Configuring Lighttpd on Shunya OS

Getting Started

Installation

To install lighttpd run the following command:

sudo opkg install lighttpd

Note

As we are an Embedded OS base lighttpd is minimal. You can install it’s modules as you require it

Configuration

Lighttpd configuration files are located in /etc/lighttpd.conf. Lighttpd server root is located in /www/pages/

Configuring lighttpd for php using fastcgi

For using php with lighttpd you need to install the following modules: php php-cgi lighttpd-module-cgi lighttpd-module-fastcgi

This can be done through the following command

Step 1:Installing necessary modules

sudo opkg install php php-cgi lighttpd-module-cgi lighttpd-module-fastcgi

Step 2:Setting server.modules to include mod_fastcgi mod_cgi

In/etc/lighttpd.conf do the following changes

In the server.modules section uncomment the beginning of the lines(line24 and line29) to enable mod_fastcgi and mod_cgi

1. mod_fastcgi
2. mod_cgi

Step 3:You need to extend /etc/lighttpd.conf to load the fastcgi module and use php-cli:

This is achieved by the lines in the /etc/lighttpd.conf. You can simply uncomment the lines #### fastcgi module section.

Warning

If you are uncommenting the lines under the fastcgi module section don’t forget to change the bin-path of php-cgi to /usr/bin/php-cgi

fastcgi.server             = ( ".php" =>
                               ( "localhost" =>
                                 (
                                   "socket" => "/tmp/php-fastcgi.socket",
                                   "bin-path" => "/usr/bin/php-cgi"
                                 )
                               )
                             )

Step 4:Write a php script in /www/pages/

For testing purpose we created a minimal file /www/pages/index.php and removed(renamed) the previously created file /www/pages/index.html.

The test .php file contains a single line:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Step 5:Restart lighttpd server

systemctl restart lighttpd

Step 6:Test

To test this on the browser type the following in the URL: localhost/filename.php (in our case it was localhost/index.php)

Configuring lighttpd for cgi-bin

For using cgi-bin with lighttpd you need to install the following modules: lighttpd-module-cgi lighttpd-module-fastcgi

This can be done through the following command

Step 1:Installing necessary modules

sudo opkg install lighttpd-module-cgi lighttpd-module-fastcgi

Step 2:Setting server.modules to include mod_fastcgi mod_cgi

In/etc/lighttpd.conf do the following changes

In the server.modules section uncomment the beginning of the lines(line24 and line29) to enable mod_fastcgi and mod_cgi

1. mod_fastcgi
2. mod_cgi

Step 3:Enable cgi.assign by uncommenting the lines under #### CGI module and add “.sh” => “/usr/ bin/sh”

cgi.assign                 = ( ".pl"  => "/usr/bin/perl",
                               ".cgi" => "/usr/bin/perl",
                               ".sh"  => "/bin/sh")

Step 4:Write a cgi-script in /www/pages/cgi-bin/

Note

If the folder cgi-bin is not present you should make it

Here is a sample shell script that we tested.

#!/bin/sh
printf "Content-type: text/html\n\n"
printf "Hello World!\n"

Warning

Don’t forget to make the file executable or the script will not get executed

Step 5:Restart lighttpd server

systemctl restart lighttpd

Step 6:Test cgi-bin

To test this on the browser type the following in the URL: localhost/cgi-bin/name-of-script