Installing, and Running Apache
Those of you running the RedHat Linux distribution may want to take advantage of RedHat's RPM ("RedHat Package Manager") system. Almost identical to a binary, an RPM is further customized to play nicely with other RPMs and provide a consistent interface to installing, updating, and removing binaries. They often entail a loss of flexibility and clarity -- for instance, it's not readily apparent where the contents of some packages will end up. That said, for Linux newcomers or when installing a small standard component, RPMs are simple and reliable.
Bear in mind that an Apache RPM may already be installed on your system depending on how Linux was originally installed on your computer. To find out, at the shell prompt, type:
rpm -qa | grep apache
If you see something like apache-1.3.9xxx, an Apache RPM has already been installed and you can skip on to "Starting Apache".
If you don't have an Apache RPM, you must obtain one. RedHat 6.x Onwards ships with apache-1.x.x-x.i386.rpm in the RedHat/RPMS directory on the installation CD. Or, point your Web browser at ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/current/i386/RedHat/RPMS and pick yourself up a copy. If you've not already done so, you'll need to become root. Navigate to the same directory as the .rpm file you obtained, and then type the following command, substituting the name of the .rpm you're using for apache-1.x.x-x.i386.rpm.
rpm -ivh apache-1.x.x-x.i386.rpm
RPM should grind away, displaying its progress with a primitive ####### progress bar. Barring any errors, you're done.?If you're interested in knowing how to install Apache from scratch, read on. Or you can skip on to Starting Apache.
Building Apache from source may seem a daunting proposition to newcomers, but the Apache developers have done a wonderful job of making the task about as simple as could be. Just three more commands than a binary installation and you skip the arduous task of figuring out which binary is the right one for your particular operating system. Let's give it a whirl, shall we?
Point your Web browser at http://www.apache.org/dist and download the gzip'd form of the current version of Apache.
Now let's uncompress that archive using gunzip and tar. You should replace the apache_1.3.11.tar.gz below with the name of the gzip'd file you downloaded.
gunzip apache_1.3.11.tar.gz | tar xvf -
You should end up with an apache_1.3.x directory, x being the particular sub-version of Apache you downloaded. Move into the newly created directory.
cd apache_1.3.x
Now we'll use the the configure and make commands to (you guessed it) configure, make, and install Apache. If you've not already done so, now would be the time to become root.
./configure
Your screen should look something like:
# ./configure
Configuring for Apache, Version 1.3.11 ... Creating Makefile Creating Configuration.apaci in src Creating Makefile in src + configured for Linux platform + setting C compiler to gcc + setting C pre-processor to gcc -E + checking for system header files + adding selected modules + checking sizeof various data types + doing sanity check on compiler and options ... Creating Makefile in src/modules/standard Unless errors were reported (not warnings, mind you), your Apache installation is now configured and we can move on. This is where things get a bit ugly -- not difficult, mind you, only ugly. Makeing Apache produces screenfulls of scary-looking output, but don't worry -- as long as the process doesn't stop suddenly with an error message, all is as it should be. make
Your screen should look something like:
# make
===> src make[1]: Entering directory `src/httpd/apache_1.3.11' make[2]: Entering directory `src/httpd/apache_1.3.11/src' ===> src/regex ... [several lines later] ... gcc -DLINUX=2 -DUSE_HSREGEX -DUSE_EXPAT -I../lib/expat-lite -DNO_DL_NEEDED `../apaci` -o ab -L../os/unix -L../ap ab.o -lap -los -lm -lcrypt
make[2]: Leaving directory `src/httpd/apache_1.3.11/src/support'
make[1]: Leaving directory `src/httpd/apache_1.3.11'
Finally, you're ready to install your Apache build.
# make install
And you're done! Pretty painless, you have to admit -- although the make output can bring about mild eye-strain ;-)
Here's what the Red Hat Linux installation does:
web server binaries
/usr/sbin/httpd
/usr/sbin/httpd_monitor
config files
/etc/httpd/conf/*
log files
/etc/httpd/logs/*
web server root
(contains cgi, icons/images, and html files)
/home/httpd/*
Configuration
Apache uses some rather easy to understand text files for configuration. On a Red Hat system, you'll find them in /etc/httpd/conf. Quite a few Linux distributions place them in this same place, but if you can't find such a directory, do a search for "httpd.conf" and/or "access.conf". The latest versions of Apache have a main configuration file called "httpd.conf". Older versions use httpd.conf, access.conf and srm.conf. Once you find these, you've found the main config files.
Here's how you can find them.
Login as root (or su as the root operator) cd / find -name httpd.conf Performance Settings
There are multiple performance settings you can activate in Apache. Each of these is designed to prevent slow user connections from hogging up all your server's resources. They can also be used to prevent things like Web spiders from hogging up all your resources.
Starting Apache
Let's take your new Apache installation out for a spin.
If you installed Apache using a binary or from scratch, as root, type /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl start If you used an RPM, as root, type httpd
Point your browser at your brand new Web server, http://localhost or http://127.0.0.1 (Internal Loopback IP Address), substituting your server's hostname for localhost and you should see the magnificent "It worked!" default home page.
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