Pro Apache, Third Edition (Expert's Voice) (Paperback)

~ Peter Wainwright (Author)
Key Phrases: online appendix, custom log, thread limit, Getting Started, Delivering Dynamic Content, Improving Apache's Performance (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"...a behemoth of a resource for everything you ever wanted to know about Apache." — Doug Schasteen, member, Kansas City's PHP User Group

"This is by far the best ‘know all, end all’ reference, bar none. My hat goes off to Peter Wainwright and Apress for opening up a whole new world to me." — Eric Wolf (a.k.a. "nawlej"), Codewalkers.com This book aims to teach you everything you need to know to build, install, and configure every aspect of Apache, the world's most popular Web server. Two versions of Apache are now available. Apache 1.3 is still widely used and is continuously updated. Apache 2 offers new and powerful features, such as multi-processsing modules and filters, as well as a revised and expanded build system for compiling Apache from source. This book comprehensively covers both server versions, presenting up-to-date information and examples, and highlighting variations bettween the two releases in context. In addition, this book is organized to provide solutions to common problems. It answers the questions that administrators like you typically ask, without requiring that you know the name of a specific Apache module or directive beforehand. This book also demonstrates multiple solutions to a problem, and contrasts the benefits and drawbacks of each approach. After reading Pro Apache, you'll know not only how to get the results you want, but also why a solution works the way it does. Finally, this book examines how to accomplish more advanced configurations, where individual features must cooperate with each other intelligently. Now in its third edition, the expertise found in Pro Apache makes it the definitive guide to harnessing the power of Apache safely and securely.

About the Author

Peter Wainwright

Peter Wainwright is a developer and software engineer specializing in Perl, Apache, and other open-source projects. He got his first taste of programming on a BBC Micro and gained most of his early programming experience writing applications in C on Solaris. He then discovered Linux, shortly followed by Perl and Apache, and has been happily programming there ever since.He is an active proponent of commercial passenger space travel and cofounded Space Future Consulting, an international space tourism consultancy firm.

Product Details

• Paperback: 904 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 3rd edition (January 19, 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: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #210,219 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 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 (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

25 of 29 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 (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

7 of 8 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

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.