emerge apache

[dave]

alrighty, using the documentation supplied to install kde/sound/etc. followed the instructions for apache, but the .conf file isn't where the documentation says it should be. newish to linux, so don't know how to find the file. anything else changed that's not reflected in the documentation?

[keschrich]

I just emerged apache today too, it seems a lot has in fact changed. The binary file is installed as /usr/bin/apache (rather than httpd as is was previously), and the config files are in /etc/apache/conf. The config file is also a little strange because it is broken into too files, apache.conf and commonapache.conf. I'm not sure why these changes were made, but they were..

Ken

[dave]

I'm not a sysadmin, rather I'm one of those Windows people ( ) who's looking to replace my windows programming skill set (not to mention ridding my system of windows). With that disclaimer out of the way, I thought maintaining where things are installed would be a must-do... wouldn't every sysadmin out there who use apache kinda resent the renaming of executables and the placing of files in non-standard locations? Yes, I know a sysadmin would know how to find the new names and locations, but why put them through that task when things that have been pretty much standardized work well?

Let me know if I'm approaching these changes from the wrong perspective...

[woodchip]

Hi,

I maintain the apache port, and am responsible for bringing it out of the dark ages, and into the glorious state it currently resides in.

Everything I did (and do) is well documented in the ChangeLog. This file
is at /usr/portage/net-www/apache/ChangeLog; online version here:
http://www.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/gentoo-x86/net-www/apache/ChangeLog?rev=1.6&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup

The fact is, that there were so many problems with the old version it would have been impossible to completely fix everything without a little pain. I in my own spare time took the initiative to make these huge, sweeping changes and recieve flak for it on this little flame^H^H^H^H^Hmessage board. Thanks a lot!

Whomever was complaining about a standards compliant layout that is now ruined, quite frankly, doesn't know what they're talking about The fact is that the previous Apache package was a complete mess. I have helped to make it possibly one of the best Apache packages available - period.

The fact is, that the name of the binary can be whatever you want, apache, httpd, etc. Debian installs it as apache, and so do others. Q: Why did we change? A: Because Gentoo will have thousands and thousands of ports eventually. Having the apache configuration in /etc/httpd and an /usr/sbin/httpd binary was just bad news. Why should Apache get to take that namespace away from say, 10 other HTTP servers? The merits of these changes were fully discussed with the other Gentoo developers, they were not made out of spite.

Also, I have added several modules to the portage tree, in net-www, which you can very easily install. I have spent a lot of time making all the appropriate fixes and upgrades to our Apache, such that it is now pretty much ISP quality. Hey I didn't say bugfree, there's always something that could be tweaked, fixed, etc.. I very gladly take constructive criticism from several people very regularly. In fact, on irc, several knowledgable persons have talked with me about ideas/fixes/changes, and I've listened/incorporated them.

Unfortunately, not everybody is so well-informed, as evidenced by the posts in this thread. If you really want to grok Apache (and howto configure vhosts) then you need to read Apache documentation! Your distribution simply makes things easier for you! They do not fundamentally change they way you configure and work with Apache. Remember this! The version that is now in the portage tree has made several things easier for you, all for no charge.

The fact is, that our Apache package is probably better than Mandrake's right now, better than Debian's right now, and _much_ better than FreeBSD's right now. The only way to get a better one, is through some major self-customisation

Cheers
Donny

[demonace]

Hello woodchip,

thanks for the update for the reason why you changed what you did.

my question is why did you take out the comments from the config file? I don't remember exactly what you removed, but when i did a quick check before unmergeing apache, i noticed very little config notes. They should be left in for ease of customizing apache.

and are you looking to update to apache 2.0 for gentoo? and/or add more mod's? via apxs?

[Harri]

Hi Woodchip,

I started the Apache "bashing" , and as I said in my original message, my issue is with certain things with the ebuilds system. I would like to have an easy way of knowing if there have been major changes to the ebuilds (like the apache change), so I won't do an --update world if it will "screw up" my system. Also i've seen quite a few broken ebuilds lately, and yesterday after rsync for awhile I couldn't run --update system at all. In my humble oppinion things like this shouldn't happen. I've seen several suggestions posted about this to the user mailing list (unstable branch etc.).
I am pretty much just a linux newbie so I don't want to sound too harsh. I used to run slackware in 95, then didn't have anything to do with Linux for years. After that I was running Red Hat, Mandrake etc. until I found gentoo recently and really love it.
Just because Gentoo is targeted towards professionals etc. doesn't mean that it shouldn't be made easy to use or that newbies lack the skills to use it. I wouldn't change back to any other distribution, I'm expressing my oppinions because I care .

[tnagpal]

A lot of newer linux people are going to look at the desktop configuration guide which has the old location of /etc/httpd/httpd.conf. So it would certainly be worthwhile to update it.