Installing Apache - Installation Instructions (Page 2 of 4 )
Before the installation can take place Apache must be made aware of its environment. This is done through the configure script:
Before the installation can take place Apache must be made aware of its environment. This is done through the script:
$ ./configure
--prefix=/usr/local/apache
The configure script explores your operating system and creates the Makefile for it, so you can execute the following to start the actual compilation process, copy the files into the directory set by the --prefix option, and execute the apachectl script to start the Apache server:
$ make
# make install
# /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl start
Though this will install and start Apache, you also need to configure your operating system to start Apache when it boots. The procedure differs from system to system on Unix platforms but is usually done by creating a symbolic link to the apachectl script for the relevant runlevel (servers typically use run level 3):
# cd /etc/rc3.d
# ln
-s /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl S85httpd
On Windows, Apache is configured to start automatically when you install from a binary distribution, but you can do it from a command line by calling Apache with the -k install command switch.
Testing the installation
To verify the startup has succeeded, try to access the web server using a browser as a client. If it works you will see the famous “Seeing this instead of the website you expected?” page, as shown in Figure 2-1. At the time of this writing, there are talks on the Apache developers’ list to reduce the welcome message to avoid confusing users (not administrators but those who stumble on active but unused Apache installations that are publicly available on the Internet).
Figure 2-1. Apache post-installation welcome page
As a bonus, toward the end of the page, you will find a link to the Apache reference manual. If you are near a computer while reading this book, you can use this copy of the manual to learn configuration directive specifics.
Using the ps tool, you can find out how many Apache processes there are:
$ ps -Ao user,pid,ppid,cmd | grep httpd
root 31738 1 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
httpd 31765 31738 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
httpd 31766 31738 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
httpd 31767 31738 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
httpd 31768 31738 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
httpd 31769 31738
/usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
Using tail, you can see what gets logged when different requests are processed. Enter a nonexistent filename in the browser location bar and send the request to the web server; then examine the access log (logs are in the /var/www/logs folder). The example below shows successful retrieval (as indicated by the 200 return status code) of a file that exists, followed by an unsuccessful attempt (404 return status code) to retrieve a file that does not exist:
192.168.2.3 - - [21/Jul/2004:17:12:22 +0100] "GET /manual/images/feather.gif
HTTP/1.1" 200 6471
192.168.2.3 - - [21/Jul/2004:17:20:05 +0100] "GET /manual/not-here
HTTP/1.1" 404 311
Here is what the error log contains for this example:
[Wed Jul 21 17:17:04 2004] [notice] Apache/2.0.50 (Unix) configured
-- resuming normal operations
[Wed Jul 21 17:20:05 2004] [error] [client 192.168.2.3] File does not
exist: /usr/local/apache/manual/not-here
The idea is to become familiar with how Apache works. As you learn what constitutes normal behavior, you will learn how to spot unusual events.
Next: Selecting modules to install >>
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 This article is excerpted from chapter two of Apache Security, written by Ivan Ristic (O'Reilly; ISBN: 0596007248). Check it out today at your favorite bookstore. Buy this book now.
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