# How does request.host get set? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [July 20, 2008, 9:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-does-request-host-get-set/143545 "2008-07-20T09:50:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Reynard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/6bbea6/32.png) [@Reynard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Reynard)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 9:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-does-request-host-get-set/143545/1 "2008-07-20T09:50:05Z")
how does request.host get set? Is there a way to manually set the value in request.host? I have several application servers running rails, each has its own internal address in the request.host, so when calling redirect\_to or url\_for function, it uses the internal address which is not accessible to the user. what I want is to set request.host to return [mysite.com](http://mysite.com), no matter which application server it’s running on. - reynard ---
**Author:** ![Reynard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/6bbea6/32.png) [@Reynard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Reynard)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 12:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-does-request-host-get-set/143545/2 "2008-07-20T12:42:40Z")
On 20 Jul 2008, at 08:49, Reynard wrote: > how does request.host get set? Is there a way to manually set the > value in request.host? Probably based on environment variables passed through by whatever is sitting in front of mongrel (assuming that’s the setup you’re using). In something like nginx you can tell it to pass though various headers eg: proxy\_set\_header Host $http\_host; Fred ---
**Author:** ![Reynard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/6bbea6/32.png) [@Reynard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Reynard)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 4:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-does-request-host-get-set/143545/3 "2008-07-20T16:37:47Z")
Thanks for the hints. I’m using apache & mongrel. I think I found where it gets set, in the cgi\_process.rb, apparently env[“HTTP\_X\_FORWARDED\_HOST”] is used to get the host, in my case there are 2 values, the public and the private address, it happens to take the latter. now I need to find where HTTP\_X\_FORWARDED\_HOST gets set. it seems that it should be apache conf thing right? - reynard On Jul 20, 6:41 am, Frederick C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![Reynard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/6bbea6/32.png) [@Reynard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Reynard)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 5:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-does-request-host-get-set/143545/4 "2008-07-20T17:13:54Z")
On 20 Jul 2008, at 15:37, Reynard wrote: > Thanks for the hints. I’m using apache & mongrel. I think I found > where it gets set, in the cgi\_process.rb, apparently > env[“HTTP\_X\_FORWARDED\_HOST”] is used to get the host, in my case there > are 2 values, the public and the private address, it happens to take > the latter. now I need to find where HTTP\_X\_FORWARDED\_HOST gets set. > it seems that it should be apache conf thing right? Yup, that should be an apache thing Fred ---
**Author:** ![Reynard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/6bbea6/32.png) [@Reynard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Reynard)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 5:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-does-request-host-get-set/143545/5 "2008-07-20T17:57:51Z")
interesting finding: you have to set ProxyPreserveHost On in Apache, so it does not append the local server name. - reynard On Jul 20, 11:11 am, Frederick C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)