lighttpd mod_rewrite vs. apache mod_rewrite with Django and FastCGI

Question

I am in the process of migrating from a Django FastCgi setup in Apache to one in lighttpd.

On Apache, I was using the fcgi config described in the Django docs. The core part being rewriting all my non-static URLs to be /mysite.fcgi/$1:

RewriteRule ^/(.*)$ /mysite.fcgi/$1 [QSA,L]

and then forwarding all requests for /mysite.fcgi for FastCGI:

<IfModule mod_fastcgi.c>
    FastCGIExternalServer /opt/www/mysite.fcgi -host 127.0.0.1:8000
</IfModule>

The setup worked for Django. If, for example, I went to http://www.mydomain.com/help/ and I printed {{ request.get_full_path }} in the template, the result was /help/ . Life was good and I was happy. However, I ran into some issues which are forcing me to move to a web server which support more simultaneous connections than Apache can give me.

Fast forward to lighttpd. All is configured and well. I am rewriting my URLs with mod_rewrite:

url.rewrite-once = ( "^(/media/.)$" => "$1", "^/favicon.ico$" => "/med/img/favicon/favicon.ico", "^(/.)$" => "/mysite.fcgi$1", )

and have FastCGI handling /mysite.fcgi:

   fastcgi.server = (
       "/mysite.fcgi" => (
           "main" => (
               "host" => "127.0.0.1",
               "port" => 8000,
               "check-local" => "disable",
           )
       ),
   )

Things work in general and my Django site runs fine. BUT when I go to http://www.mydomain.com/help/ and print {{ request.get_full_path }} in the template, the result is /mysite.fcgi/help/ . This causes some issues.

While this does not cause problems in general as the Django site works well, it does cause issues when I use SSL. Specifically, I use sslmiddleware from "Stephen Zabel - [email protected]" from http://www.djangosnippets.org/snippets/240/ . This software relies on request.get_full_path, which returns a different value under lighttpd than it did under Apache. Same for request.path .

Can anyone suggest a way out of this problem? Ideally, I would like lighttpd mod_rewrite to have the same behavior as mod_rewrite under Apache. If not possible, I would like a lighttpd FastCGI Django setup which would be compatible with the sslmiddleware package I am using. Alternatively, I could change the sslmiddleware package to be compatible with the way which mod_rewrite from lighttpd rewrites URLs.

This answer would make a fantastic 30th birthday present!

Answer 1

Did you try to define FORCE_SCRIPT_NAME to "" in settings.py and restart the fastcgi server?

FORCE_SCRIPT_NAME=""

Answer 2

See http://redmine.lighttpd.net/issues/show/729 if you'd rather fix it in lighttpd.

In short, upgrade to 1.4.23 and add "fix-root-scriptname" => "enable" to the fcgi config.