Chapter 14. Apache HTTP Server

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it to suit; however, some parts of the file have changed more than others and a mixed approach is

generally the best. The stock configuration files for both version 1.3 and version 2.0 are divided into

three sections. The goal of this guide is to suggest what is hopefully the easiest route.

If your

httpd.conf

is a modified version of the default Red Hat version and you have saved a copy

of the original then you may find it easiest to invoke the

diff

command, as in the following example:

diff  u httpd.conf.orig httpd.conf | less

This command will highlight the modifications you have made. If you do not have a copy of the

original file, extract it from an RPM package using the

rpm2cpio

and

cpio

commands, as in the

following example:

rpm2cpio apache 1.3.23 11.i386.rpm | cpio  i   make

Finally, it is useful to know that the Apache HTTP Server has a testing mode to check your configu 

ration for errors. To use access it, type the following command:

apachectl configtest

14.2.1. Global Environment Configuration

The global environment section of the configuration file contains directives which affect the overall

operation of the Apache HTTP Server, such as the number of concurrent requests it can handle and the

locations of the various files it uses. This section requires a large number of changes compared with

the others and it is therefore recommended that you base this section on the Apache HTTP Server 2.0

configuration file and migrate your old settings into it.

14.2.1.1. Selecting Which Interfaces and Ports To Bind To

The

BindAddress

and

Port

directives no longer exist; their functionality is now provided by a more

flexible

Listen

directive.

If you had set

Port 80

in your 1.3 version configuration file, you should change it to

Listen 80

instead. If you had set

Port

to some value other than 80 then you must also append the port number

to the contents of your

ServerName

directive.

For example, the following is a sample Apache HTTP Server 1.3 directive:

Port 123

ServerName www.example.com

To migrate this setting to Apache HTTP Server 2.0, use the following structure:

Listen 123

ServerName www.example.com:123

For more on this topic, refer to the following documentation on the Apache Software Foundation's

website:

  http://httpd.apache.org/docs 2.0/mod/mpm_common.html#listen

  http://httpd.apache.org/docs 2.0/mod/core.html#servername