Default Apache httpd Settings

This page lists the default settings for the standard Apache web servers administered by csoft.net. Specific settings can be modified using csoftadm (or the "Server Settings" section of the web interface).

Note: This content does not apply to Advanced or Corporate users who are running a dedicated httpd instance (and presumably a different httpd.conf). See: Dedicated Apache Installation Guide.

Configuration options

Users can modify most web server parameters using the .htaccess mechanism. Some parameters such as ServerName can be changed through the Control Panel or Shell Interface.

Web Applications

Support for CGI, FastCGI and PHP applications is standard on all of our servers. CGI applications always execute under your own unix privileges, such that other users on the server cannot access or compromise your data. PHP applications are executed using the CGI method in order to provide this level of security.

The following file extensions are recognized by default (these mappings can always be modified from an .htaccess file).

.cgi (CGI application)
.pl (CGI perl script)
.fcgi (FastCGI application)
.fpl (FastCGI perl script)
.php (PHP script)

Different versions and flavors of PHP are available. You can select your preferred build using the php setting in csoftadm (or "Server Settings" in the control panel).

Web-based authentication

Another standard feature is host-based and user-based authentication, allowing certain areas of your website to be restricted to specific users based on either usernames/passwords or the IP address of the client requesting the page. See the .htaccess mini-howto for some examples.

International support

Content in any language can be served thanks to support for a large number of character sets. Although we recommend converting all documents to UTF-8 (the iconv utility installed on the server can do this).

Another useful feature is HTTP content negotiation, which allows different variants of a document to be served based on the language settings of the client's web browser. See: Apache 2.4: Content Negotiation.

Directory indexes

Whenever a visitor requests a path such as http://mydomain/somedir, the web server will by default generate an index page with links to the files in the directory. This behavior can be disabled either by explicitely turning it off in an .htaccess file, or by placing an index file in the directory. If an index file exists, its contents will be returned instead.

By default, the following file names are automatically recognized as index files:

  index.html   index.cgi
  index.htm    index.fcgi
  index.shtml  index.php

There is a good number of configuration parameters that affect this functionality. See the Apache 2.4 mod_autoindex manual.

SSL Support

See: Setting up SSL/HTTPS, Setting up SSL/HTTPS with LetsEncrypt.

URL Rewriting

mod_rewrite is available to all users. See the mod_rewrite documentation.