Re: A patch to keep cache directory out of webroot

Jonn Beames wrote:
> Unfortunately, not possible for a number of reasons.  For page caching, 
> the output directory must be known before the modules are loaded.  For 
> the most efficient page caching, the output directory must be know 
> before xarCore is loaded.
> 
> We can, however, consider setting the output directory in the 
> config.caching.php file which is read by both xarCache and xarCacheManager.
And managed by xarCacheManager i assume?  Let me rephrase a bit what i 
meant. The location should be a modvar for the xarCacheManager module, 
just like all the other settings. config.caching.php is currently the 
way we have to store these variables during runtime (note the 'currently').
I actually thought the other settings were already modvars in 
xarCachemanager, am i wrong?

> But this does not address the problem, which is the var/cache directory, 
> so this alone is insufficient.
yep

> Marcel - is there a bug on this, or something else we can be pointed to? 
>  I did a quick search, but couldn't find it.  If there isn't, I'll 
> submit a feature request so we can track it.
As far as i know there is no bug on this.


>> Other than those, and given some more eyeballs, i dont see much problems.
That was a bit of an understatement probably.  If we are going all the 
way, this should be a scenario in which we clearly define what the 'var' 
directory is for, because it is now a bit of a catch all for things that 
need to be writable.
I would, for example, like to make a distinction between the 'data 
storage' part which is under the var directory (the workflow module for 
example, and the messaging templates) and the ' cache like' storage for 
templates and output.

RSS is a whole other story i think. Also, only recently i elminated the 
need for rsd.xml in the var directory. Are we ready to take this problem 
as a whole?

marcel

T
>> marce>>
>> Alla Bezroutchko wrote:
>>
>>> Hello MrB or whoever is reading this,
>>>
>>> Here is a patch that allows a configurable location of cache 
>>> directory, so it may be kept out of web root. As far as I can see it 
>>> does not break anything, but I only tested my setup, so more testing 
>>> is necessary I guess.
>>>
> 
> Very cool idea.  What do you think of the idea of making the whole var 
> directory movable to outside of the web root?
> 
>>> I create a new system config variable and then use it everywhere 
>>> where the path to cache is needed.
>>>
>>> The patch is made against xaraya-0.9.10-full.
>>>
>>> Alla.
>>>
> 
> Thanks again for the patch Alla - xarCache/xarCacheManager have already 
> gone though some post-0.9.10 revisions - mostly cleanup and refactoring, 
> but some design changes and bug fixes as well.  The submission of this 
> patch indicates that you are familiar with BitKeeper.  I invite you to 
> clone the actual xaraya repositories so that you can participate in code 
> refinement with us in real time. It will make patch integration easier. 
> Details:
> 
> http://xaraya.com:15000/
> 
> 
>>> [...]
>>>   */
>>>  
>>>  /**
>>> + * Load the Xaraya core
>>> + */
>>> +
>>> +/* Doing this before xarCache_init to have cache dir
>>> + * configured via system config
>>> + * This does not seem to break anything in my install
>>> +*/
>>> + +include 'includes/xarCore.php';
>>> +
>>> +
>>> +/**
>>>   * Set up output caching if enabled
>>>   */
>>> -if (file_exists('var/cache/output/cache.touch')) {
>>> +
>>> +
>>> +$varCacheDir = xarCore_getSystemVar('CacheDir');
>>> +if (file_exists($varCacheDir . '/output/cache.touch')) {
>>>      include_once('includes/xarCache.php');
>>>      // Note : we may already exit here if session-less page caching 
>>> is enabled
>>> -    if (xarCache_init(array('cacheDir' => 'var/cache/output'))) {
>>> +    if (xarCache_init(array('cacheDir' => $varCacheDir . '/output'))) {
>>>          define('XARCACHE_IS_ENABLED',1);
>>>      }
>>>  }
>>>  
>>>  /**
>>> - * Load the Xaraya core
>>> - */
>>> -include 'includes/xarCore.php';
>>> -
>>> -/**
>>>   * Main Xaraya Entry
>>>   *
>>>   * @access public
> 
> 
> One thing to note here is that it is very important that xarCache get 
> loaded before xarCore - on my dev box it means the difference of 98 
> cached pages per seconded over 18 cached pages per second for 
> session-less cached page serving.
> 
>>> [...]
>>>  
>>> +/*
>>> + * This value tells the system where the cache directory is located
>>> + * Thus it is possible to keep the writable cache directory
>>> + * outside of web root. It is particularly useful on Windows/IIS
>>> + * where a writable directory means an ability to upload files
>>> + * It can be set to var/cache to have the cache in its normal place
>>> +*/
> 
> 
> Currently, in the absence of the ability to move it out from under the 
> webroot, I recommend protecting var/ with mod_rewrite rules.  For apache 
> servers, this can achieve the same security benefit.
> 
> I've heard that there is something similar to mod_rewrite for IIS. 
> Unfortunately, I do not know anything about it, including whether or not 
> it is capable of limiting unwanted access.
> 
> Note: the cache directories do not actually need to be world writable, 
> only writable by the web server process owner.  If you have fine grained 
> control of your Windows/IIS environment, you may be able to further 
> limit your vulnerability with this information.
> 
>>> +
>>> +$systemConfiguration['CacheDir'] = '/var/www/cache';
>>> +
>>>  
>>>  /*
>>>   * This value is used to change the default behavior of the
> 
> 
> What do people say?  Are we up for finally making the var directory 
> movable?  If we are, I'm up for being a part of it, and working out the 
> issues that this will raise for xarCache.
> 
> Of course, I'm particularly interested in mikespub's thoughts/input.
> 
>  - Jonn