Apache Cookbook

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Apache Cookbook

By Ken Coar, Rich Bowen

Publisher: O'Reilly Media

Final Release Date: November 2003

Pages: 256

Apache is far and away the most widely used web server platform in the world. Both free and rock-solid, it runs more than half of the world's web sites, ranging from huge e-commerce operations to corporate intranets and smaller hobby sites, and it continues to maintain its popularity, drawing new users all the time. If you work with Apache on a regular basis, you have plenty of documentation on installing and configuring your server, but where do you go for help with the day-to-day stuff, like adding common modules or fine-tuning your activity logging?The Apache Cookbook is a collection of problems, solutions, and practical examples for webmasters, web administrators, programmers, and everyone else who works with Apache. For every problem addressed in the book, there's a worked-out solution or "recipe"--short, focused pieces of code that you can use immediately. But this book offers more than cut-and-paste code. You also get explanations of how and why the code works, so you can adapt the problem-solving techniques to similar situations.The recipes in the Apache Cookbook 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. The two hundred plus recipes in the book cover additional topics such as:

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

The impressive collection of useful code in this book is a guaranteed timesaver for all Apache users, from novices to advanced practitioners. Instead of poking around mailing lists, online documentation, and other sources, you can rely on the Apache Cookbook for quick solutions to common problems, and then you can spend your time and energy where it matters most.

Chapter 1 Installation
1. Installing from Red Hat Linux's Packages
2. Installing Apache on Windows
3. Downloading the Apache Sources
4. Building Apache from the Sources
5. Installing with ApacheToolbox
6. Starting, Stopping, and Restarting Apache
7. Uninstalling Apache
Chapter 2 Adding Common Modules
1. Installing a Generic Third-Party Module
2. Installing mod_dav on a Unixish System
3. Installing mod_dav on Windows
4. Installing mod_perl on a Unixish System
5. Installing mod_php on a Unixish System
6. Installing mod_php on Windows
7. Installing the mod_snake Python Module
8. Installing mod_ssl
Chapter 3 Logging
1. Getting More Details in Your Log Entries
2. Getting More Detailed Errors
3. Logging POST Contents
4. Logging a Proxied Client's IP Address
5. Logging Client MAC Addresses
6. Logging Cookies
7. Not Logging Image Requests from Local Pages
8. Logging Requests by Day or Hour
9. Rotating Logs on the First of the Month
10. Logging Hostnames Instead of IP Addresses
11. Maintaining Separate Logs for Each Virtual Host
12. Logging Proxy Requests
13. Logging Errors for Virtual Hosts to Multiple Files
14. Logging Server IP Addresses
15. Logging the Referring Page
16. Logging the Name of the Browser Software
17. Logging Arbitrary Request Header Fields
18. Logging Arbitrary Response Header Fields
19. Logging Activity to a MySQL Database
20. Logging to syslog
21. Logging User Directories
Chapter 4 Virtual Hosts
1. Setting Up Name-Based Virtual Hosts
2. Designating One Name-Based Virtual Host as the Default
3. Setting Up Address-Based Virtual Hosts
4. Creating a Default Address-Based Virtual Host
5. Mixing Address-Based and Name-Based Virtual Hosts
6. Mass Virtual Hosting with mod_vhost_alias
7. Mass Virtual Hosting Using Rewrite Rules
8. SSL and Name-Based Virtual Hosts
9. Logging for Each Virtual Host
10. Splitting Up a LogFile
11. Port-Based Virtual Hosts
12. Displaying the Same Content on Several Addresses
Chapter 5 Aliases, Redirecting, and Rewriting
1. Showing Highlighted PHP Source Without Symlinking
2. Mapping a URL to a Directory
3. Creating a New URL for Existing Content
4. Giving Users Their Own URL
5. Aliasing Several URLs with a Single Directive
6. Mapping Several URLs to the Same CGI Directory
7. Creating a CGI Directory for Each User
8. Redirecting to Another Location
9. Redirecting Several URLs to the Same Destination
10. Permitting Case-Insensitive URLs
11. Replacing Text in Requested URLs
12. Rewriting Path Information to CGI Arguments
13. Denying Access to Unreferred Requests
14. Rewriting Based on the Query String
15. Redirecting All—or Part—of Your Server to SSL
16. Turning Directories into Hostnames
17. Redirecting All Requests to a Single Host
18. Turning Document Names into Arguments
Chapter 6 Security
1. Using System Account Information for Web Authentication
2. Setting Up Single-Use Passwords
3. Expiring Passwords
4. Limiting Upload Size
5. Restricting Images from Being Used Off-Site
6. Requiring Both Weak and Strong Authentication
7. Managing .htpasswd Files
8. Making Password Files for Digest Authentication
9. Relaxing Security in a Subdirectory
10. Lifting Restrictions Selectively
11. Authorizing Using File Ownership
12. Storing User Credentials in a MySQL Database
13. Accessing the Authenticated Username
14. Obtaining the Password Used to Authenticate
15. Preventing Brute-Force Password Attacks
16. Using Digest Versus Basic Authentication
17. Accessing Credentials Embedded in URLs
18. Securing WebDAV
19. Enabling WebDAV Without Making Files Writable by the Web User
20. Restricting Proxy Access to Certain URLs
21. Protecting Files with a Wrapper
22. Protecting All Files Except a Subset
23. Protecting Server Files from Malicious Scripts
24. Setting Correct File Permissions
25. Running a Minimal Module Set
26. Restricting Access to Files Outside Your Web Root
27. Limiting Methods by User
28. Restricting Range Requests
Chapter 7 SSL
1. Installing SSL
2. Generating SSL Certificates
3. Generating a Trusted CA
4. Serving a Portion of Your Site via SSL
5. Authenticating with Client Certificates
Chapter 8 Dynamic Content
1. Enabling a CGI Directory
2. Enabling CGI Scripts in Non-ScriptAliased Directories
3. Using Windows File Extensionsto Launch CGI Programs
4. Using Extensions to Identify CGI Scripts
5. Testing That CGI Is Set Up Correctly
6. Reading Form Parameters
7. Invoking a CGI Program for Certain Content Types
8. Getting SSIs to Work
9. Displaying Last Modified Date
10. Including a Standard Header
11. Including the Output of a CGI Program
12. Running CGI Scripts as a Different User with suexec
13. Installing a mod_perl Handler from CPAN
14. Writing a mod_perl Handler
15. Enabling PHP Script Handling
16. Verifying PHP Installation
Chapter 9 Error Handling
1. Handling a Missing Host Field
2. Changing the Response Status for CGI Scripts
3. Customized Error Messages
4. Providing Error Documents in Multiple Languages
5. Redirecting Invalid URLs to Some Other Page
6. Making Internet Explorer Display Your Error Page
7. Notification on Error Conditions
Chapter 10 Proxies
1. Securing Your Proxy Server
2. Preventing Your Proxy Server from Being Used as an Open Mail Relay
3. Forwarding Requests to Another Server
4. Blocking Proxied Requests to Certain Places
5. Proxying mod_perl Content to Another Server
6. Configuring a Caching Proxy Server
7. Filtering Proxied Content
8. Requiring Authentication for a Proxied Server
Chapter 11 Performance
1. Determining How Much Memory You Need
2. Benchmarking Apache with ab
3. Tuning Keepalive Settings
4. Getting a Snapshot of Your Site's Activity
5. Avoiding DNS Lookups
6. Optimizing Symbolic Links
7. Minimizing the Performance Impact of .htaccess Files
8. Disabling Content Negotiation
9. Optimizing Process Creation
10. Tuning Thread Creation
11. Caching Frequently Viewed Files
12. Sharing Load Between Servers Using mod_proxy
13. Distributing Load Evenly Between Several Servers
14. Caching Directory Listings
15. Speeding Up Perl CGI Programs with mod_perl
Chapter 12 Miscellaneous Topics
1. Placing Directives Properly
2. Renaming .htaccess Files
3. Generating Directory/Folder Listings
4. Solving the "Trailing Slash" Problem
5. Setting the Content-Type According to Browser Capability
6. Handling Missing Host: Header Fields
7. Alternate Default Document
8. Setting Up a Default "Favicon"

Appendix A Using Regular Expressions in Apache
1. What Directives Use Regular Expressions?
Appendix B Troubleshooting
1. Troubleshooting Methodology
2. Debugging the Configuration
3. Debugging Premature End of Script Headers
4. Common Problems on Windows
5. Fixing Build-Time Error Messages
6. Getting Server-Side Includes to Work
7. Debugging Rewrites That Result in "Not Found" Errors
8. .htaccess Files Having No Effect
9. Address Already in Use
Colophon

Title:

Apache Cookbook

By:

Ken Coar, Rich Bowen

Publisher:

O'Reilly Media

Formats:

Print
Ebook
Safari Books Online

Print:

November 2003

Ebook:

February 2009

Pages:

256

Print ISBN:

978-0-596-00191-9

| ISBN 10:

0-596-00191-6

Ebook ISBN:

978-0-596-10322-4

| ISBN 10:

0-596-10322-0

Colophon

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The animal on the cover of Apache Cookbook is a moose. The moose roams the forests of North America, Europe, and Russia. It's the largest of the deer family, and the largest moose of all, Alces alces gigas, is found throughout Alaska. This particular moose, in fact, is so ubiquitous that it's played an important role in the development of the state--though the relationship between moose and men is often adversarial.Moose have a high reproductive potential and can quickly fill a range to capacity. And in Alaska, the removal of mature timber through logging and fire has benefited them by providing new stands of young timber--high-quality moose food. Moose get to be a pain when they eat crops, stand on airfields, wander the city streets, and collide with cars and trains.But in general, these animals are good for the state's economy. Moose are an essential part of the Alaskan landscape, providing tourist photo opportunities when they feed along the highway. Residents and out-of-state hunters harvest 6,000 to 8,000 moose annually--approximately 3.5 million pounds of meat. The future for these animals in Alaska is reasonably bright because humans are learning how to manage moose habitat with wildlife and how to mitigate factors that affect moose populations, such as hunting and predation by wolves and bears. Sarah Sherman was the production editor and copyeditor, and Marlowe Shaeffer was the proofreader for Apache Cookbook. Matt Hutchinson and Claire Cloutier provided quality control. Julie Hawks wrote the index.Emma Colby designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is an original engraving from The Illustrated Natural History: Mammalia. Emma Colby produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 4.1 using Adobe's ITC Garamond font.David Futato designed the interior layout. This book was converted by Julie Hawks to FrameMaker 5.5.6 with a format conversion tool created by Erik Ray, Jason McIntosh, Neil Walls, and Mike Sierra that uses Perl and XML technologies. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and Jessamyn Read using Macromedia FreeHand 9 and Adobe Photoshop 6. The tip and warning icons were drawn by Christopher Bing. This colophon was written by Ed Stephenson.

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4/2/2009

(2 of 2 customers found this review helpful)

4.0

Inspiring Cookbook

By tomaszn

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Apache Cookbook:

Apache HTTP Server is The Number One HTTP server on the Internet - as stands on its website. You can say - every user will find Apache one day. This book lets you to start an adventure with it, providing detailed installation instructions for some operating systems (with additional modules). Later, you will find about built-in logging subsystem, virtual hosts, security, performance, etc.

This is a cookbook, so for every topic (about 20 per chapter) you have "ingredients" and "procedure"... Oh, there are really "problem", "solution" and "discussion" parts. Discussions are very detailed, with description of every command line parameter and diverse examples.

Such a formula has several drawbacks. The most important is similar content in different questions - you see a way to do some specific, but related things but can't see a longer description of more advanced configurations. I presume that author could write just a long descriptive chapter but decided to make "a cookbook". Anyway such approach leaves some insufficiency on new subjects. Fortunately, many recipes have a "See also" part that links to other recipes and some Internet URLs.

As a security systems analyst I can review the "Security" chapter. It shows a wide range of tips - you can find ways to specify advanced file access permissions, find about how to prevent hot-linking and "denial of service" attacks, using some authentication mechanisms etc. That's really inspiring choice of possibilities! On the other hand, you will not find anything about OpenID authentication or federating sites for single sign-on. Although this functionality is provided by external modules, mentioning it could inspire readers, which haven't heard about these technologies.

This book is really good for webmasters-beginners or users that would like to verify their skills (how would I solve each problem?). One can see that he can make his life much easier when he realizes problems that were overlooked. For me, reading the "Apache Cookbook" was fun, especially in "one topic per tram stop" mode.

3/2/2004

(2 of 3 customers found this review helpful)

5.0

Apache Cookbook Review

By Crouse

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Apache Cookbook:

Reviewer: Crouse

Website: http://www.usalug.org

The Book:

Apache Cookbook

By Ken Coar & Rich Bowen

254 pages

1st Edition November 2003

ISBN: 0-596-00191-6

Book Link: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/apacheckbk/

This book is a must have for anyone with an understanding of the Apache Web Server. It is basically a compilation of about 100 real life problems and the answers dealing with the Apache Web Server. Page after page of interesting problems and the solutions, all written in an easy to understand format. Starting with the preface, this book is very informative, and just keeps getting better as you read. Even those not very familiar with the Apache Web Server, would be able to understand most of what is written, it is explained that well.

Alot of ground is covered in these 254 pages. Everything from installing Apache from source, to more advanced topics, like "Sharing Load Between Servers using mod_proxy". While it isn't meant to be read cover to cover, and is more a "reference" for making the Apache Web Server do what you want it to do, it is a very easy to read book. If you want alot of knowledge of Apache, in a concise package, this book provides it in abundance. One of the few "reference" type books that I can actually read cover to cover, even though it's not really meant to be.

The book doesn't just cater to those running their own web servers. Many of the applications listed in the book can be very useful to those webmasters stuck in private directories on someone else's server. This is because of the wonderful properties of the .htaccess file. Many of the scenarios listed in the book can be applied by using the .htaccess file. So if your a webmaster, this book is useful for you too, if you have a web host that use's Apache. You don't even have to be a Linux nut like me.

What's in the book? Well the chapter titles say alot.

Chapter 1. Installation

Chapter 2. Adding Common Modules

Chapter 3. Logging

Chapter 4. Virtual Hosts

Chapter 5. Aliases, Redirecting, and Rewriting

Chapter 6. Security

Chapter 7. SSL

Chapter 8. Dynamic Content

Chapter 9. Error Handling

Chapter 10. Proxies

Chapter 11. Performance

Chapter 12. Miscellaneous Topics

The appendix's could very well have been just two more chapters. They have an

abundance of information themselves.

Appendix A. Using regular expressions

Appendix B. Troubleshooting

I believe Chapter 6, alone, is worth the price of this entire book. This was by far and away the most interesting section of this book for me. Maybe because security is job #1 when running a web server. This chapter covers alot of ground and answers alot of questions when it comes to security. This is the one section that I wish the author had alloted even more space to. Even so, this particular section of the book was extremely informative.

6. Security

6.1 Using System Account Information for Web Authentication

6.2 Setting Up Single-Use Passwords

6.3 Expiring Passwords

6.4 Limiting Upload Size

6.5 Restricting Images from Being Used Off-Site

6.6 Requiring Both Weak and Strong Authentication

6.7 Managing .htpasswd Files

6.8 Making Password Files for Digest Authentication

6.9 Relaxing Security in a Subdirectory

6.10 Lifting Restrictions Selectively

6.11 Authorizing Using File Ownership

6.12 Storing User Credentials in a MySQL Database

6.13 Accessing the Authenticated Username

6.14 Obtaining the Password Used to Authenticate

6.15 Preventing Brute-Force Password Attacks

6.16 Using Digest Versus Basic Authentication

6.17 Accessing Credentials Embedded in URLs

6.18 Securing WebDAV

6.19 Enabling WebDAV Without Making Files Writable by the Web User

6.20 Restricting Proxy Access to Certain URLs

6.21 Protecting Files with a Wrapper

6.22 Protecting All Files Except a Subset

6.23 Protecting Server Files from Malicious Scripts

6.24 Setting Correct File Permissions

6.25 Running a Minimal Module Set

6.26 Restricting Access to Files Outside Your Web Root

6.27 Limiting Methods by User

6.28 Restricting Range Requests

Ever want to know how to do any of the above? It's in there. A complete listing of the Table of Contents is located here :

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/apacheckbk/toc.html

So if you use Apache, and aren't an Apache guru,or even if you are, this book is a must have. I know I won't be parting with my copy any time soon.

This book gets the maximum 5/5 bigrins

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Chapter 1 Installation

Installing from Red Hat Linux's Packages

Installing Apache on Windows

Downloading the Apache Sources

Building Apache from the Sources

Installing with ApacheToolbox

Starting, Stopping, and Restarting Apache

Uninstalling Apache

Chapter 2 Adding Common Modules

Installing a Generic Third-Party Module

Installing mod_dav on a Unixish System

Installing mod_dav on Windows

Installing mod_perl on a Unixish System

Installing mod_php on a Unixish System

Installing mod_php on Windows

Installing the mod_snake Python Module

Installing mod_ssl

Chapter 3 Logging

Getting More Details in Your Log Entries

Getting More Detailed Errors

Logging POST Contents

Logging a Proxied Client's IP Address

Logging Client MAC Addresses

Logging Cookies

Not Logging Image Requests from Local Pages

Logging Requests by Day or Hour

Rotating Logs on the First of the Month

Logging Hostnames Instead of IP Addresses

Maintaining Separate Logs for Each Virtual Host

Logging Proxy Requests

Logging Errors for Virtual Hosts to Multiple Files

Logging Server IP Addresses

Logging the Referring Page

Logging the Name of the Browser Software

Logging Arbitrary Request Header Fields

Logging Arbitrary Response Header Fields

Logging Activity to a MySQL Database

Logging to syslog

Logging User Directories

Chapter 4 Virtual Hosts

Setting Up Name-Based Virtual Hosts

Designating One Name-Based Virtual Host as the Default

Setting Up Address-Based Virtual Hosts

Creating a Default Address-Based Virtual Host

Mixing Address-Based and Name-Based Virtual Hosts

Mass Virtual Hosting with mod_vhost_alias

Mass Virtual Hosting Using Rewrite Rules

SSL and Name-Based Virtual Hosts

Logging for Each Virtual Host

Splitting Up a LogFile

Port-Based Virtual Hosts

Displaying the Same Content on Several Addresses

Chapter 5 Aliases, Redirecting, and Rewriting

Showing Highlighted PHP Source Without Symlinking

Mapping a URL to a Directory

Creating a New URL for Existing Content

Giving Users Their Own URL

Aliasing Several URLs with a Single Directive

Mapping Several URLs to the Same CGI Directory

Creating a CGI Directory for Each User

Redirecting to Another Location

Redirecting Several URLs to the Same Destination

Permitting Case-Insensitive URLs

Replacing Text in Requested URLs

Rewriting Path Information to CGI Arguments

Denying Access to Unreferred Requests

Rewriting Based on the Query String

Redirecting All—or Part—of Your Server to SSL

Turning Directories into Hostnames

Redirecting All Requests to a Single Host

Turning Document Names into Arguments

Chapter 6 Security

Using System Account Information for Web Authentication

Setting Up Single-Use Passwords

Expiring Passwords

Limiting Upload Size

Restricting Images from Being Used Off-Site

Requiring Both Weak and Strong Authentication

Managing .htpasswd Files

Making Password Files for Digest Authentication