Building a Apache Web Server

If you have not yet installed your Linux OS, or just for future reference, do not choose to install Apache  during the system installation. Then you can immediately proceed with the source-based install listed here.

Note: to install applications from source code, you will need a C++ compiler (gcc++) installed. This is generally taken care of, but I've had enough queries about it that I've added this note to avoid getting more! You can use your distribution's install CDs to get the proper version of the compiler.

yum install gcc gcc-c++

If you do not have direct access (via keyboard) to the server, PLEASE use Secure Shell (SSH) to access the server and not telnet!! Whenever you use telnet (or plain FTP for that matter), you are transmitting your username, password, and all session information in "plain text". This means that anyone who can access a machine someplace between your PC and your server can snoop your session and get your info. Use encryption wherever possible!

Get the Source Code for all Applications

We want to put all our source code someplace central, so it's not getting mixed up in someone's home directory, etc.

cd /usr/local/src

One way application source code is distributed is in what are known as "tarballs." The tar command is usually associated with making tape backups - tar stands for Tape ARchive. It's also a handy way to pack up multiple files for easy distribution. Use the man tar command to learn more about how to use this very flexible tool.

At the time of updating this, the current versions of all the components we'll use are:

Apache - 1.3.37

wget http://apache.oregonstate.edu/httpd/apache_1.3.37.tar.gz

tar zxf apache_1.3.37.tar.gz

/usr/local/src/apache_1.3.37

The advantage to building Apache with support for dynamically loaded modules is that in the future, you can add functionality to your webserver by just compiling and installing modules, and restarting the webserver. If the features were compiled into Apache, you would need to rebuild Apache from scratch every time you wanted to add or update a module (like PHP). Your Apache binary is also smaller, which means more efficient memory usage.

cd /usr/local/src/apache_1.3.37

make clean

./configure \ --prefix=/usr/local/apache \ --enable-shared=max \ --enable-module=rewrite \ --enable-module=so

make && make install

Start Apache

/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl start