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| -rw-r--r-- | apache-configuration.md | 67 |
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@@ -3,3 +3,4 @@ Coppewebite is a project exploring interactions between the [Gemini protocol](https://geminiprotocol.net/) and the web. * [`gemini-to-web`](gemini-to-web): Python library and command-line tools to convert Gemini to web formats. +* [`apache-configuration`](apache-configuration.md): documentation for configuring Apache httpd to make serve Gemtext as an alternative negotiated content type. diff --git a/apache-configuration.md b/apache-configuration.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..59027cb --- /dev/null +++ b/apache-configuration.md @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ +# Apache configuration + +With the following modules loaded in Apache httpd: + +``` +LoadModule negotiation_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_negotiation.so +LoadModule mime_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_mime.so +``` + +And the default mime types configuration: + +``` +TypesConfig /etc/mime.types +``` + +Then you can use the following configuration to make httpd serve Gemtext as an alternative negotiated content type: + +``` +# Associate the .gmi extension with text/gemini. +# This makes MultiViews consider .gmi files as an additional content type to negotiate for clients that request it. +AddType text/gemini .gmi + +# Enable MultiViews so requests for /.../foo are content negotiated and can return either foo.html or foo.gmi. +<Directory ...> + Options MultiViews +</Directory> + +# Change the DirectoryIndex to index so that MultiViews are used for indexes too. +DirectoryIndex index +``` + +With this configuration: + +* `/` serves `index.html` or `index.gmi`. +* `/foo` serves `foo.html` or `foo.gmi`. +* `/foo/` serves `foo/index.html` or `foo/index.gmi`. + +Interestingly, when there is no Accept header or when multiple matching types are present, http defaults to serving the smallest file. +In general, this means that httpd serves smaller gemtext files over HTML. +For example, when using `curl`, httpd serves gemtext, which is more readable than HTML on a terminal. + +## Running Apache httpd as a regular user + +On Debian, you can install Apache httpd by running the following commands: + +```sh +sudo apt install apache2 +sudo systemctl disable --now apache2 # Debian enables apache2 to start automatically when your system starts, disable the service to prevent this. +``` + +Then, if you create an `apache2.conf` in a directory with the following content: + +``` +LoadModule mpm_event_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_mpm_event.so +Listen 8000 +PidFile logs/pid +ServerRoot . +DocumentRoot document_root +LoadModule authn_core_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_authn_core.so +LoadModule authz_core_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_authz_core.so +``` + +Then running the following command starts Apache httpd listening on port 8000: + +```sh +/usr/sbin/apache2 -D FOREGROUND -d . +``` |