Installing Apache Httpd

In my current project I am also developing some stuff on the Apache HTTP Server, also known as Apache httpd, or even just Apache, in a Debian box. The environment setup is not complicated, but it does have a couple of twists. So I reckoned it was worthy to put down a few notes about the process.

Currently, on the official Apache httpd download page, we have access to three versions (2.0, 2.2, and 2.4) and a number of different formats, ready to be grabbed.

Since I want a developer install, I should avoid the lean standard cuts provided by apt-get (for Debian) or packaged in a msi (for Windows), and I should go for the "Source" releases. So in my case, I go for a 2.2 (this is the version used at work) Unix Source download.

If you check your chosen link, you would see a different provider accordingly to your geographical position, but the archive name should end like ".../httpd/httpd-2.2.22.tar.gz" (being 2.2.22 the current 2.2 version). I downloaded it through wget, and then I have extracted it by tar xvfz (that is why I have picked up the tar.gz flavor), getting all the raw stuff in a subfolder. I changed directory to there and, before starting the real installation process, I decided where to put the thing, let's call it $APACHE2, that would usually be something like $HOME/apache2.

Firstly I have to prepare the configuration, this is usually done by calling the command

./configure --prefix=$APACHE2

In my case, I want to enable the Dynamic Shared Object (DSO) Support, so that I could install shared modules in a next step. To do that, configure has to be called passing the enable-so option too:

./configure --prefix=$APACHE2 --enable-module=so

Once configure has run, it is time to make Apache. This needs two steps, a first call to "make", and a second one, to "make install".

Almost done. Still I had to set the Apache endpoint in its configuration file: I went to $APACHE2/conf, I edited httpd.conf, setting the property Listen to localhost:8080 - a common setup.

Now I can start and stop my Apache HTTP server, going to $APACHE2/bin, and running:

./apachectl start
./apachectl stop

After starting, and before stopping, I should be able to connect from my web browser to the Apache local home page, by accessing the page on localhost:8080 - if this is not the case, that means I have some trouble.

Building Apache 1.3 on a modern environment

If you need to install a legacy Apache httpd server, you would follow more or less the same procedure, but you could bump in a couple of issues.

Firstly, running configure could lead to errors and a garbled output. This is easy to solve, just run it through a new bash shell, like this:

bash ./configure --prefix=$APACHE13 --enable-module=so

Secondly, you could get a failure in making Apache, due to the use of the symbol getline, that now is part of the C standard library.
The solution here is editing the offending files, htdigest.c htpasswd.c logresolve.c, to rename the local getline function.