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Apache Config was Re: [LUG] School Wiki

 

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Aaron Trevena wrote:
> 
> Apache is very simple to configure and setup, usually the
> configuration is in /etc/httpd/conf/, cgi scripts go in the cgi-bin
> directory, html in the htdocs directory, start it with
> /etc/init.d/httpd start.

Hehe, with Apache2, Debian (and derivatives) stick everything in
/etc/apache2.

They have broken down the whole apache config into small files.

So you have a
        /etc/apache2/mods-available
        /etc/apache2/mods-enabled
and
        /etc/apache2/sites-available
        /etc/apache2/sites-enabled

It has been done very well, but if you come to it cold, rather than from
say Redhat where there was a (mostly) monolithic config file, you might
be a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of files and directories in
/etc/apache2.

But if you work through the config files it quickly becomes apparent
they are just including the "*-enabled" files into a bigger config file.
i.e. It is still monolithic underneath, as "apache2ctl configtest" will
soon point out to you.

Of course it all assumed you are familiar with symbolic links ("man ln")
and so happy linking files in "mods-enabled" back to the originals in
"mods-available".

The reason is of course to make package installation more modular. The
old Redhats use to have "include if this exists" type statements for
everything that was available packaged for Redhat in the monolithic
httpd.conf file.

The modular approach allows you to create a completely novel package
that introduces new Apache modules, without having to edit any existing
files - the old "edit a crontab entry" versus "creating/replacing a file
in directory /etc/cron.daily" pattern recurs.

I don't know if there are any tools for enabling new modules beyond "ln"
- - I haven't read all the documentation yet (although I've read the
"mod_rewrite" documentations too many times, and it is still voodoo).

Anyway I doubt Tom will have any major problems if he chooses a Debian
based distro because of this, by default the Debian package has a
default website, with a "DocumentRoot" of /var/www. Most of the
complexity only arises if you want more than one website on a box, and
worse still want those websites behaving in radically different ways.
Probably just have to link in whichever modules are required by the
preferred Wiki.

I notice Aarons preferred wiki, Kwiki, is packaged for Sarge ;)

Didn't Tom mention he was using Python. Most of the Python web content
stuff I've seen is Zope/Plone orientated, which is really another world
entirely to Apache. You pays - urm nothing if you don't want to - and
you takes your choice.
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