Apache Gone

An Apache httpd module that returns HTTP 410 Gone for URIs listed in a map file. Port of nginx-gone for Apache.

Features

• Simple map file — one URI per line, read once at config load
• Exact matching — O(1) hash table lookup for exact URIs
• Regex matching — PCRE patterns with ~ (case-sensitive) and ~* (case-insensitive)
• Per-context control — enable/disable at server or directory/location level
• Early interception — translate_name hook, before content handlers
• No dependencies — pure Apache API (APR), no external libraries
• Dynamic module — works with LoadModule
• nginx map compatible — reuse existing map files (second column ignored)

Documentation & Support

📖 Wiki - Guides, tutorials, and reference

💬 Discussions - Questions, help, and feedback

Quick Start

1. Install

Debian/Ubuntu:

# Add the OBS repository (see Installation Guide for details)
apt install apache-gone

Fedora/RHEL:

# Add the OBS repository (see Installation Guide for details)
dnf install apache-gone

2. Create a map file

cat > /etc/apache2/maps/gone.map <<EOF
# Removed blog posts
/blog/2020/deleted-post 1
/blog/2019/old-article 1

# Discontinued products
/products/old-widget 1

# Regex: everything under /deprecated/
~^/deprecated/ 1

# Case-insensitive: old PHP pages
~*^/old-(.*)\.php$ 1
EOF

3. Configure Apache

LoadModule gone_module modules/mod_gone.so

# Load the gone URI map (read once at startup / reload)
GoneMapFile /etc/apache2/maps/gone.map

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName example.com
    GoneEnabled on

    DocumentRoot /var/www/html

    # Disable gone checking for the API
    <Location /api>
        GoneEnabled off
    </Location>
</VirtualHost>

4. Test

apachectl configtest && apachectl graceful
curl -I http://example.com/blog/2020/deleted-post
# HTTP/1.1 410 Gone

Configuration Reference

Directive	Context	Default	Description
GoneEnabled	server, directory, location	off	Enable/disable gone checking
GoneMapFile	server config	—	Path to URI list file
GoneUseRequestUri	server config	off	Match original request URI instead of decoded URI

Map File Format

# Comments start with #
/exact/path 1              # Exact match
~^/regex/pattern 1         # Case-sensitive regex
~*^/case-insensitive 1     # Case-insensitive regex

• One URI per line
• Second column is optional (ignored, for nginx map compatibility)
• ~ prefix = case-sensitive PCRE regex
• ~* prefix = case-insensitive PCRE regex
• Everything else = exact string match

Building from Source

cd src
apxs -i -a -c mod_gone.c

Repository Structure

• src/ — Apache module source code
• conf/ — Example configuration
• test/ — Test suite
• debian/ — Debian packaging files

Related Projects

Module	Description	GitHub
apache-cf-realip	Automatic Cloudflare IP list for RemoteIPTrustedProxy	GitHub
apache-torblocker	Control access from Tor exit nodes	GitHub
apache-waf	IP/CIDR-based access control with named lists	GitHub
apache-waf-api	REST API daemon for dynamic IP list management	GitHub
apache-waf-feeds	Automatic threat feed updater	GitHub
apache-waf-ui	Web management interface	GitHub

nginx Counterparts

nginx Module	Apache Module
nginx-gone	apache-gone (this project)
nginx-cf-realip	apache-cf-realip
nginx-torblocker	apache-torblocker
nginx-waf	apache-waf

License

Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE.md.