Lighttpd reverse proxy

This describes a example configuration to use lighttpd as a proxy for the thin webserver and to serve the static content.

mod_proxy has to be enabled using lighttpd-enable-mod proxy on the command line.

Proxy and Static Files

At the end of your lighttpd.conf append this section.

$HTTP["host"] =~ "(^|\.)pod\.url\.com$" {
        server.document-root = "/path/to/diaspora/public/"
        url.rewrite  = ("^/$" => "/users/sign_in" )

        $HTTP["url"] !~ "\.(js|css|gif|jpg|png|ico|txt|swf|html|htm|svg|ttf|woff|gz)$" {
             proxy.server = (""    => (( "host" => "127.0.0.1", "port" => 3000)))
        }

        # Bypass proxy for sidekiq assets
        $HTTP["url"] =~ "^/sidekiq" {
                proxy.server = (""    => (( "host" => "127.0.0.1", "port" => 3000)))
        }
}

The first line filters all requests to your pod URL. So only requests to your pod are processed. In the second line replace the path to your diaspora public directory. The third line is optional and redirects first time visitors to the sign in page.

The inner section filters out all requests that do not hit static files and forwards them to the thin app server.

Secure Connections

To always use https add the following code within the previews block. mod_redirect has to be enabled.

$SERVER["socket"]== ":80" {  # 
    url.redirect = ("^/(.*)" => "https://pod.url.com/$1")
}

Curl Expect Header

There is a problem with curl. Curl adds an Expect header to its HTTP POST requests. lighttpd rejects these requests by default. To ignore the requests add the following line.

server.reject-expect-100-with-417 = "disable"