HTTP_HOST vs. SERVER_NAME

[janedenone]

Hi,

in a CGI script, I used to use the SERVER_NAME environment variable to
get the domain used for a request. The hostnames are defined in /etc/
hosts for 127.0.0.1.

Now when I use the same variable in Django
(request.META['SERVER_NAME']), I always get 'literaturlocal' as the
server name – even though I use a different hostname to contact the
server. The HTTP_HOST, however, is correct (e.g. 'janlocal:8080'). Why
does the Django development server store 'literaturlocal' as the
SERVER_NAME?

- Jan

[Malcolm Tredinnick]

It depends on the handler you're using, but Django basically stores
whatever the server passes along for that value. The only exception is
the modpython handler which uses the server_hostname value from the
modpython request (also not an unreasonable choice).

The behaviour also depends upon the web server and how it's configured
(for example, whether you have a ServerName directive in a virtual host
section in Apache).

Regards,
Malcolm

[janedenone]

Hi Malcolm,

Right, but I wonder why the WSGIServer picked up 'literaturlocal'. In /
etc/hosts, literaturlocal is just one element in a longer list, and
when I delete it and restart the dev server, another hostname from
that list gets picked arbitrarily. So requests for 'janlocal:8080/5'
and 'jakoblocal:8080/5' both cause request.META['SERVER_NAME'] to be
'literaturlocal'.

I cannot see the logic behind this.

Kind regards,
Jan