The Apache Web server

The Apache HTTP server. Very few programs have spread so quickly and
attracted such a large following in such a short time as this HTTP
server.  According to Netcraft, Apache runs on about 49.05% of all
servers attached to the Internet. That represents about 1,182,142
systems. It has replaced within only a few months the NCSA server
which, until then was the unchallenged favorite.  This is undoubtedly
because Apache was derived from the NCSA server sources and that its
configuration is compatible to that of NCSA/1.3.


The Apache project was established to provide a forum for the
development of a freely available HTTP server. The goal is to develop
a secure, efficient, and easily extendable server, which also closely
parallels the development of the HTTP protocol. Thus Apache became a
replacement to NCSA/1.3.


Besides better performance, the removal of known errors, and better
conformance to HTTP standards (HTTP/1.1), Apache offers the following
useful features, which are often missing in other servers:


* password files, used to protect documents from unauthorized access, can
be indexed in various ways. The search for an entry is as a result more
efficient than in ordinary text files.


* client-request errors can be responded to in a flexible manner. CGI
scripts can be used to analyze the error and generate more informative
replies to both the client and the administrator than the HTTP status
codes offer.


* there is no restriction on aliasing and redirection. The Alias and
Redirect directives can be used in arbitrary number and depth.


* Apache can choose the best representation of a resource based on the
browser-supplied preferences for media type, languages, character set and
encoding ("Content Negotiation").


* with Apache you can implement several virtual servers. Thus requests to
different IP addresses (referring to the same computer) can be
distinguished and, depending on the IP address, appropriately handled.


Further advantages are the module concept and the well-documented API
(Application Programmers Interface). Extensions are easily developed and
new features are easily integrated into the server. For example,
an implementation of the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) from Netscape exists for
Apache. This permits secure communication between server and client.

Apache is installed in the following directories:

/etc/httpd                      -> configuration files

/usr/sbin/httpd                 -> server binary

/var/log/httpd/                 -> protocol files

/var/run/httpd.pid              -> server PID

/usr/local/httpd                -> server root

/etc/init.d/apache              -> Start/Stop script

Authors:
--------
    Rob McCool <robm@netscape.com>
    Robert S. Thau <rst@ai.mit.edu>
    Roy T. Fielding <fielding@avron.ics.uci.edu>
    Brian Behlendorf <brian@wired.com>
    Harald Hanche-Olsen <hanche@imf.unit.no>
    David Robinson <kluft@amdahl.com>
    Wietse Venema <drtr@ast.cam.ac.uk>
    Keith Shafer <Keith.Shafer@SanDiegoCA.ATTGIS.COM>
    Kevin Steves <stevesk@mayfield.hp.com>

SuSE series: n