Introduction to Modification Scripts
Virtualmin provides a method for you to have your own scripts (typically shell scripts, but Perl and Python also work) run before or after a virtual server is created, modified or deleted.
This can be useful if you want to have some setup performed for each new domain that is beyond Virtualmin's built-in capabilities. They can also be used to validate changes made by a user before they happen, such as creation of a domain with settings that are inappropriate for your system.
Virtualmin lets you specify a script to be run before any action is performed, and a separate script to be run after. If the pre-change script fails (by returning a non-zero exit status), whatever action was going to happen will be blocked.
Example Scripts
Let's imagine you wanted each new virtual server to have a file it is home directory downloaded from some website. A post-creation script to implement this would look like :
#!/bin/sh
if [ "$VIRTUALSERVER_ACTION" = "CREATE_DOMAIN" ]; then
cd $VIRTUALSERVER_HOME
wget -O somefile.tar.gz "http://yourdomain.com/somefile.tar.gz"
chown $VIRTUALSERVER_USER:$VIRTUALSERVER_GROUP somefile.tar.gz
fi
If you had some external database that you wanted each new domain user to have an account in, you could automate this with a script like :
#!/bin/sh
if [ "$VIRTUALSERVER_PARENT" = "" ]; then
if [ "$VIRTUALSERVER_ACTION" = "CREATE_DOMAIN" ]; then
/usr/bin/add-to-database.pl $VIRTUALSERVER_USER $VIRTUALSERVER_PASS
fi
if [ "$VIRTUALSERVER_ACTION" = "DELETE_DOMAIN" ]; then
/usr/bin/remove-from-database.pl $VIRTUALSERVER_USER
fi
fi
Setting Pre and Post Modification Scripts
Once you have written a script, you can tell Virtualmin which scripts to run before or after some action is performed as follows :
- Login as
rootand go to System Settings -> Virtualmin Configuration. - Select the Actions upon server and user creation category.
- In the Command to run before making changes to a server field enter the full path to your pre-modification command, if any.
- In the Command to run after making changes to a server field, enter the full path to the post-modification command.
- Click Save.
Make sure the script(s) are executable, or else Virtualmin will not be able to run them.
Variables Available In Scripts
Every attribute of a virtual server is available via environment variables, all of which start with the $VIRTUALSERVER_ prefix. These are the same variables that can be used in email and other templates, as documented on the Template Variable Listing page. However, all script variables have $VIRTUALSERVER_ at the start, like $VIRTUALSERVER_DOM or $VIRTUALSERVER_PASS.
The action being performed can be determined by looking at the $VIRTUALSERVER_ACTION environment variable, which will be set to one of :