$Revision: 1.5 $ ($Date: 2000/11/13 02:03:36 $)
The latest version of this FAQ is always available from the main Apache web site, at <http://www.apache.org/docs/misc/FAQ.html>.
If you are reading a text-only version of this FAQ, you may find numbers enclosed in brackets (such as "[12]"). These refer to the list of reference URLs to be found at the end of the document. These references do not appear, and are not needed, for the hypertext version.
If you are having trouble with your Apache server software, you should take the following steps:
Apache tries to be helpful when it encounters a problem. In many cases, it will provide some details by writing one or messages to the server error log. Sometimes this is enough for you to diagnose & fix the problem yourself (such as file permissions or the like). The default location of the error log is /usr/local/apache/logs/error_log, but see the ErrorLog directive in your config files for the location on your server.
The latest version of the Apache Frequently-Asked Questions list can always be found at the main Apache web site.
Most problems that get reported to The Apache Group are recorded in the bug database. Please check the existing reports, open and closed, before adding one. If you find that your issue has already been reported, please don't add a "me, too" report. If the original report isn't closed yet, we suggest that you check it periodically. You might also consider contacting the original submitter, because there may be an email exchange going on about the issue that isn't getting recorded in the database.
A lot of common problems never make it to the bug database because there's already high Q&A traffic about them in the comp.infosystems.www.servers.unix newsgroup. Many Apache users, and some of the developers, can be found roaming its virtual halls, so it is suggested that you seek wisdom there. The chances are good that you'll get a faster answer there than from the bug database, even if you don't see your question already posted.
If you've gone through those steps above that are appropriate and have obtained no relief, then please do let The Apache Group know about the problem by logging a bug report.
If your problem involves the server crashing and generating a core dump, please include a backtrace (if possible). As an example,
# cd ServerRoot
# dbx httpd core
(dbx) where
(Substitute the appropriate locations for your
ServerRoot and your httpd and
core files. You may have to use gdb
instead of dbx.)
Apache attempts to offer all the features and configuration options of NCSA httpd 1.3, as well as many of the additional features found in NCSA httpd 1.4 and NCSA httpd 1.5.
NCSA httpd appears to be moving toward adding experimental features which are not generally required at the moment. Some of the experiments will succeed while others will inevitably be dropped. The Apache philosophy is to add what's needed as and when it is needed.
Friendly interaction between Apache and NCSA developers should ensure that fundamental feature enhancements stay consistent between the two servers for the foreseeable future.
Yes, Apache is Year 2000 compliant.
Apache internally never stores years as two digits.
On the HTTP protocol level RFC1123-style addresses are generated
which is the only format a HTTP/1.1-compliant server should
generate. To be compatible with older applications Apache
recognizes ANSI C's asctime() and
RFC850-/RFC1036-style date formats, too.
The asctime() format uses four-digit years,
but the RFC850 and RFC1036 date formats only define a two-digit year.
If Apache sees such a date with a value less than 70 it assumes that
the century is 20 rather than 19.
Although Apache is Year 2000 compliant, you may still get problems if the underlying OS has problems with dates past year 2000 (e.g., OS calls which accept or return year numbers). Most (UNIX) systems store dates internally as signed 32-bit integers which contain the number of seconds since 1st January 1970, so the magic boundary to worry about is the year 2038 and not 2000. But modern operating systems shouldn't cause any trouble at all.
Users of Apache 1.2.x should upgrade to a current version of Apache 1.3 (see year-2000 improvements in Apache 1.3 for details).
The Apache HTTP Server project is an open-source software product of the Apache Software Foundation. The project and the Foundation cannot offer legal assurances regarding any suitability of the software for your application. There are several commercial Apache support organizations and derivative server products available that may be able to stand behind the software and provide you with any assurances you may require. You may find links to some of these vendors at <http://httpd.apache.org/info/support.cgi>.
The Apache HTTP server software is distributed with the following disclaimer, found in the software license:
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE APACHE GROUP ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE APACHE GROUP OR ITS CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
The Apache Group encourages patches from outside developers. There are 2 main "types" of patches: small bugfixes and general improvements. Bugfixes should be submitting using the Apache bug report page. Improvements, modifications, and additions should follow the instructions below.
In general, the first course of action is to be a member of the
new-httpd@apache.org mailing list. This indicates to
the Group that you are closely following the latest Apache
developments. Your patch file should be generated using either
'diff -c' or 'diff -u' against
the latest CVS tree. To submit your patch, send email to
new-httpd@apache.org with a Subject: line
that starts with [PATCH] and includes a general
description of the patch. In the body of the message, the patch
should be clearly described and then included at the end of the
message. If the patch-file is long, you can note a URL to the file
instead of the file itself. Use of MIME enclosures/attachments
should be avoided.
Be prepared to respond to any questions about your patches and possibly defend your code. If your patch results in a lot of discussion, you may be asked to submit an updated patch that incorporate all changes and suggestions.
The simple answer is: "It hasn't." This misconception is usually caused by the site in question having migrated to the Apache Web server software, but not having migrated the site's content yet. When Apache is installed, the default page that gets installed tells the Webmaster the installation was successful. The expectation is that this default page will be replaced with the site's real content. If it doesn't, complain to the Webmaster, not to the Apache project -- we just make the software and aren't responsible for what people do (or don't do) with it.
The short answer is: "You aren't." Usually when someone thinks the Apache site is originating spam, it's because they've traced the spam to a Web site, and the Web site says it's using Apache. See the previous FAQ entry for more details on this phenomenon.
No marketing spam originates from the Apache site. The only mail that comes from the site goes only to addresses that have been requested to receive the mail.
The detailed answer to this question can be found in the
Apache license, which is included in the Apache distribution in
the file LICENSE. You can also find it on the Web at
<http://www.apache.org/LICENSE.txt>.
Check out Dean Gaudet's performance tuning page.
Regular expressions are a way of describing a pattern - for example, "all the words that begin with the letter A" or "every 10-digit phone number" or even "Every sentence with two commas in it, and no capital letter Q". Regular expressions (aka "regex"s) are useful in Apache because they let you apply certain attributes against collections of files or resources in very flexible ways - for example, all .gif and .jpg files under any "images" directory could be written as /\/images\/.*(jpg|gif)$/.
The best overview around is probably the one which comes with Perl. We implement a simple subset of Perl's regex support, but it's still a good way to learn what they mean. You can start by going to the CPAN page on regular expressions, and branching out from there.
The developers make sure that the software builds and works correctly on the platforms available to them; this does not necessarily mean that your platform is one of them. In addition, the Apache HTTP server project is primarily source oriented, meaning that distributing valid and buildable source code is the purpose of a release, not making sure that there is a binary package for all of the supported platforms.
If you don't see a kit for your platform listed in the binary distribution area (<URL:http://httpd.apache.org/dist/binaries/>), it means either that the platform isn't available to any of the developers, or that they just haven't gotten around to preparing a binary for it. As this is a voluntary project, they are under no obligation to do so. Users are encouraged and expected to build the software themselves.
The sole exception to these practices is the Windows package. Unlike most Unix and Unix-like platforms, Windows systems do not come with a bundled software development environment, so we do prepare binary kits for Windows when we make a release. Again, however, it's a voluntary thing and only a limited number of the developers have the capability to build the InstallShield package, so the Windows release may lag somewhat behind the source release. This lag should be no more than a few days at most.