Rustinx — Minimal Static Web Server for Containers

Virtual hosts let you serve different content based on the Host header in the request. Each [[vhost]] block defines one site.

Basic Vhost

rustinx.toml

[[vhost]]
hostnames = ["mysite.com"]
root = "/static"

Catch-All Vhost

Use _ as the hostname to match any request that doesn't match another vhost:

[[vhost]]
hostnames = ["_"]
root = "/static"

This is the recommended setup for single-site containers.

Multiple Vhosts

Serve several sites from one container:

rustinx.toml

[[vhost]]
hostnames = ["blog.example.com"]
root = "/static/blog"
spa = true

[[vhost]]
hostnames = ["docs.example.com"]
root = "/static/docs"

[[vhost]]
hostnames = ["_"]
root = "/static/default"

Requests are matched in this order:

Exact hostname match
Wildcard match
Catch-all _

Wildcard Hostnames

Match all subdomains of a domain:

[[vhost]]
hostnames = ["*.example.com"]
root = "/static"

Rules:

*.example.com matches blog.example.com, app.example.com, etc.
It does not match the apex example.com — add it as a separate exact hostname if needed
Wildcards must have at least two labels: *.example.com is valid, *.com is rejected

Multiple Hostnames Per Vhost

One vhost can respond to several hostnames:

[[vhost]]
hostnames = ["example.com", "www.example.com"]
root = "/static"

Vhost Settings

Each vhost supports these options:

[[vhost]]
hostnames = ["mysite.com"]
root = "/static"                  # Directory to serve files from
index = "index.html"              # Default file for directories
spa = false                       # SPA fallback mode
spa_ignore = ["/assets"]          # Paths that skip SPA fallback
block_dot_paths = true            # Block .env, .git, etc.
etag = true                       # ETag caching headers
allowed_methods = ["GET", "HEAD"] # Allowed HTTP methods
deny_all = false                  # Block all static file access
custom_404 = "404.html"           # Custom 404 error page
redirects_file = "/etc/rustinx/redirects/mysite.toml"

All settings except hostnames and root are optional and inherit from [defaults].

Routes

Routes serve a specific file for a specific URL path. They are checked before normal static file serving:

[[vhost]]
hostnames = ["mysite.com"]
root = "/static"
deny_all = true

[[vhost.routes]]
path = "/landing"
serve = "landing.html"

[[vhost.routes]]
path = "/about"
serve = "about.html"

Routes use prefix matching. /landing matches both /landing and /landing/anything. Routes are sorted longest-first, so /app/admin is checked before /app.

deny_all Mode

When deny_all = true, normal static file serving is disabled. Only configured routes and redirects work:

[[vhost]]
hostnames = ["restricted.example.com"]
root = "/static"
deny_all = true

# Only this specific path serves content
[[vhost.routes]]
path = "/public"
serve = "public.html"

# Redirects still work
[[vhost.redirects]]
path = "/go"
url = "https://example.com"

GET / returns 403 Forbidden
GET /public returns the file
GET /go returns a redirect

Virtual Hosts