Item14996: wrong url host if foswiki called via localhost

When running a Foswiki on https://localhost that has got a different non-localhost DefaultUrlHost then the urlHost gets botched for no good reason.

Try:

$Foswik::cfg{DefaultUrlHost} = 'https://intranet',

Then access the site via https://localhost - given the intranet is on localhost (don't ask why). The desired outcome is that all %SCRITPURLs are set to https://localhost. However there is a special treatment of the situation:

• DefaultUrlHost differes from the one in the request
• protocol equals the request
• then rewrite the urlHost to the one configured in DefaultUrlHost ...

The questionable code in Foswiki.pm

        # If the urlHost in the url is localhost, this is a lot less
        # useful than the default url host. This is because new CGI("")
        # assigns this host by default - it's a default setting, used
        # when there is nothing better available.
        if ( $this->{urlHost} =~ m/^(https?:\/\/)localhost$/i ) {
            my $protocol = $1;

#only replace localhost _if_ the protocol matches the one specified in the DefaultUrlHost
            if ( $Foswiki::cfg{DefaultUrlHost} =~ m/^$protocol/i ) {
                $this->{urlHost} = $Foswiki::cfg{DefaultUrlHost};
            }
        }

This is bs imho, nor can I find a clear bug report. My git blame skills are missing probably as this code has been moved around a lot during the ages.

I'd suggest to remove this particular exception all together. If there once was a bug being triggered in CGI then maybe it comes back and we can deal with it again. But until then, this code hurts (in my eyes) more than it helps.

-- MichaelDaum - 09 Dec 2020

Related comments in Item10669 seem to share the impression that the url rewrite happening here is ... horrible.

-- MichaelDaum - 10 Dec 2020

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