Apache HTTP Server Version 1.3

An In-Depth Discussion of Virtual Host Matching

The virtual host code was completely rewritten in Apache 1.3. This document attempts to explain exactly what Apache does when deciding what virtual host to serve a hit from. With the help of the new NameVirtualHost directive virtual host configuration should be a lot easier and safer than with versions prior to 1.3.

If you just want to make it work without understanding how, here are some examples.

Config File Parsing

There is a main_server which consists of all the definitions appearing outside of <VirtualHost> sections. There are virtual servers, called vhosts, which are defined by <VirtualHost> sections.

The directives Port, ServerName, ServerPath, and ServerAlias can appear anywhere within the definition of a server. However, each appearance overrides the previous appearance (within that server).

The default value of the Port field for main_server is 80. The main_server has no default ServerPath, or ServerAlias. The default ServerName is deduced from the servers IP address.

The main_server Port directive has two functions due to legacy compatibility with NCSA configuration files. One function is to determine the default network port Apache will bind to. This default is overridden by the existence of any Listen directives. The second function is to specify the port number which is used in absolute URIs during redirects.

Unlike the main_server, vhost ports do not affect what ports Apache listens for connections on.

Each address appearing in the VirtualHost directive can have an optional port. If the port is unspecified it defaults to the value of the main_server's most recent Port statement. The special port * indicates a wildcard that matches any port. Collectively the entire set of addresses (including multiple A record results from DNS lookups) are called the vhost's address set.

Unless a NameVirtualHost directive is used for a specific IP address the first vhost with that address is treated as an IP-based vhost.

If name-based vhosts should be used a NameVirtualHost directive must appear with the IP address set to be used for the name-based vhosts. In other words, you must specify the IP address that holds the hostname aliases (CNAMEs) for your name-based vhosts via a NameVirtualHost directive in your configuration file.

Multiple NameVirtualHost directives can be used each with a set of VirtualHost directives but only one NameVirtualHost directive should be used for each specific IP:port pair.

The ordering of NameVirtualHost and VirtualHost directives is not important which makes the following two examples identical (only the order of the VirtualHost directives for one address set is important, see below):

                                |
  NameVirtualHost 111.22.33.44  | <VirtualHost 111.22.33.44>
  <VirtualHost 111.22.33.44>    | # server A
  # server A  		        | </VirtualHost>
  ... 			        | <VirtualHost 111.22.33.55>
  </VirtualHost>	        | # server C
  <VirtualHost 111.22.33.44>    | ...
  # server B  		        | </VirtualHost>
  ... 			        | <VirtualHost 111.22.33.44>
  </VirtualHost>	        | # server B
                                | ...
  NameVirtualHost 111.22.33.55  | </VirtualHost>
  <VirtualHost 111.22.33.55>    | <VirtualHost 111.22.33.55>
  # server C  		        | # server D
  ... 			        | ...
  </VirtualHost>	        | </VirtualHost>
  <VirtualHost 111.22.33.55>    |
  # server D  		        | NameVirtualHost 111.22.33.44
  ... 			        | NameVirtualHost 111.22.33.55
  </VirtualHost>	        |
                                |

(To aid the readability of your configuration you should prefer the left variant.)

After parsing the VirtualHost directive, the vhost server is given a default Port equal to the port assigned to the first name in its VirtualHost directive.

The complete list of names in the VirtualHost directive are treated just like a ServerAlias (but are not overridden by any ServerAlias statement) if all names resolve to the same address set. Note that subsequent Port statements for this vhost will not affect the ports assigned in the address set.

During initialization a list for each IP address is generated an inserted into an hash table. If the IP address is used in a NameVirtualHost directive the list contains all name-based vhosts for the given IP address. If there are no vhosts defined for that address the NameVirtualHost directive is ignored and an error is logged. For an IP-based vhost the list in the hash table is empty.

Due to a fast hashing function the overhead of hashing an IP address during a request is minimal and almost not existent. Additionally the table is optimized for IP addresses which vary in the last octet.

For every vhost various default values are set. In particular:

1. If a vhost has no ServerAdmin, ResourceConfig, AccessConfig, Timeout, KeepAliveTimeout, KeepAlive, MaxKeepAliveRequests, or SendBufferSize directive then the respective value is inherited from the main_server. (That is, inherited from whatever the final setting of that value is in the main_server.)
2. The "lookup defaults" that define the default directory permissions for a vhost are merged with those of the main_server. This includes any per-directory configuration information for any module.
3. The per-server configs for each module from the main_server are merged into the vhost server.

If the main_server has no ServerName at this point, then the hostname of the machine that httpd is running on is used instead. We will call the main_server address set those IP addresses returned by a DNS lookup on the ServerName of the main_server.

For any undefined ServerName fields, a name-based vhost defaults to the address given first in the VirtualHost statement defining the vhost.

Any vhost that includes the magic _default_ wildcard is given the same ServerName as the main_server.

Virtual Host Matching

The server determines which vhost to use for a request as follows:

Hash table lookup

When the connection is first made by a client, the IP addr