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I'm doing a personal research on the differences between commonly used web servers. I'm struggling to find clear answers when it comes to particular features and most importantly for me: ability to rewrite response body on the fly.

Scenario: a web server (apache, nginx, iis, varnish, haproxy) is deployed as a reverse proxy or a application server proxy (nginx --> passenger as an example).

Question: in which webservers and how is it possible to rewrite the response body. A remark or 2 on the ease and performance of such operation would be helpful as well.

My research:

Content rewritting:

Nginx: ngx_http_sub_module
Nginx: LUA body_filter: https://groups.google.com/forum/embed/#!topic/openresty-en/Gj-s_hARc84 
Apache: mod_substitute
Apache: starting from 2.3 LUA can be used as a scripting language (and the response body rewriting with it is possible)
IIS: does not seem top be possible?
Varnish: possible, but hacky: https://github.com/aivarsk/libvmod-rewrite 
HAproxy: not possible, although it might be possible with LUA in the future

Anything else I forgot? Thanks.

Mindaugas Bernatavičius
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1 Answers1

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Ended up with this table:

**Nginx**: ngx_http_sub_module --> http://p.defau.lt/?A6UukYFKZrYLalJ5KOuTKg 
**Nginx**: Nginx + lua. LUA body_filter --> http://p.defau.lt/?0ZxLWENoEkFIRD17QlEtbQ 
**Apache**: Apache Module mod_substitute --> http://p.defau.lt/?IS8u2mnAQTSHs4qEl_MSFQ 
**Apache**: As of version 2.3 LUA can be used as a scripting language for Apache. Response body rewriting is possible there as well. --> http://p.defau.lt/?tTAqWfA8sezQZkmvI3LnFw 
**Varnish**: Possible, but hacky: https://github.com/aivarsk/libvmod-rewrite 
**HAproxy**: Not possible. Might be possible with LUA in the future
Mindaugas Bernatavičius
  • 324
  • 4
  • 12