Comment by networked | Hacker News Reader

Comment by networked | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

I started using Apache again in 2019. I wanted to set up WebDAV file sharing on my home network, and Apache's implementation of WebDAV was more compatible than nginx's. Even with https://github.com/arut/nginx-dav-ext-module, I had problems with Windows clients on nginx. Caddy 2, my go-to HTTP server, lacked a WebDAV plugin at the time. So I tried Apache, and WebDAV worked everywhere. (Since then https://github.com/mholt/caddy-webdav has come out for Caddy. I plan to test it for compatibility, but I am happy with Apache and don't see a need to migrate.)

While setting up Apache 2.4, I came to like certain things about it. For example, https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_macro.html. Configuration seems less footgun-y than that of nginx (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30435282). I have also adopted https://tcl.apache.org/rivet/ and use it on the LAN server where someone else might reach for PHP. It is admittedly quite niche.

The only time in the last ten years that I've reached for Apache was when I needed to put an LDAP auth reverse proxy on something— it looked like it was possible to do it with nginx, but would require running a separate script or dealing with Lua or something. On Apache it was batteries-included and a few lines of pasted-in config file.

I'd love to be shown a better way on that, but Apache did rack up a W for that one use case.

Traefik, bruv

Caddy, hands down the most sane webserver config for a reverse proxy.

Thanks! That does look pretty reasonable: https://authp.github.io/docs/authenticate/ldap/ldap

I often find random parts of nginx hidden behind their paywall, and then I'll reach for Apache. Especially when creating load balancers

If you're on Linux, you could use haproxy

I made mistakes in the Caddy part of the parent comment. Let me correct them.

> Caddy 2, my go-to HTTP server, lacked a WebDAV plugin at the time. [...] Since then https://github.com/mholt/caddy-webdav has come out for Caddy.

1. I have discovered that Matt Holt published the WebDAV plugin shortly before the launch of Caddy 2. So there was never a time when Caddy 2 was officially out and without a WebDAV plugin. I found out about the plugin later.

2. Caddy 2 actually launched in 2020, and I set up my server in 2019, when I only used Caddy 1. Caddy 1 did have an unofficial WebDAV plugin, https://github.com/hacdias/caddy-v1-webdav. I remember finding some compatibility issue with it, too.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com