README

Name
    headers-more-nginx-module - Set and clear input and output
    headers...more than "add"!

    *This module is not distributed with the Nginx source.* See the
    installation instructions.

Version
    This document describes headers-more-nginx-module v0.06
    (<http://github.com/agentzh/headers-more-nginx-module/downloads>)
    released on Dec 15, 2009.

Synopsis
        # set the Server output header
        more_set_headers 'Server: my-server';

        # set and clear output headers
        location /bar {
            more_set_headers 'X-MyHeader: blah' 'X-MyHeader2: foo';
            more_set_headers -t 'text/plain text/css' 'Content-Type: text/foo';
            more_set_headers -s '400 404 500 503' -s 413 'Foo: Bar';
            more_clear_headers 'Transfer-Encoding' 'Content-Type';

            # your proxy_pass/memcached_pass/or any other config goes here...
        }

        # set output headers
        location /type {
            more_set_headers 'Content-Type: text/plain';
            # ...
        }

        # set input headers
        location /foo {
            set $my_host 'my dog';
            more_set_input_headers 'Host: $my_host';
            more_set_input_headers -t 'text/plain' 'X-Foo: bah';

            # now $host and $http_host have their new values...
            # ...
        }

Description
    This module allows you to add, set, or clear any output or input header
    that you specify.

    This is an enhanced version of the standard headers module because it
    provides more utilities like resetting or clearing "builtin headers"
    like "Content-Type", "Content-Length", and "Server".

    It also allows you to specify an optional HTTP status code criteria
    using the "-s" option and an optional content type criteria using the
    "-t" option while modifying the output headers with the more_set_headers
    and more_clear_headers directives. For example,

        more_set_headers -s 404 -t 'text/html' 'X-Foo: Bar';

    Input headers can be modified as well. For example

        location /foo {
            more_set_input_headers 'Host: foo' 'User-Agent: faked';
            # now $host, $http_host, $user_agent, and
            #   $http_user_agent all have their new values.
        }

    The option "-t" is also available in the more_set_input_headers and
    more_clear_input_headers directives while the "-s" option is not
    allowed.

    Unlike the standard headers module, this module's directives will by
    default apply to all the status codes, including "4xx" and "5xx".

Directives
  more_set_headers
    syntax: *more_set_headers [-t <content-type list>]... [-s <status-code
    list>]... <new-header>...*

    default: *no*

    context: *http, server, location, if*

    Adds or replaces the specified output headers when the response status
    code matches the codes specified by the "-s" option *AND* the response
    content type matches the types specified by the "-t" option.

    If either "-s" or "-t" is not specified or has an empty list value, then
    no match is required. Therefore, the following directive set the
    "Server" output header to the custom value for *any* status code and
    *any* content type:

      more_set_headers    "Server: my_server";

    A single directive can set/add multiple output headers. For example

      more_set_headers 'Foo: bar' 'Baz: bah';

    Multiple occurrences of the options are allowed in a single directive.
    Their values will be merged together. For instance

      more_set_headers -s 404 -s '500 503' 'Foo: bar';

    is equivalent to

      more_set_headers -s '404 500 503' 'Foo: bar';

    The new header should be the one of the forms:

    1.  "Name: Value"

    2.  "Name: "

    3.  "Name"

    The last two effectively clear the value of the header "Name".

    Nginx variables are allowed in header values. For example:

       set $my_var "dog";
       more_set_headers "Server: $my_var";

    But variables won't work in header keys due to performance
    considerations.

    Multiple set/clear header directives are allowed in a single location,
    and they're executed sequentially.

    Directives inherited from an upper level scope (say, http block or
    server blocks) are executed before the directives in the location block.

    Behind the scene, use of this directive and its friend
    more_clear_headers will (lazily) register an ouput header filter that
    modifies "r->headers_out" the way you specify.

  more_clear_headers
    syntax: *more_clear_headers [-t <content-type list>]... [-s <status-code
    list>]... <new-header>...*

    default: *no*

    context: *http, server, location, if*

    Clears the specified output headers.

    In fact,

       more_clear_headers -s 404 -t 'text/plain' Foo Baz;

    is exactly equivalent to

       more_set_headers -s 404 -t 'text/plain' "Foo: " "Baz: ";

    or

       more_set_headers -s 404 -t 'text/plain' Foo Baz

    See more_set_headers for more details.

  more_set_input_headers
    syntax: *more_set_input_headers [-t <content-type list>]...
    <new-header>...*

    default: *no*

    context: *http, server, location, if*

    Very much like more_set_headers except that it operates on input headers
    (or request headers) and it only supports the "-t" option.

    Behind the scene, use of this directive and its friend
    more_clear_input_headers will (lazily) register a "rewrite phase"
    handler that modifies "r->headers_in" the way you specify. Note that it
    always run at the *end* of the "rewrite" so that it runs *after* the
    standard rewrite module and works in subrequests as well.

  more_clear_input_headers
    syntax: *more_clear_input_headers [-t <content-type list>]...
    <new-header>...*

    default: *no*

    context: *http, server, location, if*

    Clears the specified input headers.

    In fact,

       more_clear_input_headers -s 404 -t 'text/plain' Foo Baz;

    is exactly equivalent to

       more_set_input_headers -s 404 -t 'text/plain' "Foo: " "Baz: ";

    or

       more_set_input_headers -s 404 -t 'text/plain' Foo Baz

    See more_set_input_headers for more details.

Limitations
    *   Unlike the standard headers module, this module does not
        automatically take care of the constraint among the "Expires",
        "Cache-Control", and "Last-Modified" headers. You have to get them
        right yourself or use the headers module together with this module.

Installation
    Grab the nginx source code from nginx.net (<http://nginx.net/>), for
    example, the version 0.8.29 (see nginx compatibility), and then build
    the source with this module:

        $ wget 'http://sysoev.ru/nginx/nginx-0.8.29.tar.gz'
        $ tar -xzvf nginx-0.8.29.tar.gz
        $ cd nginx-0.8.29/

        # Here we assume you would install you nginx under /opt/nginx/.
        $ ./configure --prefix=/opt/nginx \
            --add-module=/path/to/headers-more-nginx-module

        $ make -j2
        $ make install

    Download the latest version of the release tarball of this module from
    headers-more-nginx-module file list
    (<http://github.com/agentzh/headers-more-nginx-module/downloads>).

Compatibility
    The following versions of Nginx should work with this module:

    *   0.8.x (last tested version is 0.8.29)

    *   0.7.x >= 0.7.44 (last tested version is 0.7.64)

    Earlier versions of Nginx like 0.6.x and 0.5.x will *not* work.

    If you find that any particular version of Nginx above 0.7.44 does not
    work with this module, please consider reporting a bug.

Report Bugs
    Although a lot of effort has been put into testing and code tuning,
    there must be some serious bugs lurking somewhere in this module. So
    whenever you are bitten by any quirks, please don't hesitate to

    1.  send a bug report or even patches to <agentzh@gmail.com>,

    2.  or create a ticket on the issue tracking interface
        (<http://github.com/agentzh/headers-more-nginx-module/issues>)
        provided by GitHub.

Source Repository
    Available on github at agentzh/headers-more-nginx-module
    (<http://github.com/agentzh/headers-more-nginx-module>).

ChangeLog
  v0.06
    *   now the input header handler runs at the *end* of the "rewrite
        phase" such that it works in subrequests by default.

  v0.05
    *   fixed variables in more_set_input_headers by registering the handler
        in the "access phase" instead of the "rewrite" phase.

Test Suite
    This module comes with a Perl-driven test suite. The test cases
    (<http://github.com/agentzh/headers-more-nginx-module/tree/master/test/t
    />) are declarative
    (<http://github.com/agentzh/headers-more-nginx-module/blob/master/test/t
    /sanity.t>) too. Thanks to the Test::Base
    (<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Test::Base>) module in the Perl world.

    To run it on your side:

        $ cd test
        $ PATH=/path/to/your/nginx-with-headers-more-module:$PATH prove -r t

    You need to terminate any Nginx processes before running the test suite
    if you have changed the Nginx server binary.

    At the moment, LWP::UserAgent
    (<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?LWP::UserAgent>) is used by the test
    scaffold
    (<http://github.com/agentzh/headers-more-nginx-module/blob/master/test/l
    ib/Test/Nginx/LWP.pm>) for simplicity.

    Because a single nginx server (by default, "localhost:1984") is used
    across all the test scripts (".t" files), it's meaningless to run the
    test suite in parallel by specifying "-jN" when invoking the "prove"
    utility.

    Some parts of the test suite requires modules proxy, rewrite, and echo
    to be enabled as well when building Nginx.

TODO
    *   Support variables in new headers' keys.

Getting involved
    You'll be very welcomed to submit patches to the author or just ask for
    a commit bit to the source repository on GitHub.

Author
    agentzh (章亦春) *<agentzh@gmail.com>*

    This wiki page is also maintained by the author himself, and everybody
    is encouraged to improve this page as well.

Copyright & License
    The code base is borrowed directly from the standard headers module in
    Nginx 0.8.24. This part of code is copyrighted by Igor Sysoev.

    Copyright (c) 2009, Taobao Inc., Alibaba Group ( http://www.taobao.com
    ).

    Copyright (c) 2009, agentzh <agentzh@gmail.com>.

    This module is licensed under the terms of the BSD license.

    Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
    modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
    met:

    *   Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
        notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

    *   Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
        notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
        documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

    *   Neither the name of the Taobao Inc. nor the names of its
        contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from
        this software without specific prior written permission.

    THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS
    IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
    TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
    PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT
    HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
    SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
    TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR
    PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF
    LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING
    NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
    SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

See Also
    *   The original thread on the Nginx mailing list that inspires this
        module's development: "A question about add_header replication"
        (<http://www.pubbs.net/nginx/200910/6361/>).

    *   The orginal announcement thread on the Nginx mailing list: "The
        "headers_more" module: Set and clear output headers...more than
        'add'!" (<http://www.pubbs.net/nginx/200911/29942/>).

    *   The original blog post
        (<http://agentzh.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!FF3A735632E41548!482.entry
        >) about this module's initial development.

    *   The echo module for Nginx module's automated testing.

    *   The standard headers module.