Customize httpd.conf

rtwilliams

I've tried following the docs here: https://indigostack.app/docs/how-to/advanced-configuration/
to uncomment an instance of LoadModule in httpd.conf, but any changes get overwritten when I rebuild the stack files. I've tried adding/including other conf files and the same happens and Apache doesn't have a GUI for overrides. How would I go about loading different Apache modules per instance?

Indigo

Hi @rtwilliams and welcome to the forums 🙂

Just to clarify, am I correct understanding that your changes do work at first but then when you right-click the stack and select "Rebuild..." it rebuilds, but in doing so overwrites your customised config?

rtwilliams

It doesn't work at all because I think you have to restart the service to have the changes take effect. Altho it says it should rebuild with the changes, I didn't notice that happening (but I could be doing something else incorrectly).

Indigo

I'm keen to help you sort this, but am not entirely certain what the scenario is. Can you give me a sequence of steps to replicate this?

rtwilliams

Indigo

Set up a stack with Apache
Setup up some test site (www.local.test.com), ensure it works and then add a directive to the .htaccess file for a module that is not enabled by default on the IndigoStack Apache server setup. For example, add ExpiresActive On.
Check the Apache error log for that site at www.local.test.edu-error.log in apache_xxxx you should see the error Invalid command 'ExpiresActive', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration
in apache_xxxx/conf/httpd/conf remove the comment on #LoadModule expires_module lib/httpd/modules/mod_expires.so
reload the site and see that you get the same error and a 500 internal server on page

This should solve the problem but the service doesn't restart. I tried dragging the directory (as outlined in the instructions for custom advanced PHP), updating it in the file itself, toggling the stack on/off, and rebuilding the stack. Dragging the dir doesn't seem to trigger the bundle (but again, maybe I'm not doing this correctly. I also don't know if I am using the correct clean setup as described in the link above). Updating the httpd.conf file itself doesn't restart the service. Toggling the stack replaces the entire bundle and removes the change. And rebuilding also replaces the entire bundle and removes any customizations. So I'm not entirely sure how I can enable modules on Apache. Let me know if you have any questions, and it's entirely possible that I am missing something obvious.

Indigo

Thanks, those steps are great 🙂 Can you confirm something for me: in step 4, when you say "in apache_xxxx/conf/httpd/conf" are you talking about the file at ~/.indigo/stacks/xxxxxx/apache_xxxx/conf/httpd.conf or have you created a file at YourStack.indigostack/apache_xxxx/conf/httpd.conf? The former won't work; the files inside the compiled service are rebuilt each time the stack starts up.

Indigo

I've created a sample stack for you, to demonstrate the required file structure. Once you've downloaded it, you can start it up inside your own Indigo.

To see what's going on, right-click the stack config file (which is a bundle, containing other files). You can choose "Show Package Contents" to get inside it.

Download

rtwilliams

That was it, thank you! Completely stupid but the stack was named "stack.indigo" which I somehow passed right over because it didn't match what I had named it in the GUI. I was able to put the conf in that location, it kicked off the compilation and it worked. One note, it did ask to recompile like 15 times after updating the file, nbd but maybe the checksum needs a slight delay or whatnot? Thanks again!

Indigo

Great to hear it's working now 🙂 If there's something you feel I could improve in the docs please let me know.

The underlying file change notifications are infuriating; FSEvents notifies Indigo a heap of times for one underlying filesystem change, with a random assortment of different change events, with up to hundreds of ms between events (possibly depending how busy your filesystem is at the time).

So I have experimented with all kinds of delays, aggregations and checksums. Currently we coalesce all events until FSEvents is silent for at least one second AND generate file checksums to see if the file(s) actually changed, and yet Indigo still throws up multiple dialogs. Grrrr. So yeah, I agree, room for improvement there, but the how is another matter 🙂