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dat/nginx-confgen-man

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+=pod
+
+=head1 NAME
+
+nginx-confgen - A preprocessor and macro system for nginx(-like) configuration
+files.
+
+=head1 SYNOPSIS
+
+nginx-confgen -i input.conf -o output.conf
+
+=head1 DESCRIPTION
+
+nginx-confgen can be used to do pre-processing for nginx configuration files
+(and other configuration files with a similar syntax). It has support for
+"compile-time" macro expansion and variable interpolation, which should make it
+less tedious to maintain large and complex configurations.
+
+nginx-confgen does not currently support any command-line arguments. It simply
+reads the configuration from standard input, and writes the processed
+configuration to standard output.
+
+nginx-confgen works by parsing the input into a syntax tree, modifying this
+tree, and then formatting the tree to generate the output. It is completely
+oblivious to nginx contexts and directives, so it is possible to do nonsensical
+transformations and generate incorrect configuration files. Comments in the
+input file will not be present in the output. See also the L</BUGS & WARTS>
+below.
+
+B<WARNING:> Do NOT use nginx-confgen with untrusted input, the C<pre_exec>
+directive allows, by design, arbitrary code execution.
+
+=head1 OPTIONS
+
+The following command-line options are supported:
+
+=over
+
+=item -h
+
+Show help text.
+
+=item -V, --version
+
+Show program version.
+
+=item -i I<FILE>
+
+Use the given file name as input file. If this option is not given or set to
+C<->, then the file will be read from standard input.
+
+=item -o I<FILE>
+
+Write the output to the given file. If this option is not given or set to C<->,
+then the file will be written to standard output.
+
+=item -I I<DIR>
+
+Set the search path for I<pre_include> directives. This option can be given
+multiple times to search several directories in order. If this option is not
+given, then include files are resolved relative to the directory that
+nginx-confgen is run from (i.e. C<-I .>).
+
+=back
+
+
+=head1 DIRECTIVES
+
+nginx-confgen recognizes and interprets the following directives:
+
+=head2 pre_include
+
+Similar to the C<include> directive in nginx, except that the file is included
+during preprocessing. The included file may contain any preprocessing
+directives supported by nginx-confgen. Variables and macros defined in the
+included file will be available in the parent file.
+
+Relative paths are searched for in the directories given with the C<-I> flag.
+
+=head2 pre_set
+
+Similar to the C<set> directive in nginx, except that variables defined with
+C<pre_set> are resolved during preprocessing. Note that variables defined with
+C<pre_set> are only available in the same scope as they are defined, for
+example:
+
+  pre_set $var outer;
+  location / {
+    pre_set $var inner;
+    # $var is now "inner" within this location block.
+  }
+  # $var is "outer" again after the location block.
+
+(This may change in the future)
+
+=head2 pre_exec
+
+Run a shell command, and store the output in a variable. For example, nginx
+will not use your system's DNS resolution methods to resolve domain names.
+Instead you need to manually set a C<resolver> address. With the following hack
+you can fetch the nameserver from C</etc/resolv.conf> and use that as the
+C<resolver>:
+
+  pre_exec $nameserver "grep nameserver /etc/resolv.conf \\
+                        | head -n 1 | sed 's/^nameserver //'";
+  resolver $nameserver;
+
+(The C<\\> is necessary, otherwise your shell will consider the newline as a
+new command).
+
+=head2 pre_if
+
+Similar to the C<if> directive in nginx, except that this is evaluated during
+preprocessing. nginx-confgen has a few warts with regards to parenthesis,
+things usually work better without:
+
+  pre_if -f $certdir/ocsp.der {
+    ssl_stapling on;
+    ssl_stapling_file $certdir/ocsp.der;
+  }
+  pre_if !-f $certdir/ocsp.der {
+    ssl_stapling off;
+  }
+
+  # You can have different configuration depending on the name of
+  # the system on which nginx-confgen runs. Like... yeah.
+  pre_exec $hostname 'hostname';
+  pre_if $hostname ~* ^proxy_for_(.+) {
+    proxy_pass http://$1/;
+  }
+
+=head2 pre_warn
+
+This directive, when interpreted, will generate a warning to the standard error
+of nginx-confgen. Can be used to signal that a special configuration is being
+used:
+
+  pre_if -e /etc/offline-mode {
+    pre_warn "Putting website in offline mode!";
+  }
+
+Or to warn about certain directives:
+
+  pre_macro proxy_cache $var {
+    pre_warn "Using proxy_cache with $var violates company policy!";
+
+    # But we can output it anyway.
+    proxy_cache $var;
+  }
+
+=head2 macro
+
+Define a I<macro>, which is a configuration block that you can later refer to.
+The general syntax is as follows:
+
+  macro macro_name $var1 $var2 @remaining_vars &block_var {
+    # contents
+  }
+
+The optional C<@remaining_vars> argument will capture any number of variables,
+and can be passed to another directive inside the macro contents. The optional
+C<&block_var> allows the macro to be invoked with a block argument, which will
+expand to any number of directives. Some examples:
+
+  macro le {
+    location /.well-known/acme-challenge {
+      alias /etc/letsencrypt/challenge;
+    }
+  }
+  # Usage:
+  le;
+
+  macro redir $path $to {
+    location $path {
+      return 301 $to;
+    }
+  }
+  # Usage:
+  redir / http://blicky.net/;
+
+  macro vhost $primary_name @aliases &block {
+    server {
+      listen [::]:443 ssl;
+      server_name $primary_name @aliases;
+      ssl_certificate $crtdir/$primary_name/fullchain.pem;
+      ssl_certificate_key $crtdir/$primary_name/privkey.pem;
+      &block;
+    }
+  }
+  # Usage:
+  vhost example.com {
+    root /var/www/example.com;
+  }
+  vhost example.org alias.example.org {
+    root /var/www/example.org;
+  }
+
+Note that these are I<hygienic> macros, so variable capture is predictable (but
+not necessarily the most useful):
+
+  pre_var $dest /a;
+  macro redir {
+    # This will be /a, regardless of the context in which this macro is called.
+    return 301 $dest;
+  }
+  # $dest is still '/a' inside the macro after this new variable definition.
+  pre_var $dest /b;
+  redir;
+
+Similarly, macro arguments will not be available inside C<&block> expansion or
+nested macro expansion.
+
+
+=head1 BUGS & WARTS
+
+nginx-confgen is a quickly written hack to solve a particular use case, it is
+quite likely to have some weird behavior and bugs. Here's a few I am aware of:
+
+=over
+
+=item *
+
+The nginx configuration syntax is not as regular as I had hoped. It's possible
+for nginx modules to extend the syntax somewhat. A good example is the I<types>
+directive in I<ngx_http_core_module>. While nginx-confgen should be able to
+handle the I<types> directive just fine, other extensions may cause syntax
+errors or will not survive a round-trip through nginx-confgen.
+
+This applies to all I<*_by_lua_block> directives in the I<ngx_http_lua_module>.
+The I<_by_lua> directives that accept a string should work just fine.
+
+=item *
+
+Be careful with parenthesis around if statements, e.g.:
+
+  if ($a == $b) { }
+
+Will get converted into:
+
+  if "(${a}" == "${b})" { }
+
+Which is unlikely what you want. As a workaround, add some spaces:
+
+  if ( $a == $b ) { }
+
+=item *
+
+Arguments to directives may get reformatted, especially if they contain a
+variable. This I<should> not matter in most cases, but in some particular
+scenarios it does. Here's a few examples of reformatting:
+
+  return 301 http://blicky.net$request_uri;
+  # becomes:
+  return 301 "http://blicky.net${request_uri}";
+
+  add_header Something "${header}";
+  # becomes:
+  add_header Something $header;
+
+This reformatting may cause different behavior for nginx directives that do not
+support variable interpolation, such as C<error_log>.
+
+=item *
+
+C<pre_if> does not like empty strings, e.g.
+
+  pre_if $x == "" { }
+
+Will throw an error, use the following instead:
+
+  pre_if $x { }
+
+=item *
+
+The error messages aren't always helpful.
+
+=back
+
+
+
+=head1 AUTHOR
+
+nginx-confgen is written by Yoran Heling <projects@yorhel.nl>
+
+Web: L<https://dev.yorhel.nl/nginx-confgen>