What is the difference between HTTP_HOST and SERVER_NAME in PHP?

Question

What is the difference between HTTP_HOST and SERVER_NAME in PHP?

where:

• HTTP_HOST === $_SERVER[\'HTTP_HOST\'

Answer 1

As I mentioned in this answer, if the server runs on a port other than 80 (as might be common on a development/intranet machine) then HTTP_HOST contains the port, while SERVER_NAME does not.

$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] == 'localhost:8080'
$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] == 'localhost'

(At least that's what I've noticed in Apache port-based virtualhosts)

Note that HTTP_HOST does not contain :443 when running on HTTPS (unless you're running on a non-standard port, which I haven't tested).

As others have noted, the two also differ when using IPv6:

$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] == '[::1]'
$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] == '::1'