Apache Cookbook, 2nd Edition

1.8. Upgrading Using config.nice

Problem

You built your Apache Web server software from the source, and now you want to upgrade it while keeping all the same configuration options.

Solution

Unpack the source of the new version into a separate tree, and execute the config.nice script created by your build of the earlier version.

Tip

This technique is primarily intended for use when upgrading within the same major version series, such as from 2.0.17 to 2.0.59, or from 2.2.0 to 2.2.4. Attempting to use it to apply older configuration options to a newer major version (such as from 2.0.17 to 2.2.4) may not work reliably.

For example, suppose you built and installed version 2.0.17 long ago, and you now want to upgrade your system to 2.0.59:

# cd /usr/local/build
# tar xvf /tmp/httpd-2.0.59.tat.gz
# cd httpd-20.0.59
# ../httpd-2.0.17/config.nice
#make

Discussion

When you execute the configure script to set up your compilation and installation preferences, it creates a file called config.script with all the options you chose. The file config.nice executes configure with all those options. This means you don’t need to remember or write down all the options you specified when you finally got it working.

In addition, config.nice allows you to specify additional options, which it adds to those with which it invokes configure. When configure runs, it will create config.nice again with the complete new set of options.

See Also

• Recipe 1.4