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                                APACHE WEEK

The essential weekly guide for users of the world's most popular Web server.
                       Issue 315: 29th November 2002

                                 In this issue

     * ApacheCon 2002 Las Vegas
     * Under development
     * Featured articles
     * Book Reviews
     * Apache Week giveaway

                           ApacheCon 2002 Las Vegas

     Some 500 miles and 19 months after the last conference on the state
     of the world for Apache, developers and users gathered in Las Vegas
     to converse again about the world's most popular web server.

     For  this year's conference over 300 attendees turned up to see the
     day  of  tutorials  or  three  days  of  conference  sessions.  The
     conference  included  60  presentations,  16  Birds  of  a  Feather
     sessions,  3  keynotes,  and  free  access to the Comdex exhibition
     running at the same time across town.

     No  doubt  the  highlight for many at this year's ApacheCon was the
     Closing   Session  where  a  number  of  goodies  supplied  by  the
     conference vendors were raffled off including books, AMD processors
     and other wonderful swag. But most important to those in attendance
     and  to  the  Apache  community at large came the announcement that
     2003  will  see  two ApacheCon conferences; the return of ApacheCon
     Europe  which  will  occur  in  the  spring at a location yet to be
     determined,  and  ApacheCon  US  which  will return to Las Vegas in
     November.

     Overall   most  attendees  seemed  impressed  with  the  return  of
     ApacheCon. While the production of the event was modest compared to
     previous   conferences  the  quality  of  the  presenters  and  the
     presentations  where  of the high quality one would expect. Indeed,
     with  so  many interesting talks it was easy to find people cutting
     out   of  one  presentation  to  hear  the  end  of  another.  Most
     importantly,  ApacheCon has shown that it is still The Apache Event
     for  Apache  developers  and  users  to  come  together and discuss
     everyone's favourite web server.
     [1]Read our full review of ApacheCon 2002

                               Under development

     The  re-organisation  of the Apache 2.0 CVS repositories has begun,
     aiming  to  allow  work  to progress concurrently on a "stable" 2.0
     branch,  and  a  "development"  branch,  which will use the version
     number  2.1.  There  has been considerable debate on exactly how to
     create the two branches (either using CVS's branch mechanism, or to
     use  separate  CVS modules); and what development policy to use for
     the  stable  branch.  Some  developers  favoured  the  "review then
     commit"  (RTC)  policy,  where  any changes must be reviewed on the
     mailing  list before being checked in. Others preferred to continue
     the  "commit  then  review"  policy which requires no review before
     check-in.

     A  2.0.44  release  (from the "stable" branch) is due soon with the
     usual  horde  of bug fixes; mod_cache and the CGI modules receiving
     particular attention in this release.

     Giving  a  glimpse of things to come on the 2.1 development branch,
     Brian  Pane posted a [2]request for comments on the design of a new
     MPM  which can process multiple connections per thread. This design
     is  a radical departure from all existing Apache processing models,
     with  several  different  sets  of threads co-ordinating to process
     each request.

                               Featured articles

     In  this  section we highlight some of the articles on the web that
     are of interest to Apache users.

     If  you  would  like  to  read  reviews other than ours about talks
     during ApacheCon 2002 Las Vegas, you may be interested to check out
     [3]Michael   J.   Radwin's  blogs.  Please  remember  to  read  the
     [4]comments  by Theo and George Schlossnagle on Michael's review on
     their presentation "Scalable Internet Architectures" as well.

     O'Reilly  OnJava.com  kicks  off  a new series about the JK modules
     with  [5]"Configuring  Tomcat  and  Apache  With  JK 1.2". It skims
     through  the  section  on  installing Apache and Tomcat to focus on
     integrating the two by walking you through the steps of configuring
     Tomcat's  server.xml  file  and Apache's httpd.conf file. It uses a
     prebuilt  mod_jk  binary  on  a  Windows  machine but mentions that
     similar steps also apply to various flavours of Unix system.

     [6]"One  IP,  Many Domains: An Apache Virtual Hosting HOWTO Version
     1.0"  shows  you how to set up non-SSL name-based virtual hosts for
     Apache  2  on  Red  Hat Linux 8.0 but does not cover DNS issues. It
     also  demonstrates  how  to  use the Apacheconf GUI to achieve this
     without having to edit the httpd.conf file manually.

     Eric  Rescorla did a study of user responses to security flaws from
     the  announcement  of  the  OpenSSL remote buffer overflows of July
     2002  all  the  way  through the release of the worm that exploited
     this   vulnerability   in   September   2002.  The  paper  entitled
     [7]"Security  holes...  Who cares?" is definitely worth reading, if
     only to find out which category of users you fall into.

     [8]"Security:  Apache"  is  a  basic  level  article  on monitoring
     attacks  on  your  web  server,  protecting  your  files,  and  the
     potential  security  risks  of  SSI  and CGI. It briefly touches on
     suEXEC  and  CGIWrap  as ways to reduce the security risks involved
     when allowing users to execute private SSI or CGI scripts.

                                 Book Reviews

Teach Yourself Apache 2 in 24 hours

     Aimed  at  beginners and intermediate users of Apache 2.0 this book
     covers  how  to  install, build, configure, customise, monitor, and
     troubleshoot  Apache  2.0  on  a  variety of platforms ranging from
     Linux, Windows to other Unix flavours.

     Overall,  this  book is a scrumptious appetiser to a full course of
     Apache  2.0  because it leaves you hungry for more. Its explanation
     in  layman  terms, and useful diagrams build the foundation for you
     to  absorb  more  in-depth  information about Apache 2.0 from other
     sources as suggested in the "Further Reading" section. However, the
     information it provides is sufficient to enable Apache 1.3 users to
     migrate  to  the new version. Web server administrators who are new
     to Apache may find it useful to read through the whole book and may
     take  more than 24 hours to digest its contents before moving on to
     a  more advanced book. Apache 1.3 users who are in a hurry can just
     focus   on   the   Hours   about   Apache  architecture  (Hour  2),
     multi-processing modules (Hour 11), filters (Hour 12), migration to
     Apache 2.0 (Hour 23), and skim through all the rest of the Hours.
     [9]Read our full review

Apache Administrator's Handbook

     "Apache   Administrator's   Handbook"   by   Rich   Bowen  and  two
     contributing  authors,  Allan  Liska  and  Daniel  Lopez, was first
     printed  by  Sams  Publishing in March 2002. It is intended to be a
     practical,  hands-on  guide  on  how  to  install,  configure,  and
     administer   the   Apache   Web   server   for  Apache  Web  server
     administrators and Web dynamic content developers. It stresses that
     this  book  is  not meant to be a comprehensive Apache manual so it
     does  not  provide a detailed listing of all the Apache directives,
     usage,  and  syntax.  Neither  does  it  cater  for  Apache modules
     developers. It covers mainly Apache 1.3 and only touches briefly on
     Apache  2.0  as  Apache  2.0  was  still  in beta when the book was
     published.

     Compared  to  other  Apache books on the market, this book contains
     more  information  about  running  Apache  on  Windows.  A complete
     chapter concentrates solely on the details for installing Apache on
     Microsoft  Windows,  and  lists  the  differences between Apache on
     Windows  and Unix, namely the multithreaded versus preforked model.
     There  are  also  short  sections  about  mod_perl  on Windows, and
     security tips for running Apache and CGI scripts on Windows.

     If  you are migrating to Apache from another web server or thinking
     of using Apache on Windows, then this is a good book to start with.
     [10]Read our full review

                             Apache Week giveaway

     For  a  chance to get your hands a copy of the book "Teach Yourself
     Apache 2 in 24 hours", answer this simple question:

     Where was the ApacheCon in November 2002 held?
     A) New York, USA, B) Las Vegas, USA, or C) [11]Grimethorpe, England

     Send  your  answer  to  [12]freebook@apacheweek.com  to reach us no
     later  than  December 5th 2002. Your email address will not be used
     for anything other than to let you know if you won. One winner will
     be  drawn  at  random from all correct entries submitted. One entry
     per person, no cash alternative, editors' decision is final.
       ______________________________________________________________

     This  issue brought to you by: Mark J Cox, Joe Orton, Min Min Tsan,
     Paul Weinstein
     Comments or criticisms? Please email us at
     [13]editors@apacheweek.com.

     [14]Apache Week is copyright 1996-2002 by [15]Red Hat, Inc.

References

   1. http://www.apacheweek.com/features/apachecon2002
   2. http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=apache-httpd-dev&m3810540030898&q=raw
   3. http://www.radwin.org/michael/blog/archives/cat_apache.html#000060
   4. http://www.radwin.org/michael/blog/mt-comments.cgi?entry_idQ
   5. http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2002/11/20/tomcat.html
   6. http://www.linuxorbit.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artidT2&page=1
   7. http://www.cgisecurity.com/lib/reports/slapper-report.pdf
   8. http://www.linuxsecurity.com/feature_stories/feature_story-129.html
   9. http://www.apacheweek.com/features/book-apache24hours
  10. http://www.apacheweek.com/features/book-apadminhandbk
  11. http://www.abc.net.au/classic/breakfast/stories/s498150.htm
  12. mailto:freebook@apacheweek.com
  13. mailto:editors@apacheweek.com
  14. http://www.apacheweek.com/
  15. http://www.redhat.com/

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