Install with apache

Install Apache Reverse Proxy using filtron.sh

$ sudo -H ./utils/filtron.sh apache install

Install Apache Reverse Proxy using morty.sh

$ sudo -H ./utils/morty.sh apache install

The apache HTTP server

If Apache is not installed, install it now. If apache is new to you, the Getting Started, Configuration Files and Terms Used to Describe Directives documentation gives first orientation. There is also a list of Apache directives to keep in the pocket.

sudo -H apt-get install apache2

Now at http://localhost you should see any kind of Welcome or Test page. How this default intro site is configured, depends on the linux distribution (compare Apache directives).

less /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf

In this file, there is a line setting the DocumentRoot directive:

DocumentRoot /var/www/html

And the welcome page is the HTML file at /var/www/html/index.html.

Apache Reverse Proxy

To setup a Apache revers proxy you have to enable the headers and proxy modules and create a Location configuration for the searx site. In most distributions you have to un-comment the lines in the main configuration file, except in The Debian Layout.

In the Apache setup, enable headers and proxy modules:

sudo -H a2enmod headers
sudo -H a2enmod proxy
sudo -H a2enmod proxy_http

In The Debian Layout you create a searx.conf with the <Location /searx > directive and save this file in the sites available folder at /etc/apache2/sites-available. To enable the searx.conf use man: a2ensite:

sudo -H a2ensite searx.conf

With ProxyPreserveHost the incoming Host HTTP request header is passed to the proxied host.

Use this setup, if your instance is public to the internet, compare figure: architecture and Installation scripts.

  1. Configure a reverse proxy for filtron, listening on localhost 4004 (Route request through filtron):

<Location /searx >

    # SetEnvIf Request_URI "/searx" dontlog
    # CustomLog /dev/null combined env=dontlog

    Require all granted

    Order deny,allow
    Deny from all
    #Allow from fd00::/8 192.168.0.0/16 fe80::/10 127.0.0.0/8 ::1
    Allow from all

    ProxyPreserveHost On
    ProxyPass http://127.0.0.1:4004
    RequestHeader set X-Script-Name /searx

</Location>

2. Configure reverse proxy for morty, listening on localhost 3000

ProxyPreserveHost On

<Location /morty >

    # SetEnvIf Request_URI "/morty" dontlog
    # CustomLog /dev/null combined env=dontlog

    Require all granted

    Order deny,allow
    Deny from all
    #Allow from fd00::/8 192.168.0.0/16 fe80::/10 127.0.0.0/8 ::1
    Allow from all

    ProxyPass http://127.0.0.1:3000
    RequestHeader set X-Script-Name /morty

</Location>

For a fully result proxification add morty’s public URL to your Origin: searx/settings.yml:

result_proxy:
    # replace example.org with your server's public name
    url : https://example.org/morty
    key : !!binary "insert_your_morty_proxy_key_here"

server:
    image_proxy : True

uWSGI support

Be warned, with this setup, your instance isn’t protected, nevertheless it is good enough for intranet usage. In modern Linux distributions, the mod_proxy_uwsgi is compiled into the normal apache package and you need to install only the uWSGI package:

sudo -H apt-get install uwsgi

# Ubuntu =< 18.04
sudo -H apt-get install libapache2-mod-proxy-uwsgi

The next example shows a configuration using the uWSGI Apache support via unix sockets and mod_proxy_uwsgi.

For socket communication, you have to activate socket = /run/uwsgi/app/searx/socket and comment out the http = 127.0.0.1:8888 configuration in your uwsgi ini file. If not already exists, create a folder for the unix sockets, which can be used by the searx account (see Create user):

sudo -H mkdir -p /run/uwsgi/app/searx/
sudo -H chown -R searx:searx /run/uwsgi/app/searx/

If the server is public; to limit access to your intranet replace Allow from all directive and replace 192.168.0.0/16 with your subnet IP/class.

LoadModule headers_module /usr/lib/apache2/mod_headers.so
LoadModule proxy_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_uwsgi_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_proxy_uwsgi.so

# SetEnvIf Request_URI /searx dontlog
# CustomLog /dev/null combined env=dontlog

<Location /searx>

    Require all granted
    Order deny,allow
    Deny from all
    # Allow from fd00::/8 192.168.0.0/16 fe80::/10 127.0.0.0/8 ::1
    Allow from all

    ProxyPreserveHost On
    ProxyPass unix:/run/uwsgi/app/searx/socket|uwsgi://uwsgi-uds-searx/

</Location>

Restart service

sudo -H systemctl restart apache2
sudo -H service uwsgi restart searx

disable logs

For better privacy you can disable Apache logs. In the examples above activate one of the lines and restart apache:

# SetEnvIf Request_URI "/searx" dontlog
# CustomLog /dev/null combined env=dontlog

The CustomLog directive disable logs for the whole (virtual) server, use it when the URL of the service does not have a path component (/searx) / is located at root (/).

The Debian Layout

Be aware that the Debian layout is quite different from the standard Apache configuration. For details look at the README.Debian (/usr/share/doc/apache2/README.Debian.gz). Some commands you should know on Debian: