mongoose/docs/Options.md

Mongoose Configuration Options

Every option is followed by it's default value. If default value is not present, then it is empty.

cgi_pattern **.cgi$|**.pl$|**.php$

All files that match cgi_pattern are treated as CGI files. Default pattern allows CGI files be anywhere. To restrict CGIs to a certain directory, use /path/to/cgi-bin/**.cgi as pattern. Note that full file path is matched against the pattern, not the URI.

cgi_environment

Extra environment variables to be passed to the CGI script in addition to standard ones. The list must be comma-separated list of name=value pairs, like this: VARIABLE1=VALUE1,VARIABLE2=VALUE2.

put_delete_auth_file

Passwords file for PUT and DELETE requests. Without it, PUT and DELETE requests will fail.

cgi_interpreter

Path to an executable to use as CGI interpreter for all CGI scripts regardless script extension. If this option is not set (which is a default), Mongoose looks at first line of a CGI script, [shebang line](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebang_(Unix)), for an interpreter.

For example, if both PHP and perl CGIs are used, then #!/path/to/php-cgi.exe and #!/path/to/perl.exe must be first lines of the respective CGI scripts. Note that paths should be either full file paths, or file paths relative to the current working directory of mongoose server. If mongoose is started by mouse double-click on Windows, current working directory is a directory where mongoose executable is located.

If all CGIs use the same interpreter, for example they are all PHP, then cgi_interpreter can be set to the path to php-cgi.exe executable and shebang line in the CGI scripts can be omitted. Note that PHP scripts must use php-cgi.exe executable, not php.exe.

protect_uri

Comma separated list of URI=PATH pairs, specifying that given URIs must be protected with respected password files. Paths must be full file paths.

authentication_domain mydomain.com

Authorization realm used in .htpasswd authorization.

ssi_pattern **.shtml$|**.shtm$

All files that match ssi_pattern are treated as SSI.

Server Side Includes (SSI) is a simple interpreted server-side scripting language which is most commonly used to include the contents of a file into a web page. It can be useful when it is desirable to include a common piece of code throughout a website, for example, headers and footers.

In order for a webpage to recognize an SSI-enabled HTML file, the filename should end with a special extension, by default the extension should be either .shtml or .shtm.

Unknown SSI directives are silently ignored by mongoose. Currently, two SSI directives are supported, <!--#include ...> and <!--#exec "command">. Note that <!--#include ...> directive supports three path specifications:

<!--#include virtual="path">  Path is relative to web server root
<!--#include abspath="path">  Path is absolute or relative to
                              web server working dir
<!--#include file="path">,    Path is relative to current document
<!--#include "path">

The include directive may be used to include the contents of a file or the result of running a CGI script. The exec directive is used to execute a command on a server, and show command's output. Example:

<!--#exec "ls -l" -->

For more information on Server Side Includes, take a look at the Wikipedia: Server Side Includes

throttle

Limit download speed for clients. throttle is a comma-separated list of key=value pairs, where key could be:

*                   limit speed for all connections
x.x.x.x/mask        limit speed for specified subnet
uri_prefix_pattern  limit speed for given URIs

The value is a floating-point number of bytes per second, optionally followed by a k or m character, meaning kilobytes and megabytes respectively. A limit of 0 means unlimited rate. The last matching rule wins. Examples:

*=1k,10.0.0.0/8=0   limit all accesses to 1 kilobyte per second,
                    but give connections from 10.0.0.0/8 subnet
                    unlimited speed

/downloads/=5k      limit accesses to all URIs in `/downloads/` to
                    5 kilobytes per secods. All other accesses are unlimited

access_log_file

Path to a file for access logs. Either full path, or relative to current working directory. If absent (default), then accesses are not logged.

error_log_file

Path to a file for error logs. Either full path, or relative to current working directory. If absent (default), then errors are not logged.

enable_directory_listing yes

Enable directory listing, either yes or no.

enable_keep_alive no

Enable connection keep alive, either yes or no.

Experimental feature. Allows clients to reuse TCP connection for subsequent HTTP requests, which improves performance. For this to work when using request handlers it's important to add the correct Content-Length HTTP header for each request. If this is forgotten the client will time out.

global_auth_file

Path to a global passwords file, either full path or relative to the current working directory. If set, per-directory .htpasswd files are ignored, and all requests are authorised against that file.

The file has to include the realm set through authentication_domain and the password in digest format:

user:realm:digest
test:test.com:ce0220efc2dd2fad6185e1f1af5a4327

(e.g. use this generator)

index_files index.html,index.htm,index.cgi,index.shtml,index.php

Comma-separated list of files to be treated as directory index files.

access_control_list

An Access Control List (ACL) allows restrictions to be put on the list of IP addresses which have access to the web server. In the case of the Mongoose web server, the ACL is a comma separated list of IP subnets, where each subnet is prepended by either a - or a + sign. A plus sign means allow, where a minus sign means deny. If a subnet mask is omitted, such as -1.2.3.4, this means to deny only that single IP address.

Subnet masks may vary from 0 to 32, inclusive. The default setting is to allow all accesses. On each request the full list is traversed, and the last match wins. Examples:

-0.0.0.0/0,+192.168/16    deny all acccesses, only allow 192.168/16 subnet

To learn more about subnet masks, see the Wikipedia page on Subnetwork

extra_mime_types

Extra mime types to recognize, in form extension1=type1,exten- sion2=type2,.... Extension must include dot. Example: .cpp=plain/text,.java=plain/text

listening_ports 8080

Comma-separated list of ports to listen on. If the port is SSL, a letter s must be appeneded, for example, 80,443s will open port 80 and port 443, and connections on port 443 will be SSL-ed. For non-SSL ports, it is allowed to append letter r, meaning 'redirect'. Redirect ports will redirect all their traffic to the first configured SSL port. For example, if listening_ports is 80r,443s, then all HTTP traffic coming at port 80 will be redirected to HTTPS port 443.

It is possible to specify an IP address to bind to. In this case, an IP address and a colon must be prepended to the port number. For example, to bind to a loopback interface on port 80 and to all interfaces on HTTPS port 443, use 127.0.0.1:80,443s.

document_root .

A directory to serve. By default, currect directory is served. Current directory is commonly referenced as dot (.).

ssl_certificate

Path to SSL certificate file. This option is only required when at least one of the listening_ports is SSL. The file must be in PEM format, and it must have both private key and certificate, see for example ssl_cert.pem

num_threads 50

Number of worker threads. Mongoose handles each incoming connection in a separate thread. Therefore, the value of this option is effectively a number of concurrent HTTP connections Mongoose can handle.

run_as_user

Switch to given user credentials after startup. Usually, this option is required when mongoose needs to bind on privileged port on UNIX. To do that, mongoose needs to be started as root. But running as root is a bad idea, therefore this option can be used to drop privileges. Example:

mongoose -listening_ports 80 -run_as_user nobody

request_timeout_ms 30000

Timeout for network read and network write operations, in milliseconds. If client intends to keep long-running connection, either increase this value or use keep-alive messages.

url_rewrite_patterns

Comma-separated list of URL rewrites in the form of uri_pattern=file_or_directory_path. When Mongoose receives the request, it constructs the file name to show by combining document_root and the URI. However, if the rewrite option is used and uri_pattern matches the requested URI, then document_root is ignored. Insted, file_or_directory_path is used, which should be a full path name or a path relative to the web server's current working directory. Note that uri_pattern, as all mongoose patterns, is a prefix pattern.

This makes it possible to serve many directories outside from document_root, redirect all requests to scripts, and do other tricky things. For example, to redirect all accesses to .doc files to a special script, do:

mongoose -url_rewrite_patterns **.doc$=/path/to/cgi-bin/handle_doc.cgi

Or, to imitate user home directories support, do:

mongoose -url_rewrite_patterns /~joe/=/home/joe/,/~bill=/home/bill/

hide_files_patterns

A pattern for the files to hide. Files that match the pattern will not show up in directory listing and return 404 Not Found if requested. Pattern must be for a file name only, not including directory name. Example:

mongoose -hide_files_patterns secret.txt|even_more_secret.txt