line (as administrator)
Type: net stop apache2.2 (or whatever your service name is for apache)
Now type in (or copy-paste) the same command as is used in the start menu shortcut above into the command line but make the following change to it; "C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\bin\httpd.exe" -D "__DEV__" -w -n "Apache2.2" -k config
Note the change of the word start to config. What this magical command does is saves the settings you are seeing on the screen to the settings stored with the service in Windows. Hit Enter. From this point forward your variable will be passed whenever you start the service, the Apache Services Monitor starts the service, or windows starts the service.
Sorry for the novel everyone, I hope it helps some other weary soul out there to have all this info summarized and explained, I know it would have helped me! :D
Another option to my first answer is use the Allow directive.
Look at: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_authz_host.html#allow
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
AuthType Basic
AuthName "password protected"
AuthUserFile /path/to/.htpasswd
Require valid-user
Allow from env=DEV
Satisfy Any
This will only check if DEV exists not the value, thats how apache works. Replace (or add) "Allow" with "Allow from 127.0.0.1" to have your localhost always be in dev mode.
This states that any of the conditions are acceptable, where the conditions are: password or from 127.0.0.1. If you develop on your localhost you can use 127.0.0.1, or just replace that with any ip you develop with. This don't need to be wrapped in anything, just placed in your htaccess file. I use virtual hosts, so I would place it there.
Source (I changed it to look your your original code):
http://www.askapache.com/htaccess/apache-authentication-in-htaccess.html#allow-conditional
2 years on and I'm having similar issues. Specifically, we are auto-deploying to an AWS OpsWorks stack and have no control over the placement of a .htpasswd file (used to obscure work during development).
Our final working solution was along the lines of this (Apache 2.2.25):
# check the host against a regex, defining env=DEV if it matches
# this guy matches localhost, dev.project and 10.1.X.X
SetEnvIfNoCase Host "^(localhost|dev\.project|10\.1(\.\d+){2})$" DEV
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Restricted"
# auth file location, in our case defined by an AWS OpsWorks auto-deployment
# this only gets loaded if the regex above doesn't match, which is handy
AuthUserFile /srv/www/project/current/.htpasswd
Require valid-user
Satisfy any
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from env=DEV
This solution is flexible enough to allow multiple development environments access while auth checking any number of others. No need for ignoring or editing the htaccess before a git commit. An environment variable might seem overkill but it allows for a regular expression and could be used elsewhere as well.
See: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/howto/access.html
Solution for Debian/Ubuntu:
In /etc/apache2/envars one has to change:
## If you would like to pass arguments to the web server, add them below
## to the APACHE_ARGUMENTS environment.
#export APACHE_ARGUMENTS=''
to
## If you would like to pass arguments to the web server, add them below
## to the APACHE_ARGUMENTS environment.
export APACHE_ARGUMENTS='-D __DEV__'
Now one can use
<IfDefine !__DEV__>
...
</IfDefine>
I do love answering questions, but a quick google search gave me your answer. Check out the apache documentation:
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/core.html#ifdefine
The IfDefine directive can only test a "parameter-name", and a "parameter-name" is a variable set by httpd on startup.
Also check out this site, and scroll down to the table:
http://turboflash.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/apache-environment-variables-visibility-with-setenv-setenvif-and-rewriterule-directives/
What you are asking is still possible if you just start your dev webserver like this:
$ httpd -DDEV
This will define the variable DEV. Note that you don't need to set it to anything, being defined is basically setting it to 1/true. If it doesn't exist it's like being set to false/0/null/etc...
I've solved this problem using a different approach based on AccessFileName directive.
In my MAMP environment, I've added the following to <VirtualHost> configuration:
AccessFileName .htaccess_dev
Then, I've scanned the application directory for .htaccess files and created corresponding symlinks to the .htaccess_dev version so to have identical versions for all of them and have the application to work on my development environment.
Then, I've located the only .htaccess file containing the path to the .htpasswd file and removed the symlink and created instead a modified copy of it.
I've this in .htaccess file:
## production
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Admin"
AuthUserFile /srv/users/prod/apps/appname/public/sys-admin/.htpasswd
require valid-user
And this in .htaccess_dev
## development
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Admin"
AuthUserFile /Users/fregini/Work/MAMP/appname/sys-admin/.htpasswd
require valid-user
I'd like to include one or another external httpd.conf file in my main Apache httpd.conf based on an Environment Variable that is set externally.
So I would like to do something like:
if $(DEV_ENV) == "main"
Include "first file"
if $(DEV_ENV) == "alt"
Include "second file"
I've been looking at the mod_setenv module but that is for setting the environment variables within the Apache configuration.
How can I use the environment variables and do comparisons on its values?
Sorry but you can't do this sort of dynamic logic on Includes. However certainly the Debian version allows direct reference to environment variables through a substitution pattern, e.g.
Include conf/${APACHE_RUNTIME_TYPE}/*.conf
Have a browse for "Apache2 envvars" to learn more.
Take a look at ifdefine. This evaluates options passed on the command line, rather than environment variables. The following matches your request:
<IfDefine main>
Include "first file"
</IfDefine>
<IfDefine alt>
Include "second file"
</IfDefine>
I need to set my apache environment to 'foobar'
I know I need to set in in my vhost, but what should I type there and where?
SetEnv sets a particular variable to some value, so you need something like
SetEnv varname varvalue
If this is for a specific virtual host, and you have access to the Apache configuration files, this would go inside the <VirtualHost> directive for that virtual host.
If you don't have control of the config files, you'll need to put it in a .htaccess file. But for this to work, SetEnv must be allowed in .htaccess files, which is specified using the AllowOverride directive.
I came here because I configured a python/django WSGI environment.
Loading modules and SetEnv'ing all day long.
Did not work. The vars would just not show up.
What did work was this: https://gist.github.com/GrahamDumpleton/b380652b768e81a7f60c
Graham describes how to basically clone your wsgi.py file and then use a different one for each environment (production, test, dev) and setting your environment vars in there with os.environ['whatever'] = 'you like!'