On 13 Dec 2010, at 5:11 AM, William A. Rowe Jr. wrote:
An idea from left field.
Is there a reason that DocumentRoot is a virtual host wide setting?
Yes, root describes "/", there is only one <Location "/">.
I can understand why such a setting would be required, but I still
don't see why that requirement binds us to it being set virtual host
wide.
You could either treat the lack of a DocumentRoot defined at the /
level as a fatal error that prevents the server from starting, or you
could fall back on a precompiled default directory.
In theory, the only reason I can see for requiring it virtual host
wide is if the value is required before the location walk. Is it?
Does it not make sense to make it per-Location instead?
No, but MountFilePath /path/to/foo in a Location basis makes sense.
What I had in mind was:
DocumentRoot /somewhere
<Location /bar>
DocumentRoot /somewhereelse
</Location>
which would be equivalent to MountFilePath.
You might think I just said the same thing, but I had brought this up
before back around the beginnings of 2.0. DocumentRoot is an awfully
ancient and limiting construct. Some suggest Alias is the same thing
(which it is, in one sense), but it seems like we could fold both into
a single concept.
The reason you are still stuck with legacy docroot constructs is
CGI, etc.
I don't mind being stuck with legacy docroot constructs, however I do
see a different way of implementing them though, and I entirely agree
on the assessment that it is ancient and limiting, which is why I am
exploring the options by asking "what if".
Regards,
Graham
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