Apache Server Configs is a collection of configuration snippets that can help your server improve the website's performance and security, while also ensuring that resources are served with the correct content-type and are accessible, if needed, even cross-domain.
There are two options for getting the Apache server configs:
- If you have access to the main server configuration
file
(usually called
httpd.conf
), you should configure Apache this way. This is usually the recommended way, as using.htaccess
files slows down Apache! - If you don't have access to it, which is quite common with hosting services,
checkout the
.htaccess
guide.
Using the Apache server configs repo directly has a few required steps to be able to work.
See also the Apache Getting Started.
The first thing to check is that the httpd.conf
file contains appropriate values for
your specific install.
Most specific variables are:
ServerRoot
User
Group
ErrorLog
CustomLog
TypesConfig
(ensure that the path for themime.types
file is valid)
-
To verify Apache config
apache2 -t
-
To verify Apache config with a custom file
apache2 -t -f httpd.conf
-
To reload Apache and apply the new config
apache2ctl reload
Some configurations won't have any effect if the appropriate modules aren't enabled. So, in order for everything to work as intended, you need to ensure you have the following Apache modules enabled:
mod_autoindex.c
(autoindex_module)mod_deflate.c
(deflate_module)mod_expires.c
(expires_module)mod_filter.c
(filter_module)mod_headers.c
(headers_module)mod_include.c
(include_module)mod_mime.c
(mime_module)mod_rewrite.c
(rewrite_module)mod_setenvif.c
(setenvif_module)
For more detailed information on configuration files and how to use them, please check the appropriate Apache documentation:
- https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/configuring.html
- https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/howto/htaccess.html
These instructions should work on any distribution where apt-get
has been
used to install Apache.
-
Open up a terminal and type the following command. Enter your password when prompted.
sudo a2enmod setenvif headers deflate filter expires rewrite include
-
Restart apache by using the following command, so the new configuration takes effect.
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
-
MAMP PRO. On the main screen, click the
Apache
tab and ensure that all the required modules are 'checked', indicating they are enabled. -
WampServer. If you have installed WampServer just click on the icon in the task bar then Apache section then modules section. You will be presented with a list of modules. Simply click on a module name to enable it. WampServer will automatically restart the Apache service after you enable a module.
-
Others. Locate the
httpd.conf
file, which is typically found in:- MAMP:
/Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/httpd.conf
- XAMPP:
/Applications/XAMPP/etc/httpd.conf
- WAMP:
C:\apache\conf\httpd.conf
Open the file in a text editor and uncomment all the required modules. Once you have done so, reset MAMP/WAMP/XAMPP.
- MAMP:
This repository has the following structure:
./
├── vhosts/
│ ├── 000-default.conf
│ └── templates/
├── h5bp/
│ ├── basic.conf
│ └── .../
└── httpd.conf
-
vhosts/
This directory should contain all the server definitions.
Except if they are dot prefixed or non
.conf
extension, all files in this folder are loaded automatically.-
templates
folderFiles in this folder contain a
<VirtualHost/>
template for secure and non-secure hosts. They are intended to be copied in thevhosts
folder with allexample.com
occurrences changed to the target host.
-
-
h5bp/
This directory contains config snippets (mixins) to be included as desired.
There are two types of config files provided, individual config snippets and combined config files which provide convenient defaults.
-
basic.conf
This file loads a small subset of the rules provided by this repository to add expires headers, allow cross-domain fonts and protect system files from web access. The
basic.conf
file includes the rules which are recommended to always be defined.
-
-
httpd.conf
The main Apache config file.
The default location of the configuration files is /usr/local/apache2/
, but these files may be located any of a variety of places, depending on how exactly you installed the server.
Common locations for these files may be found in the httpd wiki.
To use as reference requires no special installation steps, download/checkout the repository to a convenient location and adapt your existing httpd configuration incorporating the desired functionality from this repository.
Download the latest release archive.
To use directly, add httpd config files from this repository.
For example:
apache2ctl stop
git clone https://github.com/h5bp/server-configs-apache.git /tmp/h5bp-apache
cd /usr/local
cp -r apache2 apache2-previous
cp -r /tmp/h5bp-apache/* apache2
# install-specific edits
apache2ctl start
cd /usr/local/apache2/vhosts
-
Creating a new site
cp templates/example.com.conf .actual-hostname.conf sed -i 's/example.com/actual-hostname/g' .actual-hostname.conf
-
Enabling a site
mv .actual-hostname.conf actual-hostname.conf
-
Disabling a site
mv actual-hostname.conf .actual-hostname.conf
apache2ctl reload
Just copy the .htaccess
file in the root of the website.
Getting options:
- Download the
h5bp.htaccess
on the latest release and rename the file to.htaccess
- Install them via npm:
npm install --save-dev apache-server-configs
Inside thedist/
folder, you'll find a ready-to-use.htaccess
file.
Security, mime-type, and caching best practices evolve, and so should do your
.htaccess
file. In the past, with each new Apache Server Configs release
it was quite tedious to find out which .htaccess
trick was just new or only
had changes in certain nuances.
The build script with its re-usable and customizable
build configuration lets you easily
update your .htaccess
file. Each new .htaccess
build will contain the
updated Apache Server Configs source files, enabled or commented-out according
to your settings in the htaccess.conf
of your project root.
It allows you to define which module to enable or
disable for your project. Just copy the default
htaccess.conf
from this repo into your project directory. Adjust to your needs, and/or
add custom code snippets you need for your project.
Its syntax is straight and pretty much self-explanatory:
# Example Module
title "example module"
enable "src/example-module/images.conf"
enable "src/example-module/web_fonts.conf"
disable "src/example-module/not-needed.conf"
omit "src/example-module/not-needed-at-all.conf"
#... more modules ...
For example, the “Cross-origin web fonts” snippet is always included in
our pre-built .htaccess
file and enabled. If your project does not deal
with web fonts, you can disable
or omit
this section:
This will comment out the section:
disable "h5bp/cross-origin/web_fonts.conf"
…and this will exclude the section, saving lines in output:
omit "h5bp/cross-origin/web_fonts.conf"
For example, the “Forcing https://
” snippet is disabled by default,
although being included in our pre-built .htaccess
. To enable this
snippet, change the disable
keyword to enable
:
enable "h5bp/rewrites/rewrite_http_to_https.conf"
The default partials contain significant numbers of comment lines, which
contain valuable guidance about how and why to use the setting as well
as web references. However, some may feel that the size of the resulting
.htaccess
file is too large.
The special keyword no-partials-comments
can be used to prevent
comment lines from being copied out of the partials into .htaccess
.
Note
This keyword does not control comments created by the build
script (such as title
or disabled
directives), only those that
are in the source partials files.
no-partials-comments
Imagine you're passing all requests to non-existing files to your favorite web framework. The according mod_dir snippet would go like this:
FallbackResource index.php
Store this snippet in a file, e.g. config/framework_rewrites.conf
, and add
a reference in your htaccess.conf
:
# PROJECT MODULES
enable "config/framework_rewrites.conf"
Dive into your project root and call the build script from wherever you cloned the repo. Here are three examples:
- Create a default
.htaccess
Create a default .htaccess
in the current work directory. An existing
htaccess.conf
in this directory will be used; if none is present, the
default configuration
will apply.
$ path/to/server-configs-apache/bin/build.sh
# Output looks like:
[✔] Build .htaccess
[✔] Moved in place: './.htaccess'
- Custom output location
Just add an output path and filename as a parameter. By the way, if there's an
existing .htaccess
file, the build script will create a backup.
$ path/to/server-configs-apache/bin/build.sh htdocs/.htaccess
[✔] Build .htaccess
[✔] Create backup: 'htdocs/.htaccess~'
[✔] Moved in place: 'htdocs/.htaccess'
- Custom
.htaccess
configuration
Why not maintain your personal ~/htaccess.conf
? This example creates a
.htaccess
in the current work directory, according to your favorite settings
you may have stored in your $HOME
directory:
path/to/server-configs-apache/bin/build.sh ./.htaccess ~/htaccess.conf
- Apache v2.4.17+
Anyone is welcome to contribute, however, if you decide to get involved, please take a moment to review the guidelines:
Apache Server Configs is only possible thanks to all the awesome contributors!
The code is available under the MIT license.