Apache 2 Pocket Reference

Preface

Apache is a powerful web server designed with a modular architecture to be both efficient and portable. It is extremely flexible, offering the ability for a single server to support multiple websites as virtual hosts and to act as a web proxy. Apache includes standard modules for caching, to support SSL/TLS connections, various authentication and authorization mechanisms, and a filtering system. There are many addon modules that extend Apache’s functionality providing features, such as templating engines, embedded interpreters for many scripting languages, and HTTP interfaces to systems such as the Subversion version control system.

This pocket reference summarizes Apache’s command-line options and the configuration directives for the modules in the standard distribution. It covers Apache version 2.2.9, but most information is applicable to any version of Apache 2. For comprehensive information, the scale of which is beyond the scope of a small guide such as this, the Apache documentation website (http://httpd.apache.org/docs/) should be your next point of referral.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all my reviewers, especially Chris Pepper and my wife, Catherine Mason, who both did sterling work; my colleagues at MessageLabs for their support; the staff at O’Reilly—in particular my editor, Simon St.Laurent, and Abby Fox, who turned my ideas about how the book should be typeset into reality; and finally all of the Apache developers, the Apache HTTPD project, and the countless individuals who have contributed to make Apache what it is and keep on improving it.