mail proxy-like HTTP proxy (delegating decisions to unix socket)

[Attila Nagy]

Hello,

I wonder wether it is possible to use nginx as an intelligent HTTP 
reverse proxy, where the intelligence relies in an outside program.
Currently there is the mail proxy module for IMAP and POP, which does 
something similar: it sends the incoming parameters to an outside 
program, which can decide what to do.

An interface like this would be a nice feature for the HTTP reverse proxy.

It could send out all information to the unix socket, and the receiving 
program could set variables (for example to which target machine should 
the connection get proxied to), or give back status codes (eg. when the 
client is not allowed to PUT, only GET, doing redirects (both inside the 
URL and with HTTP status codes)).

Is there something like that for nginx? Is this doable with embedded 
perl? (I think it blocks, so it's not a good idea to make calls outside 
it and while the it waits for the reponse, the whole process waits...)

Thanks,