Apache is far and away the most widely used web server platform in the world. Both free and rock-solid, it runs more than half of the world's web sites, ranging from huge e-commerce operations to corporate intranets and smaller hobby sites, and it continues to maintain its popularity, drawing new users all the time. If you work with Apache on a regular basis, you have plenty of documentation on installing and configuring your server, but where do you go for help with the day-to-day stuff, like adding common modules or fine-tuning your activity logging?
The Apache Cookbook is a collection of problems, solutions, and practical examples for webmasters, web administrators, programmers, and everyone else who works with Apache. For every problem addressed in the book, there's a worked-out solution or "recipe"--short, focused pieces of code that you can use immediately. But this book offers more than cut-and-paste code. You also get explanations of how and why the code works, so you can adapt the problem-solving techniques to similar situations.
The recipes in the Apache Cookbook range from simple tasks, such installing the server on Red Hat Linux or Windows, to more complex tasks, such as setting up name-based virtual hosts or securing and managing your proxy server. The two hundred plus recipes in the book cover additional topics such as:
- Security
- Aliases, Redirecting, and Rewriting
- CGI Scripts, the suexec Wrapper, and other dynamic content techniques
- Error Handling
- SSL
- Performance
The impressive collection of useful code in this book is a guaranteed timesaver for all Apache users, from novices to advanced practitioners. Instead of poking around mailing lists, online documentation, and other sources, you can rely on the
Apache Cookbook for quick solutions to common problems, and then you can spend your time and energy where it matters most.
Ken Coar is a member of the Apache Software Foundation, the body that oversees Apache development. He is the author of Apache Server for Dummies (January 1998) and co-author of Apache Server Unleashed (March 2000). Ken has been responsible for fielding email sent to the Apache project, and his experience with that mailing list provided a foundation for this book.
Rich Bowen is a member of the Apache Software Foundation, working primarily on the documentation for the Apache Web Server. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky, where he spends his free time GeoCaching. He also enjoys flying kites and reading stuff by Charles Dickens and his contemporaries. Rich is a coauthor of Apache Administrators Handbook and Apache Cookbook. Rich, or DrBacchus--his handle on IRC--also spends entirely too much time on #apache. You can find him on the web at http://www.drbacchus.com/journal/.
