To install Apache, use GnoRPM to install the following packages:

You’ll find the apache-manual package on Disc 2 of Red Hat Linux 7.2. You may also need to install the mm package, which contains a library needed by Apache.

Strictly speaking, you do not need to install the apache-manual or apache-conf packages. However, you may find the Apache manual useful, and you’ll probably find it easier to configure Apache using apacheconfthan using a text editor.

Configuring a web server can be as easy or as difficult as you choose. Like other web servers, Apache provides seemingly countless options. As distributed with Red Hat Linux, Apache has a default configuration that generally requires only a little tweaking before use. Apache’s configuration files reside in the directory /etc/httpd/conf. For historical reasons that no longer apply, Apache has three configuration files:

However, the only configuration file that’s currently used is httpd.conf. As mentioned, the easiest way to perform a basic configuration of Apache is with the X-based tool, apacheconf. To configure Apache, choose Programs → System → Apache Configuration from the GNOME menu or choose System → Apache Configuration from the KDE menu. Alternatively, start X and launch apacheconfby issuing the following command in a terminal window:

               apacheconf &

The main configuration screen, shown in Figure 12-1, appears.

Figure 12-1. The main apacheconf screen

The main configuration screen lets you specify the following:

You should specify the Server Name and Webmaster Email Address. Unless your system has multiple network adapters or you want to run the web server on a nonstandard port (that is, a port other than 80), you don’t need to modify the Available Addresses configuration item.

The Virtual Hosts tab, shown in Figure 12-2, lets you specify virtual hosts. Virtual hosting is a feature that lets you host multiple web sites with a single IP address. For example, both www.myfirstsite.com and www.myothersite.com could be hosted on the same system using a single IP address. However, virtual hosting is not compatible with HTTP 1.0 browsers.

Figure 12-2. The apacheconf Virtual Hosts tab

The Server tab, shown in Figure 12-3, lets you specify the location of important files and directories and the user account and group used by Apache. You should not generally alter these configuration items.

Figure 12-3. The apacheconf Server tab

The Performance Tuning tab, shown in Figure 12-4, provides access to configuration items that let you optimize Apache’s performance. Unless your web server will see very heavy service, you should reduce the maximum number of connections. A value of 15 is more than appropriate for a personal web server.

Figure 12-4. The apacheconf Performance Tuning tab

If you’re interested in exploring the many other configuration options provided by Apache, see the Apache manual, which resides in /var/www/html/manual. You can view the file with Links or another HTML browser. Also, see the Apache web site (http://www.apache.org), which includes a tutorial on Apache configuration.

Once you’ve configured your web server, you can start it by issuing the following command:

               service httpd start

You can verify that the web server has started by issuing the command:

               service httpd status

which should report that one or more processes are running, like so:

[root@athlon /root]# service httpd status
httpd (pid 658 657 656 649 648 647 646 645 641) is running...

If you installed the Links browser, you can use it to test your web server by issuing the following command:

               links http://localhost

You should see a screen that resembles Figure 12-5.

Figure 12-5. The Apache start page as viewed with Links

If you prefer, you can view the start page with Netscape Navigator or Konqueror, both of which support the graphics embedded in the page. The result should resemble Figure 12-6.

Figure 12-6. The Apache start page as viewed with Netscape Navigator

Once you can access your web server locally, try accessing it from a remote computer. This should be as simple as forming a URL that includes the fully qualified hostname or IP address of your system (that is, the host and domain names), for example, http://mysystem.mydomain.

To stop Apache, issue the command:

               service httpd stop

If you change Apache’s configuration, you can restart the server with the command:

               service httpd restart

If you want to start Apache automatically when you boot the system, issue the command:

               chkconfig --level 345 httpd on

You can create HTML pages in /var/www/html, owned by the root user account. These pages are accessible via the URL http://www.domain.com, where domain.com is the name of the host. Alternatively, users can create a public_html subdirectory within their home directory, for example, /home/joepublic/public_html. There, they can publish files that are web-accessible. To access such files, use a special URL that consists of a tilde (~) followed by the name of the user account. For example, http://www.domain.com/~joepublic refers to the user joepublic’s web directory.

If you have trouble accessing web pages on your server, check Apache’s log files, which reside in the directory /etc/httpd/logs. The log files may provide valuable clues to help you understand what’s going wrong.