Apache Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for Apache Administration

by Rich Bowen, Ken Coar

Overview

There's plenty of documentation on installing and configuring the Apache web server, but where do you find help for the day-to-day stuff, like adding common modules or fine-tuning your activity logging? That's easy. The new edition of the Apache Cookbook offers you updated solutions to the problems you're likely to encounter with the new versions of Apache.

Written by members of the Apache Software Foundation, and thoroughly revised for Apache versions 2.0 and 2.2, recipes in this book range from simple tasks, such installing the server on Red Hat Linux or Windows, to more complex tasks, such as setting up name-based virtual hosts or securing and managing your proxy server. Altogether, you get more than 200 timesaving recipes for solving a crisis or other deadline conundrums, with topics including:

• Security
• Aliases, Redirecting, and Rewriting
• CGI Scripts, the suexec Wrapper, and other dynamic content techniques
• Error Handling
• SSL
• Performance

This book tackles everything from beginner problems to those faced by experienced users. For every problem addressed in the book, you will find a worked-out solution that includes short, focused pieces of code you can use immediately. You also get explanations of how and why the code works, so you can adapt the problem-solving techniques to similar situations.

Instead of poking around mailing lists, online documentation, and other sources, rely on the Apache Cookbook for quick solutions when you need them. Then you can spend your time and energy where it matters most.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780596551568
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	12/21/2007
Series:	Cookbooks (O'Reilly)
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	310
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Rich Bowen is a member of the Apache Software Foundation, and has been involved in the Apache Web Server documentation project since 1998. He is part of the web team at Asbury College, where he does server administration and web app development. He is the co-author of Apache Cookbook, and is the author of The Definitive Guide to Apache mod_rewrite. Rich can be found online at http://wooga.drbacchus.com/ and on the #apache IRC channel on irc.freenode.net.

Ken Coar is a member of the Apache Software Foundation, the body that oversees Apache development. He is the author of Apache Server for Dummies (January 1998) and co-author of Apache Server Unleashed (March 2000). Ken has been responsible for fielding email sent to the Apache project, and his experience with that mailing list provided a foundation for this book.

Table of Contents

	Preface	xi
1.	Installation	1
1.1	Installing from Red Hat Linux's Packages	2
1.2	Installing Apache on Windows	3
1.3	Downloading the Apache Sources	10
1.4	Building Apache from the Sources	11
1.5	Installing with ApacheToolbox	13
1.6	Starting, Stopping, and Restarting Apache	15
1.7	Uninstalling Apache	16
2.	Adding Common Modules	19
2.1	Installing a Generic Third-Party Module	20
2.2	Installing mod_dav on a Unixish System	20
2.3	Installing mod_dav on Windows	23
2.4	Installing mod_perl on a Unixish System	25
2.5	Installing mod_php on a Unixish System	27
2.6	Installing mod_php on Windows	28
2.7	Installing the mod_snake Python Module	29
2.8	Installing mod_ssl	30
3.	Logging	32
3.1	Getting More Details in Your Log Entries	35
3.2	Getting More Detailed Errors	36
3.3	Logging POST Contents	38
3.4	Logging a Proxied Client's IP Address	39
3.5	Logging Client MAC Addresses	39
3.6	Logging Cookies	40
3.7	Not Logging Image Requests from Local Pages	42
3.8	Logging Requests by Day or Hour	43
3.9	Rotating Logs on the First of the Month	44
3.10	Logging Hostnames Instead of IP Addresses	45
3.11	Maintaining Separate Logs for Each Virtual Host	46
3.12	Logging Proxy Requests	47
3.13	Logging Errors for Virtual Hosts to Multiple Files	48
3.14	Logging Server IP Addresses	49
3.15	Logging the Referring Page	50
3.16	Logging the Name of the Browser Software	51
3.17	Logging Arbitrary Request Header Fields	51
3.18	Logging Arbitrary Response Header Fields	52
3.19	Logging Activity to a MySQL Database	53
3.20	Logging to syslog	54
3.21	Logging User Directories	55
4.	Virtual Hosts	58
4.1	Setting Up Name-Based Virtual Hosts	59
4.2	Designating One Name-Based Virtual Host as the Default	61
4.3	Setting Up Address-Based Virtual Hosts	62
4.4	Creating a Default Address-Based Virtual Host	62
4.5	Mixing Address-Based and Name-Based Virtual Hosts	63
4.6	Mass Virtual Hosting with mod_vhost_alias	64
4.7	Mass Virtual Hosting Using Rewrite Rules	66
4.8	SSL and Name-Based Virtual Hosts	67
4.9	Logging for Each Virtual Host	68
4.10	Splitting Up a LogFile	69
4.11	Port-Based Virtual Hosts	70
4.12	Displaying the Same Content on Several Addresses	71
5.	Aliases, Redirecting, and Rewriting	72
5.1	Showing Highlighted PHP Source Without Symlinking	72
5.2	Mapping a URL to a Directory	74
5.3	Creating a New URL for Existing Content	75
5.4	Giving Users Their Own URL	76
5.5	Aliasing Several URLs with a Single Directive	79
5.6	Mapping Several URLs to the Same CGI Directory	79
5.7	Creating a CGI Directory for Each User	80
5.8	Redirecting to Another Location	81
5.9	Redirecting Several URLs to the Same Destination	83
5.10	Permitting Case-Insensitive URLs	83
5.11	Replacing Text in Requested URLs	84
5.12	Rewriting Path Information to CGI Arguments	85
5.13	Denying Access to Unreferred Requests	86
5.14	Rewriting Based on the Query String	87
5.15	Redirecting All--or Part--of Your Server to SSL	87
5.16	Turning Directories into Hostnames	88
5.17	Redirecting All Requests to a Single Host	89
5.18	Turning Document Names into Arguments	90
6.	Security	91
6.1	Using System Account Information for Web Authentication	92
6.2	Setting Up Single-Use Passwords	94
6.3	Expiring Passwords	95
6.4	Limiting Upload Size	97
6.5	Restricting Images from Being Used Off-Site	99
6.6	Requiring Both Weak and Strong Authentication	100
6.7	Managing .htpasswd Files	101
6.8	Making Password Files for Digest Authentication	103
6.9	Relaxing Security in a Subdirectory	104
6.10	Lifting Restrictions Selectively	106
6.11	Authorizing Using File Ownership	107
6.12	Storing User Credentials in a MySQL Database	108
6.13	Accessing the Authenticated Username	110
6.14	Obtaining the Password Used to Authenticate	110
6.15	Preventing Brute-Force Password Attacks	111
6.16	Using Digest Versus Basic Authentication	112
6.17	Accessing Credentials Embedded in URLs	113
6.18	Securing WebDAV	114
6.19	Enabling WebDAV Without Making Files Writable by the Web User	115
6.20	Restricting Proxy Access to Certain URLs	116
6.21	Protecting Files with a Wrapper	117
6.22	Protecting All Files Except a Subset	119
6.23	Protecting Server Files from Malicious Scripts	120
6.24	Setting Correct File Permissions	121
6.25	Running a Minimal Module Set	123
6.26	Restricting Access to Files Outside Your Web Root	125
6.27	Limiting Methods by User	126
6.28	Restricting Range Requests	127
7.	SSL	130
7.1	Installing SSL	130
7.2	Generating SSL Certificates	132
7.3	Generating a Trusted CA	135
7.4	Serving a Portion of Your Site via SSL	136
7.5	Authenticating with Client Certificates	138
8.	Dynamic Content	140
8.1	Enabling a CGI Directory	140
8.2	Enabling CGI Scripts in Non-ScriptAliased Directories	141
8.3	Using Windows File Extensions to Launch CGI Programs	142
8.4	Using Extensions to Identify CGI Scripts	143
8.5	Testing That CGI Is Set Up Correctly	144
8.6	Reading Form Parameters	147
8.7	Invoking a CGI Program for Certain Content Types	149
8.8	Getting SSIs to Work	151
8.9	Displaying Last Modified Date	152
8.10	Including a Standard Header	153
8.11	Including the Output of a CGI Program	154
8.12	Running CGI Scripts as a Different User with suexec	155
8.13	Installing a mod_perl Handler from CPAN	157
8.14	Writing a mod_perl Handler	158
8.15	Enabling PHP Script Handling	159
8.16	Verifying PHP Installation	160
9.	Error Handling	162
9.1	Handling a Missing Host Field	162
9.2	Changing the Response Status for CGI Scripts	163
9.3	Customized Error Messages	164
9.4	Providing Error Documents in Multiple Languages	165
9.5	Redirecting Invalid URLs to Some Other Page	166
9.6	Making Internet Explorer Display Your Error Page	167
9.7	Notification on Error Conditions	168
10.	Proxies	170
10.1	Securing Your Proxy Server	170
10.2	Preventing Your Proxy Server from Being Used as an Open Mail Relay	172
10.3	Forwarding Requests to Another Server	173
10.4	Blocking Proxied Requests to Certain Places	174
10.5	Proxying mod_perl Content to Another Server	174
10.6	Configuring a Caching Proxy Server	175
10.7	Filtering Proxied Content	176
10.8	Requiring Authentication for a Proxied Server	177
11.	Performance	178
11.1	Determining How Much Memory You Need	179
11.2	Benchmarking Apache with ab	180
11.3	Tuning Keepalive Settings	181
11.4	Getting a Snapshot of Your Site's Activity	183
11.5	Avoiding DNS Lookups	184
11.6	Optimizing Symbolic Links	185
11.7	Minimizing the Performance Impact of .htaccess Files	186
11.8	Disabling Content Negotiation	188
11.9	Optimizing Process Creation	190
11.10	Tuning Thread Creation	191
11.11	Caching Frequently Viewed Files	193
11.12	Sharing Load Between Servers Using mod_proxy	194
11.13	Distributing Load Evenly Between Several Servers	195
11.14	Caching Directory Listings	196
11.15	Speeding Up Perl CGI Programs with mod_perl	197
12.	Miscellaneous Topics	200
12.1	Placing Directives Properly	200
12.2	Renaming .htaccess Files	202
12.3	Generating Directory/Folder Listings	203
12.4	Solving the "Trailing Slash" Problem	205
12.5	Setting the Content-Type According to Browser Capability	206
12.6	Handling Missing Host: Header Fields	207
12.7	Alternate Default Document	207
12.8	Setting Up a Default "Favicon"	208
A.	Using Regular Expressions in Apache	211
B.	Troubleshooting	215
	Index	225

Editorial Reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review
Ever feel like you were reinventing the wheel with Apache? Get Apache Cookbook. It’s the fastest way to get Apache to do what you want.

Here are 150-plus recipes for the most common web administration tasks. Want to install PHP, or WebDAV -- or lots of modules, all at once? Want to log actual client IP addresses, even if they’re requesting pages through proxies? Set up virtual hosts? Allow case-insensitive URLs? Set expiring passwords? Protect server files from malicious scripts? Test your CGI setup? Customize error messages? Tune performance?

We’ve just scratched the surface. If you run Apache, this book’s indispensable. Bill Camarda

Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2003 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks for Dummies, Second Edition.

bn.com