Pro Apache (Expert's Voice) [Paperback]

Peter Wainwright (Author)

Book Description

Series: Expert's Voice | Publication Date: January 22, 2004

The Apache HTTP server (simply "Apache") powers most of the sites on the World Wide Web. Programmable, extensible, and highly-configurable, the Apache web server provides for uploads, downloads, CGI and other server-side scripting, and web site security.

Pro Apache, Third Edition is a new revision of Peter Wainwright’s bestselling book on Apache configuration and administration. In addition to installation, maintenance, and deployment, the book demonstrates how to configure Apache to use Perl, PHP, and Python as server-side scripting languages. And unlike other books on Apache, Pro Apache provides comprehensive information on both major revisions - 1.3 and 2.0 - of the software.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Peter Wainwright is a software developer and author. In addition to this book, Wainwright is the author of two books on Perl development.

Product Details

• Paperback: 904 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 3rd edition (January 22, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590593006
• ISBN-13: 978-1590593004
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #818,375 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the better books for getting a good handle on Apache, May 2, 2005

By 

Harold McFarland (Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pro Apache (Expert's Voice) (Paperback)

In this voluminous title author Peter Wainwright covers the Apache web server in detail. Chapters include Installing Apache and basic configuration, building Apache the way you want it, configuring Apache the way you want it, deciding what the client needs, delivering dynamic content, hosting more than one web site, improving Apache's performance, monitoring Apache, Securing Apache, Improving Web Server Security, and Extending Apache. It has some excellent sections on advanced configuration, handling robots, dealing with errors and handling them correctly, name-based and IP-based virtual servers, and improving the performance of your server. The section on securing Apache covers authentication (including digest and LDAP) and using SSL (including some advanced configuration techniques).

There are better books that deal with some of the specific areas of this text (for example, Hardening Apache is much more thorough on the subject of securing your server) but you won't find a more comprehensive text in a single volume than this one. Pro Apache, Third Edition is highly recommended and my first choice for anyone looking for a single book to learn how to setup and configure an Apache server or serve as their primary reference.

27 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars New - Apache 2, June 26, 2004

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pro Apache (Expert's Voice) (Paperback)

Why a third edition? Wainright's first edition was well received and Apache was improved after the edition was published. So he produced a second edition. Guess what? The open source Apache has continued to accrue infalling upgrades. As Wainright explains, there are now two main versions, 1.3 and 2. Apache 1.3 is essentially the direct descendent of earlier versions. Very stable on unix/linux, on which it was originally developed.

But the key thing about this new book is its descriptions of Apache 2. Apache 1.3 had inferior performance on Microsoft computers, when it was ported. Some people got fed up with this state of affairs and recast crucial portions, to produce Apache 2, which now directly uses native MS threads. It has much better performance than 1.3, on MS computers.

The book goes into this in fuller detail. Plus it has the usual voluminous descriptions of what you can tweak for most web server needs. Luckily, if you want to deploy or use a vanilla configuration, the early chapters should suffice. Then consult the later text for more specialised needs.

If you are already running Apache 1.3 on a unix/linux computer, it seems from this book that there is little incentive to migrate to 2. Relatively little to gain.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Professional's Apache Reference, December 15, 2006

By 

Phil Lembo (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pro Apache (Expert's Voice) (Paperback)

This is by far the best standalone book on Apache I've seen. It really is a very good reference for professional web server admins, as well as developers and others, who need help in managing Apache web servers. It's well-written too, something that is becoming increasingly rare in the technical book area.