Apache virtualhost - only apply script if file does not exist in document root

Question

Sorry for the newbie apache question. I'm wondering if it's possible to set up the following non-conventional apache virtualhost (for a Django app):

-- If a file exists in the DocumentRoot (/var/www) it will be shown. So if /var/www/foo.html exists, then it can be seen at www.example.com/foo.html.

-- If file does not exist, it is served via a virtualhost. I'm using mod_wsgi with a WSGIScriptAlias directive that points to a Django app. So if there is no /var/www/bar.html, www.example.com/bar.html will be passed to the Django app, which may or may not be a 404 error.

One option is to create an Alias for each individual file/directory, but people want to be able to post a file without adding an alias, and we want to keep the above URL structure for legacy reasons.

Simplified Virtualhost is:

<VirtualHost *:80> ServerName www.example.com DocumentRoot /var/www WSGIScriptAlias / /path/to/django.wsgi <Directory /path/to/app> Order allow,deny Allow from all </Directory> Alias /hi.html /var/www/hi.html </VirtualHost> 

The goal is to have www.example.com/hi.html work as above, without the Alias line

Answer 1

Documentation on mod_wsgi site on how to do this is at:

http://code.google.com/p/modwsgi/wiki/ConfigurationGuidelines#The_Apache_Alias_Directive

Use combination of AddHandler and mod_rewrite. Don't use WSGIScriptAlias.

Answer 2

Using apache I do not believe this is possible, using nGinx however.

... <The rest of your server {} config above> location @fallback { proxy_pass http://<your_uwscgi_server>:<port>; } error_page 404 = @fallback; <any futher server {} configuration> 

I may be wrong, for instance I do not know enough about EnvIF in apache and ether this could be used to provide similar functionality.