Apache: The Definitive Guide (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

by Ben Laurie (Author), Peter Laurie (Author)
Key Phrases: more file extensions, server config, child init, Butterthlies Inc, Creating Makefile, Microsoft Internet Explorer (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Please take as read all the usual good stuff about O'Reilly books that I have written os often before: this book has the same production values etc. etc. and I'm sure you don't want to read that all again. So what is there to say? Well not a lot really which is why you are getting all this filler. The name of the book tells it all - this really is the definitive guide to using Apache. You run apache? You need to understand it better? (The chapter on running a big web server is sound.) Get the book. The person who pays your wages can certainly afford it." - Lindsay Marshall, news@UK

Product Description
Apache is far and away the most widely used web server platform in the world. This versatile server runs more than half of the world's existing web sites. Apache is both free and rock-solid, running more than 21 million web sites ranging from huge e-commerce operations to corporate intranets and smaller hobby sites. Updated to cover the changes in Apache's latest release, 2.0, as well as Apache 1.3, this useful guide discusses how to obtain, set up, secure, modify, and troubleshoot the Apache software on both Unix and Windows systems. Dozens of clearly written examples provide the answers to the real-world issues that Apache administrators face everyday. In addition to covering the installation and configuration of mod_perl and Tomcat, the book examines PHP, Cocoon, and other new technologies that are associated with the Apache web server. Additional coverage of security and the Apache 2.0 API make Apache: The Definitive Guide, Third Edition essential documentation for the world's most popular web server.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 536 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 3 edition (December 18, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596002033
• ISBN-13: 978-0596002039
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #124,077 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Book Review - Apache: The Definitive Guide (3rd Edition), November 4, 2003

By	Dan Clough (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This is a fairly comprehensive, 600-page guide to the Apache web server software. The book begins with an overview of what a web server and browser clients do, how they work, and planning/installing Apache. The book covers versions 1.3.x and 2.0.x, and the differences between them. After installation, the next few chapters explain the initial configuration required to get a working webserver, including the various directives blocks, access control, and setting up virtual hosts.
Chapter 5 discusses how to implement authentication, passwords, and more on access control, such as using .htaccess files. Following chapters describe how to change settings for various web filetypes, indexing, imagemaps, and redirection of web page requests. Chapters 9 and 10 explain using a proxy, and the multitude of logging and status options which can be configured.
One of the longer (and important) chapters, Chapter 11, goes into excellent detail about the security aspects of running a webserver. It includes discussion and examples on signatures, certificates, using SSL, and firewalls. General security precautions, real life scenarios, and even potential legal issues are addressed.
The next section goes over building and administering a large website, and the issues associated with that. Also there is a chapter on adding web applications to your site to allow flexible user interaction, such as forms submission. There are then several chapters regarding add-ons and extensions to get even more from the webserver. These include PHP, CGI, Perl, mod_perl, XML, and Cocoon. There are numerous examples of coding provided, although most of them are somewhat basic in nature. One subject that I thought should have been addressed more was integrating the webserver with a database (such as MySQL), as this is a very common requirement.
The last two chapters go over the Apache Application Programming Interface (API), and how to write Modules for Apache. This may be useful to more serious developers, but is probably too technical and difficult for the average casual user. The book closes with a good Index and there is also a very handy foldout inside the back cover which contains quick-reference data for the most commonly used configurations and commands.
Overall this book seems to "cover all the bases". It was useful to me as a beginner to set up a testing webserver, and yet has extra details and information for those more advanced webmasters. The quick reference section especially, should be very useful to experienced Apache users. I would highly recommend the book for anyone wanting to start or improve their knowledge in running the Apache webserver.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Waste of paper, December 1, 2006

By	M. McAulay (southern cali) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Most of the time you can trust O'Reilly technical books. But this dog should be drug out back and shot. It's out of date, it's poorly written, it meanders all over the place. I'm pretty tolerant of technical writing as long as I'm learning what I need to along the way. But at a time when I was highly motivated to get up to speed on Apache I literally gave up and threw this on the floor in frustration. Buy any other book on Apache. This one sucks.

15 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars PLEASING; BUT WITH SOME SETBACKS, January 26, 2003

By	reviewer (Zurich, Switzerland.) - See all my reviews

Regardless of the fact that the publishers of this book claimed that it will help readers discover how to obtain, set-up, and secure the software on both Unix and Windows systems, do not bank on these claims if you are a Windows user.
The truth is that these publicity-claims are applicable to Unix, Linux and BSD platforms. Windows systems users need a lot of prayers, for events to shape-up as they would like.
Conversely, for non-Windows users, there is a lot to celebrate. This updated edition covered (the latest) Apache 2.0 without compromising on the older 1.3 version. Also, there are new sections on Cocoon, Tomcat, mod_perl, PHP, and several others.
Overall, this is a good book; but would have been impeccable, if all the claims its publisher advertised have real life applications.