How to Install Lighttpd on Alpine Linux

Installing and using the Lighttpd web server on Alpine Linux is quite straightforward. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get started:

1. Install Lighttpd

First, you need to install Lighttpd using the apk package manager:

apk update
apk add lighttpd

2. Configure Lighttpd

Create the necessary directories and set the correct permissions:

mkdir -p /var/www/localhost/htdocs /var/log/lighttpd /var/lib/lighttpd
chown -R lighttpd:lighttpd /var/www/localhost/ /var/log/lighttpd /var/lib/lighttpd

3. Enable Lighttpd to Start at Boot

Add Lighttpd to the default runlevel so that it starts automatically:

rc-update add lighttpd default

4. Start Lighttpd

Start the Lighttpd service:

rc-service lighttpd start

5. Create a Test Page

Create a simple test page to verify that Lighttpd is running:

echo "It works!" > /var/www/localhost/htdocs/index.html

6. Access the Web Server

Open a web browser and navigate to http://<your-server-ip>. You should see the message “It works!”.

7. Configure Lighttpd (Optional)

If you need to configure Lighttpd further, you can edit the configuration file located at /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf. For example, to enable the mod_status module, you can add the following lines:

sed -i -r 's#\\#.*mod_status.*,.*#    "mod_status",#g' /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf
sed -i -r 's#.*status.status-url.*=.*#status.status-url  = "/stats/server-status"#g' /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf
sed -i -r 's#.*status.config-url.*=.*#status.config-url  = "/stats/server-config"#g' /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf
rc-service lighttpd restart

8. Testing

To test the configuration, open a browser and navigate to http://<your-server-ip>/stats/server-status to see the status page.

By following these steps, you should have a fully functional Lighttpd web server running on Alpine Linux. For more detailed information, you can refer to the Alpine Linux Wiki and Lighttpd documentation.

Happy hosting! 🚀

Chuck Norris Joke: When Chuck Norris configures a Lighttpd server, there’s no need for error pages. The server doesn’t dare to error.