Apache Installation by Jack Davis

Web Servers The Apache HTTP Server is the most widely used web server on the Internet. Apache is fast, free, and full-featured. It runs on many different platforms and has a multitude of third-party modules available to expand its functionality.

Understanding Apache Apache source, httpd – standard set of modules, numerous header and configuration files compiling apache – compile the server for your architecture and purposes using the config-make-make install routine common to open source software the latest version of gcc or other ANSI c compiler is required

How does it work? httpd – listens for requests and delivers files Apache modules are added to implement additional functionality A set of standard modules is delivered with the server when downloading httpd.conf – a text file that contains most set-up information for the server

httpd.conf The configuration files contain directives, which are one-line commands that tell the server what to do. The first thing Apache needs from the configuration file are basics like the listening port, server name, the default locations for content, logs, and other important files.

Example Directives ServerType standalone Port 80 ServerAdmin ServerName itec325server.radford.edu User nobody Group nobody

Handling Requests On Unix systems – the Apache daemon httpd always starts itself as a system superuser (root). On Windows – the Apache service is called apache and runs with administrator privileges. Once started – apache listens for requests on any address and port to which it has been configured

Handling Requests (Continued) Once a request is received - apache spawns a separate process to handle the connection - the spawned process does not run as the superuser (for security reasons) - it returns files to the client - normally apache has five such processes waiting for connections –

Handling Requests (continued) all resources (html docs etc) reside under a single root directory defined by the DocumentRoot directive this defines the base directory that is prepended to a URL path to locate a file on the server more complex mapping can be defined through aliasing, redirection, URL rewriting

Installation Process make a new directory called src just below your name directory (home/jcdavis/src) make a new directory named apache just below your name directory (home/jcdavis/apache) download httpd tar.gz into src (or current version) use gunzip to uncompress src>gunzip < httpd-2.0*.tar.gz | tar xvf – need to configure src>./configure –prefix=/home/jcdavis/apache –enable- module=so

Installation Process (continued) The purpose of the configure script is to figure out everything related to finding libraries, compile-time options, platform- specific differences, etc. Next have to make apache>make after finished have to install apache>make install

Installation Process (continued) at the prompt apache>./bin/httpd –v you should see the following output Server version:Apache/ Server built: Sep :20:47 to start & stop apache apache> apachectl start (restart) > apachectl stop DON’T START YET, must edit config

Installation Process (continued) You must edit the httpd.conf file that is in the conf directory under apache/conf (with vim or pico) Here are the changes - in the # prefork MPM section MAXSPARESERVERS 10  5 MAXCLIENTS 150  50 - #LISTEN CHANGE PORT NUMBER TO YOUR ASSIGNED PORT NUMBER

Control Commands apache>./bin/apachectl start (restart) apache>./bin/apachectl stop you should stop your server to minimize load on rucs whenever you’re not using it once started, open a browser you should receive a default page from apache that is rendered in the browser

Configuration File Apache keeps all of its configuration information in text files. The main file is named httpd.conf. It contains directives and containers Directives configure specific settings of Apache, such as authorization, performance, and network parameters. Containers specify the context to which those settings refer.

Directives directive arguments follow the directive name. directive arguments are separated by spaces. number and type of arguments vary from directive to directive. a directive occupies a single line, but can be continued by using a backslash \ to end the previous line the pound (#) sign should precede the directive and must appear on its own line

Documentation Server Documentation found at quick reference for all directives 2.0/mod/quickreference.html 2.0/mod/quickreference.html

Containers Also called sections, limit the scope for which directives apply. If directives are not inside a container, they belong to the default server scope (serverconfig) and apply to the server as a whole. Default Apache directive containers: - specifies a virtual server - directories - URL’s - certain files or patterns

Log Files Apache includes two log files by default - access_log is used to track client requests - error_log is used to record important events such as errors or server restarts

Installing PHP First, you must check to see that you don’t have an Ada compiler in your path variable in the.cshrc.solaris file - if you’ve been here for several years or have taken the Ada class you will have: source /usr/local/bin/ada_env near the end of the file you’ll have to comment out this line & log-off then log back on

Download the PHP files go to and follow the link to the downloads sectionhttp:// download the latest version of the source code, version to your src directory again you’ll have to untar this file >tar –xvzf php tar.gz you’ll have to move to the newly created php directory, cd php-4.3.3

Configure to execute the configure script >./configure –prefix=/home/username/php -- with-mysql=/home/mysql-php/mysql -- with-apxs2=/home/jcdavis/apache/bin/apxs (type this in one long command, let it wrap) (remember to replace username with your username, like jrsmith)

Make & Install Issue the make command > make then the make install > make install two important files must be copied you’ll need to change directories: > cd /home/username/src/php4.3.3

Copy Files cp php.ini-dist /home/username/php/lib/php.ini this copies the distributed version of php.ini to its default location cp libs/libphp4.so /home/username/apache/modules/ (this can be all on one line with space after cp and after.so) copies the shared object file

Test use should bring up a default page from the apache server put in an index.php file (it’s just a standard html file and see if you add that to the request if the file displays