Apache 2.0alpha6 Released ------------------------- The Apache Group is pleased to announce the release of the sixth public alpha release of Apache 2.0. Apache 2.0 offers numerous enhancements, improvements and performance boosts over the 1.3 codebase. The most visible and noteworthy addition is the ability to run Apache in a hybrid thread/process mode on any platform that supports both threads and processes. This has shown to improve the scalability of the Apache HTTPD server significantly in our early testing, on some versions of Unix. This release also greatly improves the performance and robustness of Apache on the Microsoft Windows Operating Systems. Lastly we are proud to announce support for BeOS in this version of the server. The newest development in Apache 2.0 is the addition of I/O fitlering. This allows modules to filter data before it has been sent to the network. This feature is still in its infancy, and it is likely to change and evolve in the next few weeks. Apache 2.0a6 under UNIX has undergone some testing, but there are some known issues in the current release (hey, it is an "alpha" for a reason!). It is intended for developers and experienced Apache HTTPD administrators to play around with and work on. It is not a production release. If you do not feel comfortable compiling and working with code, the Apache Group strongly recommends that you wait for a more stable beta release before you try this version. Apache 2.0a6 under Windows has undergone some testing as well. There are known issues in the current release with regards to Apache on windows 95 and 98. We are working through those problems, and hope to have them fixed for future releases of the 2.0 alpha. There are new snapshots of the Apache httpd source available every 6 hours from http://dev.apache.org/from-cvs/apache-2.0/ - please download and test if you feel brave. We don't guarantee anything except that it will take up disk space, but if you have the time and skills, please give it a spin on your platforms. Apache has been the most popular web server on the Internet since April of 1996. The May 2000 WWW server site survey by Netcraft (see: http://www.netcraft.co.uk/Survey/) found that more web servers were using Apache than any other software running on more than 60% of the Internet web servers. For more information, please check out http://www.apache.org/httpd.html Changes with Apache 2.0a6 *) Add support to Apache and APR for dsos on OS/390. [Greg Ames] *) Add a chunking filter to Apache. This brings us one step closer to removing BUFF. [Ryan Bloom] *) Apache 2.0 has been completely documented using Scandoc. The docs can be generated by running 'make docs'. [Ryan Bloom] *) Add filtered I/O to Apache. This is based on bucket brigades, Currently the buckets still use BUFF under the covers, but that should change quickly. The only currently written filter is the core filter which just calls ap_bwrite. [The Apache Group] *) APR locks on Unix: Let APR_LOCKALL locks work when APR isn't built with thread support. [Jeff Trawick] *) Abort configuration if --with-layout was specified and there's no layout definition file. [Ken Coar] *) Add support for '--with-port=n' option to configure. [Ken Coar] *) Add support for extension methods for the Allow response header field, and an API routine for accessing r->allowed and the list of extension methods in a unified manner. [Ken Coar] *) mod_cern_meta: fix broken file reading loop in scan_meta_file(). [Rob Simonson ] *) Get xlate builds working again. The apr renaming in 2.0a5 broke APACHE_XLATE builds. [Jeff Trawick] *) A configuration file parsing problem was fixed. When the configuration file started with an IfModule/IfDefine container, only the last statement in the container would be retained. [Jeff Trawick]