Apache assigning headers to HTTP environment variables?

Question

When I print out environment variables on my back-end content Apache server I see a set of variables called HTTP_OBLIX_*' For example:
HTTP_OBLIX_UID
HTTP_OBLIX_email

The only place I can find OBLIX items defined is in the request headers being sent to the back-end by the Single Sign on Server. It defines all of the OBLIX values as request header variables. For example:
OBLIX_UID
OBLIX_email

I can't find anywhere in the Apache configuration where these headers would be converted to environment variables so i'm wondering if this is something Apache does automatically or what is goin on here.

Evert · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-08 18:48:48Z

1

Apache will convert any HTTP header to these CGI variables. Variables are uppercased, prefixed with HTTP_ and dashes will be replaced with underscores.

I don't think this is unique for Apache. I believe other servers that follow the CGI model will also do this. You can also see this in for example PHP, where all the HTTP headers are exposed as $_SERVER['HTTP_MY_HEADER']

answered Jul 8, 2020 at 18:48

Evert

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2 Comments

usshadowop Over a year ago

Thank you very much, i thought it was something to this effect but could not find a direct reference tot his fact in the Apache environment variable documentation.

Evert Over a year ago

If you're looking for an official specification, you might be able to find the CGI spec

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