Very Computer

I was charged with developing a few Apache modules for various tasks
(timed access, pay-as-you-go access and URI-based authentication for now)
and I kept running into the same problem.  Stock Apache 1.1.1 does not
appear to let an arbitrary phase (let's assume one of the authentication
phases) send response data back to the client and terminate the HTTP
transfer without error.  As far as I was able to determine, I could return
OK, REDIRECT, DECLINED or an HTTP error code in a phase, but could not
"short-ciruit" at a particular phase or module.

I needed to be able to return content in an arbitrary phase after
determining that a particular module (or phase) should have processed the
request but could not for whatever reason.  So I came up with an "escape"
patch to let me do just that.

Basically, the patch lets a module phase return a code (ESCAPE) that says
the request has been handled and that no other phases (or modules) need to
be run.  In my case, if my custom authentication handler failed, I would
dynamically mark up an HTML template, return the content to the browser
and terminate the child Apache process by returning ESCAPE.

If Apache modules can already do this, then I would prefer to use the
existing method.  If not, I will make the patch available, since I cannot
belive that I'm the only one on the planet who could benefit from this.

Jon Yarden, SysAdmin, Internet Tool & Die
--
The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and
robbers there will be.
                -- Lao Tsu

Can you change the mime type for the request to a type that get's
handled by a handler that you provide?

This way you can send back whatever, and end it cleanly.
--


XCOMM "Comments in code are kinda useless, anyway."
XCOMM   -- Brian Rumple, TA for my OS class, NCSU. November 6,1996

: >I was charged with developing a few Apache modules for various tasks
: >(timed access, pay-as-you-go access and URI-based authentication for now)
: >and I kept running into the same problem.  Stock Apache 1.1.1 does not
: >appear to let an arbitrary phase (let's assume one of the authentication
: >phases) send response data back to the client and terminate the HTTP
: >transfer without error.  As far as I was able to determine, I could return
: >OK, REDIRECT, DECLINED or an HTTP error code in a phase, but could not
: >"short-ciruit" at a particular phase or module.

: Here's an idea I've been kicking around (I need to do the same thing):

: Can you change the mime type for the request to a type that get's
: handled by a handler that you provide?

This was about the third or fourth thing that I tried.  It worked, but I
was still not able to return a response anywhere I needed to.  I had to
wait for the handler to kick in, which required that I pre-fill a
structure with the data I wanted to return and come up with my own set of
codes indicating what happened.  It did work, but was not as clean as
simply terminating the module at the phase that failed.

I've gotten several responses regarding the code, so I will probably put
it in an FTP site and send it to the Apache team.  It makes writing Apache
modules much more straightforward, although it's certainly not the best
way to do this.

Jon
--
The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and
robbers there will be.
                -- Lao Tsu