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Chapter 14. Apache HTTP Server

A sample

LoadModule

line looks like this:

LoadModule access_module modules/mod_access.so

If you add or delete modules from

http.conf

, you must reload or restart Apache, as covered in

Section 14.4.

If you have your own module, you can add it to the

httpd.conf

file so that it is compiled in and

loaded as a DSO. For this you need have the

httpd devel

package installed because it contains the

include files, the header files, and the APache eXtenSion (

apxs

) application. The

apxs

command uses

the include files and the header files to compile Apaches modules.

If you have written your own module or are using a third party module, you should be able to use

apxs

to compile your module sources outside the Apache source tree, without needing to tweak any

compiler or linker flags. If you need more information on

apxs

, please see the Apache documentation

at http://httpd.apache.org/docs 2.0/dso.html and the

apxs

, man page.

Once you have compiled the module, put your module in the

/usr/lib/httpd/

directory. Then add

a

LoadModule

line to

httpd.conf

. After the

LoadModule

list in

httpd.conf

, add a line for the

shared object file for your module like the following:

LoadModule

foo_module

modules/ mod_foo.so

Note that you will need to change the name of

foo_module

and

mod_foo.so

as appro 

priate.

Once you have completed these steps, stop and start your Web server as outlined in Section 14.4. If

you have done everything correctly and your module is correctly coded, the Web server should find

your module and load it.

14.8. Using Virtual Hosts

You can use the Apache HTTP Server's virtual hosts capability to run different servers for different

IP addresses, different host names, or different ports on the same server. If you are interested in using

virtual hosts, complete information is provided in the Apache documentation on your machine or on

the Web at http://httpd.apache.org/docs 2.0/vhosts/.

Note

You cannot use name based virtual hosts with your Red Hat Linux Advanced Server, because the

SSL handshake occurs before the HTTP request which identifies the appropriate name based virtual

host. If you want to use name based virtual hosts, they will only work with your non secure Web

server.

Virtual hosts are configured within the

httpd.conf

file, as described in Section 14.5. Please review

that section before you start to change the virtual hosts configuration on your machine.

14.8.1. The Secure Web Server Virtual Host

The default configuration of your Web server runs a non secure and a secure server. Both servers use

the same IP address and host name, but they listen on different ports, and the secure server is a virtual

host configured. This configuration enables you to serve both secure and non secure documents in an

manner. Setting up the secure HTTP transmission is very resource intensive, so generally you will be

able to serve far fewer pages per second with a secure server. You need to consider this when you

decide what information to include on the secure server and the non secure server.