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9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams<title>Environment Variables in Apache - Apache HTTP Server</title>
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9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams<p class="apache">Apache HTTP Server Version 2.5</p>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams<img alt="" src="/images/feather.gif" /></div>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams<div class="up"><a href="./"><img title="&lt;-" alt="&lt;-" src="/images/left.gif" /></a></div>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams<div id="path">
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams<a href="http://www.apache.org/">Apache</a> &gt; <a href="http://httpd.apache.org/">HTTP Server</a> &gt; <a href="http://httpd.apache.org/docs/">Documentation</a> &gt; <a href="./">Version 2.5</a></div><div id="page-content"><div id="preamble"><h1>Environment Variables in Apache</h1>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams<div class="toplang">
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9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <p>There are two kinds of environment variables that affect
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams the Apache HTTP Server.</p>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <p>First, there are the environment variables controlled by
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams the underlying operating system. These are set before the
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams server starts. They can be used in expansions in configuration
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams files, and can optionally be passed to CGI scripts and SSI
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams using the PassEnv directive.</p>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <p>Second, the Apache HTTP Server provides a mechanism for storing
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams information in named variables that are also called <em>environment
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams variables</em>. This information can be used to control various
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams operations such as logging or access control. The variables are
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams also used as a mechanism to communicate with external programs
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams such as CGI scripts. This document discusses different ways to
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams manipulate and use these variables.</p>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <p>Although these variables are referred to as <em>environment
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams variables</em>, they are not the same as the environment
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams variables controlled by the underlying operating system.
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams Instead, these variables are stored and manipulated in an
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams internal Apache structure. They only become actual operating
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams system environment variables when they are provided to CGI
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams scripts and Server Side Include scripts. If you wish to
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams manipulate the operating system environment under which the
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams server itself runs, you must use the standard environment
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams manipulation mechanisms provided by your operating system
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams shell.</p>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams </div>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams<div id="quickview"><ul id="toc"><li><img alt="" src="/images/down.gif" /> <a href="#setting">Setting Environment Variables</a></li>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams<li><img alt="" src="/images/down.gif" /> <a href="#using">Using Environment Variables</a></li>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams<li><img alt="" src="/images/down.gif" /> <a href="#special">Special Purpose Environment Variables</a></li>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams<li><img alt="" src="/images/down.gif" /> <a href="#examples">Examples</a></li>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams</ul><ul class="seealso"><li><a href="#comments_section">Comments</a></li></ul></div>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams<div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="/images/up.gif" /></a></div>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams<div class="section">
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams<h2><a name="setting" id="setting">Setting Environment Variables</a></h2>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <table class="related"><tr><th>Related Modules</th><th>Related Directives</th></tr><tr><td><ul><li><code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_cache.html">mod_cache</a></code></li><li><code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_env.html">mod_env</a></code></li><li><code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_rewrite.html">mod_rewrite</a></code></li><li><code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_setenvif.html">mod_setenvif</a></code></li><li><code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_unique_id.html">mod_unique_id</a></code></li></ul></td><td><ul><li><code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_setenvif.html#browsermatch">BrowserMatch</a></code></li><li><code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_setenvif.html#browsermatchnocase">BrowserMatchNoCase</a></code></li><li><code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_env.html#passenv">PassEnv</a></code></li><li><code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code></li><li><code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_env.html#setenv">SetEnv</a></code></li><li><code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_setenvif.html#setenvif">SetEnvIf</a></code></li><li><code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_setenvif.html#setenvifnocase">SetEnvIfNoCase</a></code></li><li><code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_env.html#unsetenv">UnsetEnv</a></code></li></ul></td></tr></table>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <h3><a name="basic-manipulation" id="basic-manipulation">Basic Environment Manipulation</a></h3>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <p>The most basic way to set an environment variable in Apache
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams is using the unconditional <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_env.html#setenv">SetEnv</a></code> directive. Variables may also be passed from
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams the environment of the shell which started the server using the
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_env.html#passenv">PassEnv</a></code> directive.</p>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <h3><a name="conditional" id="conditional">Conditional Per-Request Settings</a></h3>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <p>For additional flexibility, the directives provided by
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_setenvif.html">mod_setenvif</a></code> allow environment variables to be set
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams on a per-request basis, conditional on characteristics of particular
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams requests. For example, a variable could be set only when a
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams specific browser (User-Agent) is making a request, or only when
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams a specific Referer [sic] header is found. Even more flexibility
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams is available through the <code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_rewrite.html">mod_rewrite</a></code>'s <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code> which uses the
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <code>[E=...]</code> option to set environment variables.</p>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <h3><a name="unique-identifiers" id="unique-identifiers">Unique Identifiers</a></h3>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <p>Finally, <code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_unique_id.html">mod_unique_id</a></code> sets the environment
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams variable <code>UNIQUE_ID</code> for each request to a value which is
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams guaranteed to be unique across "all" requests under very
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams specific conditions.</p>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <h3><a name="standard-cgi" id="standard-cgi">Standard CGI Variables</a></h3>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <p>In addition to all environment variables set within the
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams Apache configuration and passed from the shell, CGI scripts and
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams SSI pages are provided with a set of environment variables
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams containing meta-information about the request as required by
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams the <a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3875">CGI
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams specification</a>.</p>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <h3><a name="caveats" id="caveats">Some Caveats</a></h3>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <ul>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <li>It is not possible to override or change the standard CGI
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams variables using the environment manipulation directives.</li>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <li>When <code class="program"><a href="/programs/suexec.html">suexec</a></code> is used to launch
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams CGI scripts, the environment will be cleaned down to a set of
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <em>safe</em> variables before CGI scripts are launched. The
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams list of <em>safe</em> variables is defined at compile-time in
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <code>suexec.c</code>.</li>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <li>For portability reasons, the names of environment
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams variables may contain only letters, numbers, and the
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams underscore character. In addition, the first character may
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams not be a number. Characters which do not match this
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams restriction will be replaced by an underscore when passed to
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams CGI scripts and SSI pages.</li>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <li>A special case are HTTP headers which are passed to CGI
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams scripts and the like via environment variables (see below).
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams They are converted to uppercase and only dashes are replaced with
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams underscores; if the header contains any other (invalid) character,
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams the whole header is silently dropped. See <a href="#fixheader">
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams below</a> for a workaround.</li>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <li>The <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_env.html#setenv">SetEnv</a></code> directive runs
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams late during request processing meaning that directives such as
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_setenvif.html#setenvif">SetEnvIf</a></code> and <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewritecond">RewriteCond</a></code> will not see the
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams variables set with it.</li>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams </ul>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams </div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="/images/up.gif" /></a></div>
9fce8bf90e08efa065faf5ebf13a8ce4ea48f0e6gary.williams<div class="section">
<h2><a name="using" id="using">Using Environment Variables</a></h2>
<table class="related"><tr><th>Related Modules</th><th>Related Directives</th></tr><tr><td><ul><li><code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_authz_host.html">mod_authz_host</a></code></li><li><code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_cgi.html">mod_cgi</a></code></li><li><code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_ext_filter.html">mod_ext_filter</a></code></li><li><code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_headers.html">mod_headers</a></code></li><li><code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_include.html">mod_include</a></code></li><li><code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_log_config.html">mod_log_config</a></code></li><li><code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_rewrite.html">mod_rewrite</a></code></li></ul></td><td><ul><li><code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_access_compat.html#allow">Allow</a></code></li><li><code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_log_config.html#customlog">CustomLog</a></code></li><li><code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_access_compat.html#deny">Deny</a></code></li><li><code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_ext_filter.html#extfilterdefine">ExtFilterDefine</a></code></li><li><code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_headers.html#header">Header</a></code></li><li><code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_log_config.html#logformat">LogFormat</a></code></li><li><code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewritecond">RewriteCond</a></code></li><li><code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewriterule">RewriteRule</a></code></li></ul></td></tr></table>
<h3><a name="cgi-scripts" id="cgi-scripts">CGI Scripts</a></h3>
<p>One of the primary uses of environment variables is to
communicate information to CGI scripts. As discussed above, the
environment passed to CGI scripts includes standard
meta-information about the request in addition to any variables
set within the Apache configuration. For more details, see the
<a href="howto/cgi.html">CGI tutorial</a>.</p>
<h3><a name="ssi-pages" id="ssi-pages">SSI Pages</a></h3>
<p>Server-parsed (SSI) documents processed by
<code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_include.html">mod_include</a></code>'s
<code>INCLUDES</code> filter can print environment variables
using the <code>echo</code> element, and can use environment
variables in flow control elements to makes parts of a page
conditional on characteristics of a request. Apache also
provides SSI pages with the standard CGI environment variables
as discussed above. For more details, see the <a href="howto/ssi.html">SSI tutorial</a>.</p>
<h3><a name="access-control" id="access-control">Access Control</a></h3>
<p>Access to the server can be controlled based on the value of
environment variables using the <code>allow from env=</code>
and <code>deny from env=</code> directives. In combination with
<code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_setenvif.html#setenvif">SetEnvIf</a></code>, this
allows for flexible control of access to the server based on
characteristics of the client. For example, you can use these
directives to deny access to a particular browser (User-Agent).
</p>
<h3><a name="logging" id="logging">Conditional Logging</a></h3>
<p>Environment variables can be logged in the access log using
the <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_log_config.html#logformat">LogFormat</a></code>
option <code>%e</code>. In addition, the decision on whether
or not to log requests can be made based on the status of
environment variables using the conditional form of the
<code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_log_config.html#customlog">CustomLog</a></code>
directive. In combination with <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_setenvif.html#setenvif">SetEnvIf</a></code> this allows for flexible control of which
requests are logged. For example, you can choose not to log
requests for filenames ending in <code>gif</code>, or you can
choose to only log requests from clients which are outside your
subnet.</p>
<h3><a name="response-headers" id="response-headers">Conditional Response Headers</a></h3>
<p>The <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_headers.html#header">Header</a></code>
directive can use the presence or
absence of an environment variable to determine whether or not
a certain HTTP header will be placed in the response to the
client. This allows, for example, a certain response header to
be sent only if a corresponding header is received in the
request from the client.</p>
<h3><a name="external-filter" id="external-filter">External Filter Activation</a></h3>
<p>External filters configured by <code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_ext_filter.html">mod_ext_filter</a></code>
using the <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_ext_filter.html#extfilterdefine">ExtFilterDefine</a></code> directive can
by activated conditional on an environment variable using the
<code>disableenv=</code> and <code>enableenv=</code> options.</p>
<h3><a name="url-rewriting" id="url-rewriting">URL Rewriting</a></h3>
<p>The <code>%{ENV:<em>variable</em>}</code> form of
<em>TestString</em> in the <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewritecond">RewriteCond</a></code> allows <code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_rewrite.html">mod_rewrite</a></code>'s rewrite
engine to make decisions conditional on environment variables.
Note that the variables accessible in <code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_rewrite.html">mod_rewrite</a></code>
without the <code>ENV:</code> prefix are not actually environment
variables. Rather, they are variables special to
<code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_rewrite.html">mod_rewrite</a></code> which cannot be accessed from other
modules.</p>
</div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="/images/up.gif" /></a></div>
<div class="section">
<h2><a name="special" id="special">Special Purpose Environment Variables</a></h2>
<p>Interoperability problems have led to the introduction of
mechanisms to modify the way Apache behaves when talking to
particular clients. To make these mechanisms as flexible as
possible, they are invoked by defining environment variables,
typically with <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_setenvif.html#browsermatch">BrowserMatch</a></code>, though <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_env.html#setenv">SetEnv</a></code> and <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_env.html#passenv">PassEnv</a></code> could also be used, for example.</p>
<h3><a name="downgrade" id="downgrade">downgrade-1.0</a></h3>
<p>This forces the request to be treated as a HTTP/1.0 request
even if it was in a later dialect.</p>
<h3><a name="force-gzip" id="force-gzip">force-gzip</a></h3>
<p>If you have the <code>DEFLATE</code> filter activated, this
environment variable will ignore the accept-encoding setting of
your browser and will send compressed output unconditionally.</p>
<h3><a name="force-no-vary" id="force-no-vary">force-no-vary</a></h3>
<p>This causes any <code>Vary</code> fields to be removed from
the response header before it is sent back to the client. Some
clients don't interpret this field correctly; setting this
variable can work around this problem. Setting this variable
also implies <strong>force-response-1.0</strong>.</p>
<h3><a name="force-response" id="force-response">force-response-1.0</a></h3>
<p>This forces an HTTP/1.0 response to clients making an HTTP/1.0
request. It was originally
implemented as a result of a problem with AOL's proxies. Some
HTTP/1.0 clients may not behave correctly when given an HTTP/1.1
response, and this can be used to interoperate with them.</p>
<h3><a name="gzip-only-text-html" id="gzip-only-text-html">gzip-only-text/html</a></h3>
<p>When set to a value of "1", this variable disables the
<code>DEFLATE</code> output filter provided by
<code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_deflate.html">mod_deflate</a></code> for content-types other than
<code>text/html</code>. If you'd rather
use statically compressed files, <code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_negotiation.html">mod_negotiation</a></code>
evaluates the variable as well (not only for gzip, but for all
encodings that differ from "identity").</p>
<h3><a name="no-gzip" id="no-gzip">no-gzip</a></h3>
<p>When set, the <code>DEFLATE</code> filter of
<code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_deflate.html">mod_deflate</a></code> will be turned off and
<code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_negotiation.html">mod_negotiation</a></code> will refuse to deliver encoded
resources.</p>
<h3><a name="no-cache" id="no-cache">no-cache</a></h3>
<p><em>Available in versions 2.2.12 and later</em></p>
<p>When set, <code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_cache.html">mod_cache</a></code> will not save an otherwise
cacheable response. This environment variable does not influence
whether a response already in the cache will be served for the current
request.</p>
<h3><a name="nokeepalive" id="nokeepalive">nokeepalive</a></h3>
<p>This disables <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/core.html#keepalive">KeepAlive</a></code>
when set.</p>
<h3><a name="prefer-language" id="prefer-language">prefer-language</a></h3>
<p>This influences <code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_negotiation.html">mod_negotiation</a></code>'s behaviour. If
it contains a language tag (such as <code>en</code>, <code>ja</code>
or <code>x-klingon</code>), <code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_negotiation.html">mod_negotiation</a></code> tries
to deliver a variant with that language. If there's no such variant,
the normal <a href="content-negotiation.html">negotiation</a> process
applies.</p>
<h3><a name="redirect-carefully" id="redirect-carefully">redirect-carefully</a></h3>
<p>This forces the server to be more careful when sending a redirect
to the client. This is typically used when a client has a known
problem handling redirects. This was originally implemented as a
result of a problem with Microsoft's WebFolders software which has
a problem handling redirects on directory resources via DAV
methods.</p>
<h3><a name="suppress-error-charset" id="suppress-error-charset">suppress-error-charset</a></h3>
<p><em>Available in versions after 2.0.54</em></p>
<p>When Apache issues a redirect in response to a client request,
the response includes some actual text to be displayed in case
the client can't (or doesn't) automatically follow the redirection.
Apache ordinarily labels this text according to the character set
which it uses, which is ISO-8859-1.</p>
<p> However, if the redirection is to a page that uses a different
character set, some broken browser versions will try to use the
character set from the redirection text rather than the actual page.
This can result in Greek, for instance, being incorrectly rendered.</p>
<p>Setting this environment variable causes Apache to omit the character
set for the redirection text, and these broken browsers will then correctly
use that of the destination page.</p>
<div class="warning">
<h3>Security note</h3>
<p>Sending error pages without a specified character set may
allow a cross-site-scripting attack for existing browsers (MSIE)
which do not follow the HTTP/1.1 specification and attempt to
"guess" the character set from the content. Such browsers can
be easily fooled into using the UTF-7 character set, and UTF-7
content from input data (such as the request-URI) will not be
escaped by the usual escaping mechanisms designed to prevent
cross-site-scripting attacks.</p>
</div>
<h3><a name="proxy" id="proxy">force-proxy-request-1.0, proxy-nokeepalive, proxy-sendchunked,
proxy-sendcl, proxy-chain-auth, proxy-interim-response, proxy-initial-not-pooled</a></h3>
<p>These directives alter the protocol behavior of
<code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_proxy.html">mod_proxy</a></code>. See the <code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_proxy.html">mod_proxy</a></code> and <code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_proxy_http.html">mod_proxy_http</a></code>
documentation for more details.</p>
</div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="/images/up.gif" /></a></div>
<div class="section">
<h2><a name="examples" id="examples">Examples</a></h2>
<h3><a name="fixheader" id="fixheader">Passing broken headers to CGI scripts</a></h3>
<p>Starting with version 2.4, Apache is more strict about how HTTP
headers are converted to environment variables in <code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_cgi&#10; .html">mod_cgi
</a></code> and other modules: Previously any invalid characters
in header names were simply translated to underscores. This allowed
for some potential cross-site-scripting attacks via header injection
(see <a href="http://events.ccc.de/congress/2007/Fahrplan/events/2212.en.html">
Unusual Web Bugs</a>, slide 19/20).</p>
<p>If you have to support a client which sends broken headers and
which can't be fixed, a simple workaround involving <code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_setenvif&#10; .html">mod_setenvif
</a></code> and <code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_header.html">mod_header</a></code> allows you to still accept
these headers:</p>
<pre class="prettyprint lang-config">
#
# The following works around a client sending a broken Accept_Encoding
# header.
#
SetEnvIfNoCase ^Accept.Encoding$ ^(.*)$ fix_accept_encoding=$1
RequestHeader set Accept-Encoding %{fix_accept_encoding}e env=fix_accept_encoding
</pre>
<h3><a name="misbehaving" id="misbehaving">Changing protocol behavior with misbehaving clients</a></h3>
<p>Earlier versions recommended that the following lines be included in
httpd.conf to deal with known client problems. Since the affected clients
are no longer seen in the wild, this configuration is likely no-longer
necessary.</p>
<pre class="prettyprint lang-config">
#
# The following directives modify normal HTTP response behavior.
# The first directive disables keepalive for Netscape 2.x and browsers that
# spoof it. There are known problems with these browser implementations.
# The second directive is for Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0b2
# which has a broken HTTP/1.1 implementation and does not properly
# support keepalive when it is used on 301 or 302 (redirect) responses.
#
BrowserMatch "Mozilla/2" nokeepalive
BrowserMatch "MSIE 4\.0b2;" nokeepalive downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0
#
# The following directive disables HTTP/1.1 responses to browsers which
# are in violation of the HTTP/1.0 spec by not being able to understand a
# basic 1.1 response.
#
BrowserMatch "RealPlayer 4\.0" force-response-1.0
BrowserMatch "Java/1\.0" force-response-1.0
BrowserMatch "JDK/1\.0" force-response-1.0
</pre>
<h3><a name="no-img-log" id="no-img-log">Do not log requests for images in the access log</a></h3>
<p>This example keeps requests for images from appearing in the
access log. It can be easily modified to prevent logging of
particular directories, or to prevent logging of requests
coming from particular hosts.</p>
<pre class="prettyprint lang-config">
SetEnvIf Request_URI \.gif image-request
SetEnvIf Request_URI \.jpg image-request
SetEnvIf Request_URI \.png image-request
CustomLog logs/access_log common env=!image-request
</pre>
<h3><a name="image-theft" id="image-theft">Prevent "Image Theft"</a></h3>
<p>This example shows how to keep people not on your server
from using images on your server as inline-images on their
pages. This is not a recommended configuration, but it can work
in limited circumstances. We assume that all your images are in
a directory called <code>/web/images</code>.</p>
<pre class="prettyprint lang-config">
SetEnvIf Referer "^http://www\.example\.com/" local_referal
# Allow browsers that do not send Referer info
SetEnvIf Referer "^$" local_referal
&lt;Directory /web/images&gt;
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from env=local_referal
&lt;/Directory&gt;
</pre>
<p>For more information about this technique, see the
"<a href="http://www.serverwatch.com/tutorials/article.php/1132731">Keeping Your Images from Adorning Other Sites</a>"
tutorial on ServerWatch.</p>
</div></div>
<div class="bottomlang">
<p><span>Available Languages: </span><a href="/en/env.html" title="English">&nbsp;en&nbsp;</a> |
<a href="/fr/env.html" hreflang="fr" rel="alternate" title="Fran�ais">&nbsp;fr&nbsp;</a> |
<a href="/ja/env.html" hreflang="ja" rel="alternate" title="Japanese">&nbsp;ja&nbsp;</a> |
<a href="/ko/env.html" hreflang="ko" rel="alternate" title="Korean">&nbsp;ko&nbsp;</a> |
<a href="/tr/env.html" hreflang="tr" rel="alternate" title="T�rk�e">&nbsp;tr&nbsp;</a></p>
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