Apache HTTP Server Version 2.4
Description: | Pass the response body through an external program before delivery to the client |
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Status: | Extension |
Module Identifier: | ext_filter_module |
Source File: | mod_ext_filter.c |
mod_ext_filter
presents a simple and familiar
programming model for filters. With
this module, a program which reads from stdin and writes to stdout
(i.e., a Unix-style filter command) can be a filter for
Apache. This filtering mechanism is much slower than using a
filter which is specially written for the Apache API and runs
inside of the Apache server process, but it does have the
following benefits:
Even when the performance characteristics are not suitable
for production use, mod_ext_filter
can be used as
a prototype environment for filters.
# mod_ext_filter directive to define a filter # to HTML-ize text/c files using the external # program /usr/bin/enscript, with the type of # the result set to text/html ExtFilterDefine c-to-html mode=output \ intype=text/c outtype=text/html \ cmd="/usr/bin/enscript --color -W html -Ec -o - -" <Directory "/export/home/trawick/apacheinst/htdocs/c"> # core directive to cause the new filter to # be run on output SetOutputFilter c-to-html # mod_mime directive to set the type of .c # files to text/c AddType text/c .c </Directory>
Note: this gzip example is just for the purposes of illustration.
Please refer to mod_deflate
for a practical
implementation.
# mod_ext_filter directive to define the external filter ExtFilterDefine gzip mode=output cmd=/bin/gzip <Location "/gzipped"> # core directive to cause the gzip filter to be # run on output SetOutputFilter gzip # mod_headers directive to add # "Content-Encoding: gzip" header field Header set Content-Encoding gzip </Location>
# mod_ext_filter directive to define a filter # which runs everything through cat; cat doesn't # modify anything; it just introduces extra pathlength # and consumes more resources ExtFilterDefine slowdown mode=output cmd=/bin/cat \ preservescontentlength <Location "/"> # core directive to cause the slowdown filter to # be run several times on output # SetOutputFilter slowdown;slowdown;slowdown </Location>
# mod_ext_filter directive to define a filter which # replaces text in the response # ExtFilterDefine fixtext mode=output intype=text/html \ cmd="/bin/sed s/verdana/arial/g" <Location "/"> # core directive to cause the fixtext filter to # be run on output SetOutputFilter fixtext </Location>
You can do the same thing using mod_substitute
without invoking an external process.
# Trace the data read and written by mod_deflate # for a particular client (IP 192.168.1.31) # experiencing compression problems. # This filter will trace what goes into mod_deflate. ExtFilterDefine tracebefore \ cmd="/bin/tracefilter.pl /tmp/tracebefore" \ EnableEnv=trace_this_client # This filter will trace what goes after mod_deflate. # Note that without the ftype parameter, the default # filter type of AP_FTYPE_RESOURCE would cause the # filter to be placed *before* mod_deflate in the filter # chain. Giving it a numeric value slightly higher than # AP_FTYPE_CONTENT_SET will ensure that it is placed # after mod_deflate. ExtFilterDefine traceafter \ cmd="/bin/tracefilter.pl /tmp/traceafter" \ EnableEnv=trace_this_client ftype=21 <Directory "/usr/local/docs"> SetEnvIf Remote_Addr 192.168.1.31 trace_this_client SetOutputFilter tracebefore;deflate;traceafter </Directory>
#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w use strict; open(SAVE, ">$ARGV[0]") or die "can't open $ARGV[0]: $?"; while (<STDIN>) { print SAVE $_; print $_; } close(SAVE);
Description: | Define an external filter |
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Syntax: | ExtFilterDefine filtername parameters |
Context: | server config |
Status: | Extension |
Module: | mod_ext_filter |
The ExtFilterDefine
directive defines the
characteristics of an external filter, including the program to
run and its arguments.
filtername specifies the name of the filter being
defined. This name can then be used in SetOutputFilter
directives. It must be unique among all registered filters.
At the present time, no error is reported by the
register-filter API, so a problem with duplicate names isn't
reported to the user.
Subsequent parameters can appear in any order and define the
external command to run and certain other characteristics. The
only required parameter is cmd=
. These parameters
are:
cmd=cmdline
cmd=
keyword allows you to specify the
external command to run. If there are arguments after the
program name, the command line should be surrounded in
quotation marks (e.g., cmd="/bin/mypgm
arg1 arg2"
.) Normal shell quoting is
not necessary since the program is run directly, bypassing the shell.
Program arguments are blank-delimited. A backslash can be used to
escape blanks which should be part of a program argument. Any
backslashes which are part of the argument must be escaped with
backslash themselves. In addition to the standard CGI environment
variables, DOCUMENT_URI, DOCUMENT_PATH_INFO, and
QUERY_STRING_UNESCAPED will also be set for the program.mode=mode
mode=output
(the default) for filters which
process the response. Use mode=input
for filters
which process the request. mode=input
is available
in Apache 2.1 and later.intype=imt
intype=
is
specified, the filter will be disabled for documents of other
types.outtype=imt
PreservesContentLength
PreservesContentLength
keyword specifies
that the filter preserves the content length. This is not the
default, as most filters change the content length. In the
event that the filter doesn't modify the length, this keyword
should be specified.ftype=filtertype
disableenv=env
enableenv=env
Description: | Configure mod_ext_filter options |
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Syntax: | ExtFilterOptions option [option] ... |
Default: | ExtFilterOptions NoLogStderr |
Context: | directory |
Status: | Extension |
Module: | mod_ext_filter |
The ExtFilterOptions
directive specifies
special processing options for mod_ext_filter
.
Option can be one of
LogStderr | NoLogStderr
LogStderr
keyword specifies that
messages written to standard error by the external filter
program will be saved in the Apache error log.
NoLogStderr
disables this feature.Onfail=[abort|remove]
abort
(the default value)
the request will be aborted. With remove
, the
filter is removed and the request continues without it.ExtFilterOptions LogStderr
Messages written to the filter's standard error will be stored in the Apache error log.