Listeners

Listeners define the network addresses and ports that OpenLiteSpeed binds to. Each listener can serve one or more virtual hosts and optionally terminate SSL/TLS.

Listener Configuration

Listeners are defined in /usr/local/lsws/conf/httpd_config.conf:

listener HTTP {
    address                 *:80
    secure                  0
}

listener HTTPS {
    address                 *:443
    secure                  1
    keyFile                 /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem
    certFile                /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem
}

Listener Parameters

Parameter	Description	Example
address	IP and port to bind. Use * for all interfaces.	*:80, 192.168.1.1:8080
secure	Enable SSL/TLS. 0 = plain HTTP, 1 = HTTPS.	1
keyFile	Path to the private key file (when secure = 1).	/path/to/privkey.pem
certFile	Path to the certificate file (when secure = 1).	/path/to/fullchain.pem
certChain	Enable certificate chain. 1 = on.	1

Virtual Host Mapping

Map virtual hosts to a listener in httpd_config.conf:

listener HTTP {
    address                 *:80
    secure                  0
    map                     example.com       example.com, www.example.com
    map                     app.example.com   app.example.com
}

The map directive syntax:

map  <virtual-host-name>  <domain1>, <domain2>, ...

The virtual host name must match the name defined in the virtualhost block. Domains can include wildcards:

map                     example.com       *.example.com

Multiple Listeners

You can define separate listeners for different purposes:

# Public HTTP
listener HTTP {
    address                 *:80
    secure                  0
    map                     example.com example.com, www.example.com
}

# Public HTTPS
listener HTTPS {
    address                 *:443
    secure                  1
    keyFile                 /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem
    certFile                /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem
    map                     example.com example.com, www.example.com
}

# Internal admin (bind to localhost only)
listener Admin {
    address                 127.0.0.1:8088
    secure                  0
    map                     internal internal.example.com
}

IPv6 Support

OLS supports IPv6 addresses:

listener HTTPv6 {
    address                 [::]:80
    secure                  0
    map                     example.com example.com
}

To listen on both IPv4 and IPv6, define separate listeners or use [::]:80 which may accept both depending on your OS net.ipv6.bindv6only setting.

SNI (Server Name Indication)

When multiple SSL virtual hosts share the same listener, OLS uses SNI to select the correct certificate. Each virtual host can specify its own certificate in the vhost config or via WebAdmin.

Next Steps

• SSL / TLS — detailed SSL configuration for listeners.
• Virtual Hosts — configure the sites mapped to listeners.
• Basic Configuration — other server-level settings.