lighttpd

lighttpd is "a secure, fast, compliant, and very flexible web-server that has been optimized for high-performance environments. It has a very low memory footprint compared to other webservers and takes care of cpu-load. Its advanced feature-set (FastCGI, CGI, Auth, Output-Compression, URL-Rewriting and many more) make lighttpd the perfect webserver-software for every server that suffers load problems."

Installation

Install the lighttpd package.

Configuration

Basic setup

The lighttpd configuration file is: /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf. By default it should produce a working test page.

To check your lighttpd.conf for bugs you can use this command (helps finding misconfigurations very quickly):

$ lighttpd -t -f /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

A more thorough preflight check is also available:

$ lighttpd -tt -f /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

The default configuration file specifies /srv/http/ as the document directory served. To test the installation, create a dummy file:

/srv/http/index.html

Hello world!

Then start/enable the lighttpd.service and point your browser to localhost, where you should see the test page.

Example configuration files are available in /usr/share/doc/lighttpd/.

Basic logging

lighttpd can write out both errors and access to log files. The error log is enabled by default (controlled by the server.errorlog option). To enable the access log, edit /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf as follows:

server.modules += (
   "mod_accesslog",
)

accesslog.filename = "/var/log/lighttpd/access.log"

Enabling https via SSL

Warning: Users planning to implementing SSL/TLS, should know that some variations and implementations are vulnerable to attack. See the OpenSSL article for details.

Tip:

• Mozilla has an SSL configuration generator that can be used with lighttpd.
• After setting up SSL, you can use Qualys SSL Labs SSL Server Check to check your configuration.

Self-signed

Self-signed SSL Certificates can be generated assuming openssl is installed on the system as follows:

# mkdir /etc/lighttpd/certs
# openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 7300 -newkey rsa:2048 -sha256 -keyout /etc/lighttpd/certs/server.pem -out /etc/lighttpd/certs/server.pem
# chmod 600 /etc/lighttpd/certs/server.pem

Modify /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf adding the following lines to enable https:

server.modules += ( "mod_openssl" )

$SERVER["socket"] == ":443" {
   ssl.engine                  = "enable" 
   ssl.pemfile                 = "/etc/lighttpd/certs/server.pem" 
}

See lighttpd TLS configuration for details.

Let's Encrypt

Alternatively, generate a certificate signed by Let's Encrypt.

Edit /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf by adding the following lines:

$SERVER["socket"] == ":443" {
    ssl.engine                  = "enable"
    ssl.privkey                 = "/etc/letsencrypt/live/domain/privkey.pem" 
    ssl.pemfile                 = "/etc/letsencrypt/live/domain/fullchain.pem"  
}

See bootstrap Let's Encrypt in the lighttpd documentation for details.

Redirect http requests to https

You should add "mod_redirect" in server.modules array in /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf:

server.modules += ( "mod_redirect" )

$SERVER["socket"] == ":80" {
  $HTTP["host"] == "example.org" {
    url.redirect = ( "^/(.*)" => "https://example.org/$1" )
    server.name                 = "example.org" 
  }
}

$SERVER["socket"] == ":443" {
  ssl.engine = "enable" 
  ssl.pemfile = "/etc/lighttpd/certs/server.pem" 
  server.document-root = "..." 
}

To redirect all hosts to their secure equivalents use the following in place of the socket 80 configuration above:

$SERVER["socket"] == ":80" {
  $HTTP["host"] =~ ".*" {
    url.redirect = (".*" => "https://%0$0")
  }
}

To redirect all hosts for part of the site (e.g. secure or phpmyadmin):

$SERVER["socket"] == ":80" {
  $HTTP["url"] =~ "^/secure" {
    url.redirect = ( "^/(.*)" => "https://example.com/$1" )
  }
}

Password protecting a directory

Note that this module requires mariadb-libs to be installed. A passwd file which is lighttpd's equivalent to the system's /etc/passwd is needed for user authentication. The setup requires a specific format and md5sum hashed password but users can quickly and easily create an entry using the following as an example:

$ user=foo
$ password=b@R102
$ realm='Password Required'
$ hash=`echo -n "$user:$realm:$password" | md5sum | cut -b -32`

# echo "$user:$realm:$hash" >> /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.user

Modify /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf adding the following lines to enable the directory protection:

server.modules += ( "mod_auth", "mod_authn_file" )

auth.backend                = "htdigest"
auth.backend.htdigest.userfile = "/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.user"

# note this entry is relative to the server.document-root
auth.require = ( "/secret" =>
   (
    "method" => "basic",
    "realm" => "Password Required",
    "require" => "valid-user"
   )
)

Note: The realm entered into /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf must match the value chosen in /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.user for authentication to work.

CGI

Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts just needs to enable the CGI module, include the configuration file and make sure your chosen programming language interpreter is installed. (i.e. for python you would install python)

Create the file /etc/lighttpd/conf.d/cgi.conf Add the following to it:

server.modules += ( "mod_cgi" )

cgi.assign                 = ( ".pl"  => "/usr/bin/perl",
                               ".cgi" => "/usr/bin/perl",
                               ".rb"  => "/usr/bin/ruby",
                               ".erb" => "/usr/bin/eruby",
                               ".py"  => "/usr/bin/python",
                               ".php" => "/usr/bin/php-cgi" )

index-file.names           += ( "index.pl",   "default.pl",
                               "index.rb",   "default.rb",
                               "index.erb",  "default.erb",
                               "index.py",   "default.py",
                               "index.php",  "default.php" )

For PHP scripts you will need to make sure the following is set in /etc/php/php.ini

cgi.fix_pathinfo = 1

In your lighttpd configuration file, /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf add:

include "conf.d/cgi.conf"

FastCGI

Install fcgi. Now you have lighttpd with fcgi support. If it was that what you wanted you are all set. People that want Ruby on Rails, PHP or Python should continue.

Note: New default user and group: Instead of group nobody lighttpd now runs as user/group http by default.

First copy the example configuration file form /usr/share/doc/lighttpd/config/conf.d/fastcgi.conf to /etc/lighttpd/conf.d

The following needs adding to the configuration file, /etc/lighttpd/conf.d/fastcgi.conf

server.modules += ( "mod_fastcgi" )

#server.indexfiles += ( "dispatch.fcgi" ) #this is deprecated
index-file.names += ( "dispatch.fcgi" ) #dispatch.fcgi if rails specified

server.error-handler-404   = "/dispatch.fcgi" #too
fastcgi.server = (
    ".fcgi" => (
      "localhost" => ( 
        "socket" => "/run/lighttpd/rails-fastcgi.sock",
        "bin-path" => "/path/to/rails/application/public/dispatch.fcgi"
      )
    )
)

Then in /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf:

include "conf.d/fastcgi.conf"

For PHP or Ruby on Rails see the next sections.

PHP

Using php-cgi

Install php and php-cgi (see also PHP and LAMP).

Check that php-cgi is working php-cgi --version

PHP 5.4.3 (cgi-fcgi) (built: May  8 2012 17:10:17)
Copyright (c) 1997-2012 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.4.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2012 Zend Technologies

If you get a similar output then php is installed correctly.

Create a new configuration file:

/etc/lighttpd/conf.d/fastcgi.conf

# Make sure to install php and php-cgi. See:                                                             
# https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fastcgi_and_lighttpd#PHP

server.modules += ("mod_fastcgi")

# FCGI server
# ===========
#
# Configure a FastCGI server which handles PHP requests.
#
index-file.names += ("index.php")
fastcgi.server = ( 
    # Load-balance requests for this path...
    ".php" => (
        # ... among the following FastCGI servers. The string naming each
        # server is just a label used in the logs to identify the server.
        "localhost" => ( 
            "bin-path" => "/usr/bin/php-cgi",
            "socket" => "/tmp/php-fastcgi.sock",
            # breaks SCRIPT_FILENAME in a way that PHP can extract PATH_INFO
            # from it 
            "broken-scriptfilename" => "enable",
            # Launch (max-procs + (max-procs * PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN)) procs, where
            # max-procs are "watchers" and the rest are "workers". See:
            # https://redmine.lighttpd.net/projects/1/wiki/frequentlyaskedquestions#How-many-php-CGI-processes-will-lighttpd-spawn 
            "max-procs" => "4", # default value
            "bin-environment" => (
                "PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN" => "1" # default value
            )
        )
    )   
)

Make lighttpd use the new configuration file by appending the following line to your lighttpd configuration file:

/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

include "conf.d/fastcgi.conf"

Note: Remember that the order in which the modules are loaded is important, the correct order is listed in /usr/share/doc/lighttpd/config/modules.conf.

Reload lighttpd.

Note:

• If you receive errors like No input file found when attempting to access php files, there are several possible explanations. See this FAQ for more information.
• Make sure that no other module (e.g. mod_cgi) will try to handle the .php extension.

Using php-fpm

For dynamic management of PHP processes, you can install php-fpm and then start and enable php-fpm.service.

Note: You can configure the number of servers in the pool and tweak other configuration options by editing the file /etc/php/php-fpm.conf. More details on php-fpm can be found on the php-fpm website. Remember that when you make changes to /etc/php/php.ini you will need to restart php-fpm.service.

In /etc/lighttpd/conf.d/fastcgi.conf add:

server.modules += ( "mod_fastcgi" )

index-file.names += ( "index.php" ) 

fastcgi.server = (
    ".php" => (
      "localhost" => ( 
        "socket" => "/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock",
        "broken-scriptfilename" => "enable"
      ))
)

uWSGI

In /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf add

server.modules += ("mod_scgi")

$HTTP["url"] =~ "^/uwsgi/" {
    scgi.protocol = "uwsgi"
    scgi.server   = (
        "/uwsgi/foo" => ((
            "socket"            => "/path/to/socket",
            "check-local"       => "disable"
        )),
        "/uwsgi/bar" => ((
            "host"              => "127.0.0.1",
            "port"              => "8080",
            "check-local"       => "disable"
        ))
    )
}

You can than start the uwsgi application either as a systemd unit or direct. Here is a neat guide from digitalocean on how to setup a flask application from the scratch.

Output compression

Copy example configuration file:

# mkdir /etc/lighttpd/conf.d
# cp /usr/share/doc/lighttpd/config/conf.d/deflate.conf /etc/lighttpd/conf.d/

Add following in /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf:

include "conf.d/deflate.conf"

Finally, reload lighttpd.service, and it will dynamically compress plain text and html content.

Note: You can not do this (copy deflate.conf) and add a needed content in /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf instead.

It is also possible to select the type of content that should be compressed. Modify /etc/lighttpd/conf.d/deflate.conf on the parameter deflate.mimetypes:

deflate.mimetypes           = ("text/plain", "text/html", "text/javascript", "text/css", "text/xml")

You can also create a cache directory to store compressed files:

# mkdir /var/cache/lighttpd/compress
# chown http:http /var/cache/lighttpd/compress

Then uncomment and modify the deflate.cache-dir option in /etc/lighttpd/conf.d/deflate.conf:

deflate.cache-dir = "/var/cache/lighttpd/compress"

See also

• lighttpd wiki