LPI Linux Certification in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

Configuring Apache

The Apache web server is controlled by configuration files that live in the directory /opt/apache/conf. The main configuration file is httpd.conf , and like most configuration files for Unix services, it is a plain text file that can be edited by your favorite text editor. The configuration file is broken down into three main sections:

Global section

This contains configuration options that apply to every host on the server.

Main section

The configuration options here apply to any virtual host that is accessed and does not have its own section.

Virtual host section

Each virtual host that is hosted on the server gets its own configuration section.

You may be asking "What is a virtual host?" While the Apache web server is perfectly capable of serving the web pages for a single web site (such as www.example.com), its real strength lies in its ability to serve pages for many different web sites, all from the same machine. Each of these web sites is called a virtual host, because it appears that each of them has Apache all to itself. This allows companies or ISPs to host many (often thousands) of web sites on a single Apache installation. Virtual host syntax will be covered later in the chapter.

The global configuration section gives directives that affect the entire Apache installation, including any virtual hosts. Let's look at one of the simplest Apache httpd.conf files you'll ever see, Example 38-1. It's all global directives; we're not defining any ...