Apache virtualhost - only apply script if file does not exist in document root

Question

Sorry for the newbie apache question. I'm wondering if it's possible to set up the following non-conventional apache virtualhost (for a Django app):

-- If a file exists in the DocumentRoot (/var/www) it will be shown. So if /var/www/foo.html exists, then it can be seen at www.example.com/foo.html.

-- If file does not exist, it is served via a virtualhost. I'm using mod_wsgi with a WSGIScriptAlias directive that points to a Django app. So if there is no /var/www/bar.html, www.example.com/bar.html will be passed to the Django app, which may or may not be a 404 error.

One option is to create an Alias for each individual file/directory, but people want to be able to post a file without adding an alias, and we want to keep the above URL structure for legacy reasons.

Simplified Virtualhost is:

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName www.example.com
  DocumentRoot /var/www

  WSGIScriptAlias / /path/to/django.wsgi
  <Directory /path/to/app>
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
  </Directory>

  Alias /hi.html /var/www/hi.html
</VirtualHost>

The goal is to have www.example.com/hi.html work as above, without the Alias line

Actually, figured it out! There's a great post on the mod_wsgi email list that explains how to do it: http://groups.google.com/group/modwsgi/browse_thread/thread/229840cff63e418b Make sure you read until the end, the first response has a couple bugs — Brett Thomas, Nov 14 '11 at 18:05

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 15 '11 at 00:25

1

Documentation on mod_wsgi site on how to do this is at:

http://code.google.com/p/modwsgi/wiki/ConfigurationGuidelines#The_Apache_Alias_Directive

Use combination of AddHandler and mod_rewrite. Don't use WSGIScriptAlias.

answered Nov 15 '11 at 00:25

Graham Dumpleton

6,090
2
21
19

Yup, that's it. (For others curious, the thread I posted above was also helpful.) You guys are awesome. – Brett Thomas Nov 22 '11 at 17:09

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 14 '11 at 16:34

0

Using apache I do not believe this is possible, using nGinx however.

...
<The rest of your server {} config above>
location @fallback {
     proxy_pass http://<your_uwscgi_server>:<port>;
}
error_page 404 = @fallback;
<any futher server {} configuration>

I may be wrong, for instance I do not know enough about EnvIF in apache and ether this could be used to provide similar functionality.

answered Nov 14 '11 at 16:34

Oneiroi

2,063
1
15
28

2

isn't [try_files](http://wiki.nginx.org/HttpCoreModule#try_files) intended for this? – Tobi Nov 14 '11 at 17:22
It is possible with Apache and is done all the time with PHP sites. How to do it with mod_wsgi is covered in mod_wsgi documentation. – Graham Dumpleton Nov 15 '11 at 00:24

Apache virtualhost - only apply script if file does not exist in document root

2 Answers2