How to fix syntax error for [not allowed here]?

Question

I have set 2 headers below for converting SAML values returning from Siteminder to HTTP header.

MellonSetEnvNoPrefix YYY_ID yyy
MellonSetEnvNoPrefix XXX_ROLE xxx

I got the error below after starting apache:

Starting httpd: Syntax error on line 8 of /XXX/XXXXX/XXXX/auth_mellon.conf:

MellonSetEnvNoPrefix not allowed here 
                                          [FAILED]

How to fix this syntax error?

Answer 1

I'd double check that you have the mod_auth_mellon module installed and loaded within Apache. Docs on how to accomplish this are here - https://github.com/Uninett/mod_auth_mellon.

Then confirm that the module is loaded:

LoadModule auth_mellon_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_auth_mellon.so

Once the module is loaded those messages should likely cease. If you find that they do not you may need to put those properties inside of a <Location /xxxx> block to tell Apache which location should be using them when it's loaded. Again the URL provided above shows more examples of this:

###########################################################################
# End of global configuration for mod_auth_mellon.
###########################################################################    

# This defines a directory where mod_auth_mellon should do access control.
<Location /secret>    
...
...
# MellonSetEnvNoPrefix is identical to MellonSetEnv, except this
# does not prepend 'MELLON_' to the constructed environment variable.
# The syntax is 'MellonSetEnvNoPrefix <local name> <IdP name>'.
# You can list multiple MellonSetEnvNoPrefix directives.
# Default. None set.
# MellonSetEnvNoPrefix "DISPLAY_NAME" "displayName"

MellonSetEnvNoPrefix YYY_ID yyy
MellonSetEnvNoPrefix XXX_ROLE xxx

</Location>