Okay. Thought I'd clarify some things from my post re Dynamic DocumentRoot.
Sorry, this is so long - but the subject seems to have generated a wave of
confusion out there. Although, ... this may not help...
I originally thought that I wanted to make server_rec's on the fly, but I
came to the conclusion that not only is that a pain in the rear-end but the
resources that are sucked up by additional server_rec's is definitely worse
that I would have figured it could be. I have everything I want covered for
my mass virtual hosting environment on Unix... all kinds of fun stuff for
the users, PHP, FrontPage Extensions for the Disciples of Bill, and various
& sundry services. The only thing left is this damned DOCUMENT_ROOT
environment variable which I'm finding that some common CGI's are relying on
- namely FrontPage Extension's counter program and some major
freeware/cheapware shopping cart programs that my users will want to use
until they realize they need something better.
Why do I need to set the DOCUMENT_ROOT? Because of the 65000 site this
service will run, probably 23000 of them will be FrontPage sites. That's
23000 *paying customers*. Everything else works for FrontPage - the
authoring, admin, etc. - everything except the counter which relies on the
env var DOCUMENT_ROOT. Naturally, I can rewrite the counter program - but
it points to me that other CGI's will have reliance on this particular
variable. I have seen it in the past five years with my own eyes. I'd like
to save my support group some phone calls.
No. Mod_rewrite and vhost_alias are not the magic answers to my prayers.
Both, unfortunately, are too simplistic (as blasphemous as that sounds) and
actually don't address the DOCUMENT_ROOT env var issue. I'm going to point
out some of these failings in hopes that Someone out there will see the
short sightedness of the vhost_alias module and put some additional efforts
into to true "mass virtual hosting":
mod_vhost_alias - okay great you can create a cookie cutter
structure with a few hundred site directories comfortably, a thousand
directories ... still usable but starting to get ugly .... two thousand
directories ... god, dont forget and do an ls ... but when I'm talking
65000, we're talking breakdown. So,... go to cookie cuttered subdirectory
structures... alpha? too many s's and w's, same problem as before ...
some type of other structure has to work ... yes, I've got it - it keeps
track of sites nicely - works with the auto-admin facilities (I'd tell you
all, but then I'd have to kill you...). So anyways, I have these structured
multi tiered directories that allow for international domains, domain
aliases, standard and nonstandard directories, that is also easy to
administer. I know how to tell apache where these are in the URI
Translation phase. No problems with the file translation phases and
everybody is happy with the exception of the dang document_root (which
mod_vhost_alias) doesn't address either.
mod_rewrite: Does not in anyway shape or form address the
document_root var issue. My URI translator is more effective anyways and
much more versitile ... and interacts nicely with my system that feeds me
the information I need to make the decisions ... without any need to reboot
the service.
Some people have said that I could introduce the document_root var at the
fixup stage. I haven't seen any modperl handlers that are native for this
process like the PerlTransHandler - although, I think I'm going blind and
it's probably there. I figure, that I'll have to inject the variable and do
a DECLINE so the other Fixup Handler processes can do what they need to do.
Has anybody played with this section?
As fellow unix geeks, you guys gotta help me out here. Otherwise, this damn
place is going to scrap the unix program and run everything on NT. I gotta
show them that NT doesn't stand a chance by blowing it completely away with
this platform. All I need is this one last piece!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Best regards,
Karyn Ulriksen
Chief Systems Architect
PublicHost
22 Mauchly, Suite 200
Irvine, California 92618 USA
Phone: (949) 743-2000
email: kulriksen@publichost.com
URL: http://www.publichost.com
Sorry, this is so long - but the subject seems to have generated a wave of
confusion out there. Although, ... this may not help...
I originally thought that I wanted to make server_rec's on the fly, but I
came to the conclusion that not only is that a pain in the rear-end but the
resources that are sucked up by additional server_rec's is definitely worse
that I would have figured it could be. I have everything I want covered for
my mass virtual hosting environment on Unix... all kinds of fun stuff for
the users, PHP, FrontPage Extensions for the Disciples of Bill, and various
& sundry services. The only thing left is this damned DOCUMENT_ROOT
environment variable which I'm finding that some common CGI's are relying on
- namely FrontPage Extension's counter program and some major
freeware/cheapware shopping cart programs that my users will want to use
until they realize they need something better.
Why do I need to set the DOCUMENT_ROOT? Because of the 65000 site this
service will run, probably 23000 of them will be FrontPage sites. That's
23000 *paying customers*. Everything else works for FrontPage - the
authoring, admin, etc. - everything except the counter which relies on the
env var DOCUMENT_ROOT. Naturally, I can rewrite the counter program - but
it points to me that other CGI's will have reliance on this particular
variable. I have seen it in the past five years with my own eyes. I'd like
to save my support group some phone calls.
No. Mod_rewrite and vhost_alias are not the magic answers to my prayers.
Both, unfortunately, are too simplistic (as blasphemous as that sounds) and
actually don't address the DOCUMENT_ROOT env var issue. I'm going to point
out some of these failings in hopes that Someone out there will see the
short sightedness of the vhost_alias module and put some additional efforts
into to true "mass virtual hosting":
mod_vhost_alias - okay great you can create a cookie cutter
structure with a few hundred site directories comfortably, a thousand
directories ... still usable but starting to get ugly .... two thousand
directories ... god, dont forget and do an ls ... but when I'm talking
65000, we're talking breakdown. So,... go to cookie cuttered subdirectory
structures... alpha? too many s's and w's, same problem as before ...
some type of other structure has to work ... yes, I've got it - it keeps
track of sites nicely - works with the auto-admin facilities (I'd tell you
all, but then I'd have to kill you...). So anyways, I have these structured
multi tiered directories that allow for international domains, domain
aliases, standard and nonstandard directories, that is also easy to
administer. I know how to tell apache where these are in the URI
Translation phase. No problems with the file translation phases and
everybody is happy with the exception of the dang document_root (which
mod_vhost_alias) doesn't address either.
mod_rewrite: Does not in anyway shape or form address the
document_root var issue. My URI translator is more effective anyways and
much more versitile ... and interacts nicely with my system that feeds me
the information I need to make the decisions ... without any need to reboot
the service.
Some people have said that I could introduce the document_root var at the
fixup stage. I haven't seen any modperl handlers that are native for this
process like the PerlTransHandler - although, I think I'm going blind and
it's probably there. I figure, that I'll have to inject the variable and do
a DECLINE so the other Fixup Handler processes can do what they need to do.
Has anybody played with this section?
As fellow unix geeks, you guys gotta help me out here. Otherwise, this damn
place is going to scrap the unix program and run everything on NT. I gotta
show them that NT doesn't stand a chance by blowing it completely away with
this platform. All I need is this one last piece!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Best regards,
Karyn Ulriksen
Chief Systems Architect
PublicHost
22 Mauchly, Suite 200
Irvine, California 92618 USA
Phone: (949) 743-2000
email: kulriksen@publichost.com
URL: http://www.publichost.com