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HTTPD(8) System Manager's Manual HTTPD(8)

httpd — Apache HyperText Transfer Protocol server

httpd [-46FhLlSTtUuVvX] [-C directive] [-c directive] [-D parameter] [-d serverroot] [-f config] [-R libexecdir]

httpd is the Apache HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server program. It is designed to be run as a stand-alone daemon process. When used like this it will create a pool of child processes to handle requests. To stop it, send a TERM signal to the initial (parent) process. The PID of this process is written to a file as given in the configuration file. Normally this service can be enabled for startup on OpenBSD by editing /etc/rc.conf.local.

Alternatively, httpd may be invoked by the Internet daemon inetd(8) each time a connection to the HTTP service is made.

httpd can be made to support HTTPS transactions if RSA certificates are generated and the utility is started with the -DSSL flag. See ssl(8) for further information.

By default, httpd will chroot(2) to the “ServerRoot” path, serving documents from the “DocumentRoot” path. As a result of the default secure behaviour, httpd cannot access any objects outside “ServerRoot” - this security measure is taken in case httpd is compromised. This is not without drawbacks, though:

CGI programs may fail due to the limited environment available inside this chroot space. “UserDir”, of course, cannot access files outside the directory space. Other modules will also have issues. “DocumentRoot” directories or any other files needed must be inside “ServerRoot”. For this to work, pathnames inside the configuration file do not need adjustment relative to “ServerRoot”. For this option to remain secure, it is important that no files or directories writable by user www or group www are created inside the “ServerRoot”.

The -u option (see below) can be specified to disable chroot(2) functionality.

This manual page only lists the command line arguments. For details of the directives necessary to configure httpd, see the Apache manual in /usr/share/doc/html/httpd/. Paths in this manual page reflect those compiled into httpd by default with OpenBSD.

The options are as follows:

Assume IPv4 addresses on ambiguous directives (default). Along with -6 and -U, this can be used to remove ambiguities in cases such as "BindAddress *".
Assume IPv6 addresses on ambiguous directives.
directive
Process the configuration directive before reading config files.
directive
Process the configuration directive after reading config files.
parameter
Sets a configuration parameter which can be used with <IfDefine>...</IfDefine> sections in the configuration files to conditionally skip or process commands.
serverroot
Set the initial value for the “ServerRoot” directive to serverroot. This can be overridden by the “ServerRoot” command in the configuration file. The default is /var/www.
Run the main process in foreground. For process supervisors.
config
Execute the commands in the file config on startup. If config does not begin with a /, then it is taken to be a path relative to the ServerRoot. The default is conf/httpd.conf.
Output a short summary of available command line options.
Output a list of directives together with expected arguments and places where the directive is valid.
Output a list of modules compiled into the server.
libexecdir
This option is only available if httpd was built with the SHARED_CORE rule enabled which forces the httpd core code to be placed into a dynamic shared object (DSO) file. This file is searched in a hardcoded path under ServerRoot per default. Use this option to override.
Show the settings as parsed from the config file (currently only shows the virtualhost settings).
Run syntax tests for configuration files only, without DocumentRoot checks. The program immediately exits after this syntax parsing with either a return code of 0 (Syntax OK) or return code not equal to 0 (Syntax Error).
Run syntax tests for configuration files only, including DocumentRoot checks. The program immediately exits after this syntax parsing with either a return code of 0 (Syntax OK) or return code not equal to 0 (Syntax Error).
Do not assume a specific address family for ambiguous specifications.
By default httpd will chroot(2) to the “ServerRoot” path. The -u option disables this behaviour, and returns httpd to the expanded "unsecure" behaviour.
Print the version and build parameters of httpd, and then exit.
Print the version of httpd, and then exit.
Run in single-process mode, for internal debugging purposes only; the daemon does not detach from the terminal or fork any children. Do NOT use this mode to provide ordinary web service.

The documents served by httpd should not be owned by the user which httpd is running as (usually user www and group www). They must, however, be readable by this user.

/var/www/cgi-bin/
 
/var/www/conf/httpd.conf
 
/var/www/conf/magic
 
/var/www/conf/mime.types
 
/var/www/icons/
 
/var/www/logs/access_log
 
/var/www/logs/error_log
 
/var/www/logs/etag-state
 
/var/www/logs/httpd.pid
 
/var/www/logs/ssl_engine_log
 
/var/www/logs/ssl_request_log
 
/var/www/logs/ssl_scache.db
 
/var/www/users/
 
/etc/rc.conf.local
 

dbmmanage(1), htdigest(1), htpasswd(1), chroot(2), apachectl(8), apxs(8), inetd(8), logresolve(8), rc.conf.local(8), rotatelogs(8), ssl(8), suexec(8)

The Apache manual: /usr/share/doc/html/httpd/.

May 18, 2010 OpenBSD-5.1