---
name: "merecat.conf"
section: "5"
platform: "linux"
package: "merecat"
version: "2.31+git20220513+ds-5"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/merecat.conf"
---

# merecat.conf(5)

merecat httpd configuration file

## NAME

**merecat.conf** – merecat httpd configuration file

## INTRODUCTION

When **merecat** starts up it looks for its configuration file, */etc/merecat.conf*. This manual page documents the settings available, which allows for more advanced setups.  For simpler use-cases, however, you may not need a **merecat.conf** since the server runs fine with only command line parameters.

## DESCRIPTION

The syntax of the config file is UNIX style **key** **=** **value**, separated by whitespace.  The “#” character marks the start of a comment to end of line.  The \\ character can be used as an escape character.

*Note:* changes to the configuration file are require a restart of **merecat**, unlike many other UNIX daemons **SIGHUP** does not reload the *.conf* file.

### Configuration Directives

- **charset** **=** "*STRING*"

  Character set to use with text MIME types, default "UTF-8". If the default unicode charset causes trouble, try "iso-8859-1".

- **check-referer** **=** *\<true* \| *false\>*

  Enable check for external sites referencing material on your web server. For more information on referrers, see [merecat(8)](/merecat/8.md). Disabled by default.

- **check-symlinks** **=** *\<true* \| *false\>*

  For increased security, set this to true.  Unless running chrooted in which case this is not really necessary.  Disabled by default.

- **chroot** **=** *\<true* \| *false\>*

  Change web server root to *WEBDIR*, or the current directory, if no *WEBDIR* is given as argument.  Chrooting is a security measure and means that **merecat.conf** cannot access files outside it, unless files are bind mounted, or similar into the chroot.  Disabled by default.

- **compression-level** **=** *-1..9*

  Control the compression level of the built-in Apache-like mod\_deflate. The default value is -1, which gives a reasonable compromize between speed and compression.  To disable compression set this to *0* and to get maximum compression, *9*.

  The default setting, *-1*, means all "text/\*" MIME type files, larger than 256 bytes, are compressed before sending to the client.

- **directory** **=** *DIR*

  If no WEBDIR is given on the command line this option can be used to change the web server document root.  Defaults to the current directory. When chrooting this is the root directory, see the **data-directory** directive for more help.

- **data-directory** **=** *DIR*

  This setting is only relevant when chrooting, it adjusts the web server document root relative to the **directory** directive.

- **global-passwd** **=** *\<true* \| *false\>*

  Set this to true to protect the entire directory tree with a single *.htpasswd* and/or *.htaccess* file.  When unset, which is the default, **merecat.conf** looks for a local *.htpasswd* and *.htaccess* file, or serves the file without password.

- **hostname** **=** *HOSTNAME*

  The hostname to bind to when multihoming.  For more details on this, see below discussion.

- **list-dotfiles** **=** *\<true* \| *false\>*

  If dotfiles should be skipped in directory listings.  Disabled by default.

- **local-pattern** **=** "*PATTERN*"

  Used with **check-referer**, see [merecat(8)](/merecat/8.md) for more details.

- **max-age** **=** *SEC*

  Controls the global max-age setting, in seconds, set in the HTTP/1.1 "*Cache-Control:* *max-age*" header, returned with all responses.  The default setting is disabled since v2.32 and the user is recommended to use per-resource cache control.  See the server location directive for details.

- **port** **=** *PORT*

  The web server Internet port to listen to, defaults to 80, or 443 when HTTPS is enabled.  See the **ssl** section below for more on configuring an HTTPS server.

- **url-pattern** **=** "*PATTERN*"

  Used with **check-referer**, see [merecat(8)](/merecat/8.md) for more details.

- **username** **=** "*NAME*"

  Set username to drop privileges to after startup.  Defaults to "nobody" which usually is defined on all UNIX systems.

- **virtual-host** **=** *\<true* \| *false\>*

  Enable virtual hosting, disabled by default.  For more information on this, see [merecat(8)](/merecat/8.md).

- **user-agent-deny** **=** "*PATTERN*"

  Wildcard pattern to deny access to illicit hammering bots.  When set a matching user-agent will receive a 403 for all its requests.  Use for instance "\*\*SemrushBot\*\*" or "\*\*SemrushBot\*\*\|\*\*MJ12Bot\*\*\|\*\*DotBot\*\*" to match multiple user-agents.

  The default is disabled, i.e. all user-agents are allowed.

- **cgi** "*PATTERN*" **{**

  Wildcard pattern for CGI programs, for instance "\*\*.cgi" or "\*\*.cgi\|/cgi-bin/\*". See the dedicated CGI section in [merecat(8)](/merecat/8.md) for more on this.

  - **enabled** **=** *\<true* \| *false\>*

    The CGI module is disabled by default.

  - **limit** **=** *NUM*

    Maximum number of allowed simultaneous CGI programs.  Default 1.

- **}**

  - **php** "*PATTERN*" **{**

  Wildcard pattern for PHP scripts, for instance "\*\*.php\*" or "\*\*.php5\*\|\*\*.php4\*\|\*\*.php\*". Notice the trailing **\***, it is very important otherwise any HTTP GET request with arguments will fail.

  - **enabled** **=** *\<true* \| *false\>*

    The PHP module is disabled by default.

  - **cgi-path** **=** "*/path/to/php-cgi*"

    Default is "*/usr/bin/php-cgi*"

- **}**

  - **ssi** "*PATTERN*" **{**

  Wildcard pattern for triggering SSI, for instance "\*\*.shtml" or "\*\*.shtml\|\*\*.stm\|\*\*.shtm".

  - **enabled** **=** *\<true* \| *false\>*

    The SSI module is disabled by default.

  - **cgi-path** **=** "*/path/to/ssi*"

    Default is "*cgi-bin/ssi*". See [ssi(8)](/ssi/8.md) for more information.

  - **silent** **=** *\<true* \| *false\>*

    This setting can be used to silence “\[an error occurred while processing the directive\]”, shown when an error occurrs during SSI processing. Default disabled (false).

- **}**

  - **ssl** **{**

  - **protocol** **=** "*PROTOCOL*"

    Minimum SSL/TLS protocol level to enable.  Can be one of: *SSLv3,* *TLSv1,* *TLSv1.1,* *TLSv1.2,* *TLSv1.3*. The default minimum protocol is *TLSv1.1*. Note, some (Linux) distributions have *SSLv3* disabled by default in their OpenSSL packages.

  - **ciphers** **=** "*CIPHERS*"

    The preferred list of ciphers the server supports.  For a list of available ciphers, see the ciphers(1) man page.  The default covers both TLSv1.3 (new ciphersuite) and older cipher list:

    ```
    TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256:TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256: \
    HIGH:!aNULL:!kRSA:!PSK:!SRP:!MD5:!RC4:!DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA:             \
    !DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA128-SHA:!ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:                      \
    !DHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:!DHE-RSA-AES256-CCM8:!DHE-RSA-AES256-CCM:        \
    !DHE-RSA-AES128-CCM8:!DHE-RSA-AES128-CCM
    ```

  - **certfile** **=** */path/to/cert.pem*

    Public part of HTTPS certificate, optionally with full certificate chain.  E.g., **fullchain.pem** if you use Let's Encrypt.  Only PEM format is supported.

  - **keyfile** **=** */path/to/key.pem*

    Private key of HTTPS certificate, e.g., **privkey.pem** if you use Let's Encrypt.  Only PEM format is supported.

    **Note:** This file must be kept private and should not be in the WEBROOT directory.

  - **dhfile** **=** */path/th/dhparam.pem*

    Optional Diffie-Hellman parameters.  Not secret, unlike the **keyfile** the **dhfile** can be published online, if necessary.  Create one like this:

    ```
    openssl dhparam -out dhparam.pem 2048
    ```

- **}**

  - **server** *name* **{**

  - **port** **=** *PORT*

    Server port to listen to.

  - **ssl** **{** *...* **}**

    Same as the global settings, above, only for this server.

  - **location** "*PATTERN*" {

    - **path** **=** *path/to/rewrite*

      If a server location directive is found it has precedence over any **redirect** or virtual host.  It is primarily used to rewrite, or redirect, requests inside the current server context.

      E.g., for handling **certbot** HTTP-01 renewal, use this in the port 80 server context.  Any other path will be redirected to HTTPS, using the below **redirect** directive:

      ```
      location "/.well-known/acme-challenge/**" {
          path = "letsencrypt/.well-known/acme-challenge/"
      }
      ```

  - **redirect** "*PATTERN*" {

    - **code** **=** *CODE*

      HTTP redirect code to use, default: 301.  Supported codes are: 301, 302, 303, 307.

    - **location** **=** "*proto://$host:port$request\_uri$args*"

      Location to return for redirect, e.g. to redirect all request for HTTP to HTTPS for the same (virtual) host:

      ```
      redirect "/**" {
          code = 301
          location = "https://$host$request_uri$args"
      }
      ```

  - **}**

    - **}**

  ## SEE ALSO

[merecat(8)](/merecat/8.md)

## AUTHORS

Jef Poskanzer ⟨jef@mail.acme.com⟩ wrote the famous **thttpd** which **merecat.conf** is based on.\
 Joachim Wiberg ⟨troglobit@gmail.com⟩ added the .conf file parser and this man page.