Learning Red Hat Linux, Third Edition

Running Apache

Installing and configuring the Apache web server is not much more difficult than installing an FTP server. Moreover, web servers tend to be more secure than FTP servers, so a web server may be a better way for you to publish files. Once your web server is up and running, other Internet users can view and download documents within the web-enabled directories on your Linux system. This section explains the installation and configuration of Apache, the most popular web server on the Internet.

The Tux Web Server

Red Hat 8.0 ships with Tux, a web server developed by Red Hat. Tux may be the fastest web server available. The secret of Tux’s speed is that it is integrated with the Linux kernel, so the overhead involved in serving a web page is minimal.

However, don’t toss Apache overboard just yet. Tux can serve only static HTML pages. It can’t be used with server-side includes, PHP, or other popular methods of serving web pages whose content is determined when they’re served. When Tux is asked to serve a dynamic page, it can hand off the request to Apache, so Tux and Apache can work together to rapidly serve static web pages yet provide the full power and flexibility of Apache.

Unless you’re planning to establish a high-traffic web site, you won’t need to be concerned with Tux, which is somewhat complicated to configure. To learn more about Tux, which Red Hat calls Red Hat Content Accelerator, see http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/tux/TUX-2.2-Manual/.

Installing Apache ...