Apache: The Definitive Guide, 3rd Edition

Preface

Apache: The Definitive Guide, Third Edition, is principally about the Apache web-server software. We explain what a web server is and how it works, but our assumption is that most of our readers have used the World Wide Web and understand in practical terms how it works, and that they are now thinking about running their own servers and sites.

This book takes the reader through the process of acquiring, compiling, installing, configuring, and modifying Apache. We exercise most of the package’s functions by showing a set of example sites that take a reasonably typical web business — in our case, a postcard publisher — through a process of development and increasing complexity. However, we have deliberately tried to make each site as simple as possible, focusing on the particular feature being described. Each site is pretty well self-contained, so that the reader can refer to it while following the text without having to disentangle the meat from extraneous vegetables. If desired, it is possible to install and run each site on a suitable system.

Perhaps it is worth saying what this book is not. It is not a manual, in the sense of formally documenting every command — such a manual exists on the Apache site and has been much improved with Versions 1.3 and 2.0; we assume that if you want to use Apache, you will download it and keep it at hand. Rather, if the manual is a road map that tells you how to get somewhere, this book tries to be a tourist guide that tells you why you ...