Re: Re: apache/linux newbie has Test Page that won't die

Sander Temme <sctemme@xxxxxxxxxx> · Thu, 8 Feb 2007 19:32:26 -0800

On Feb 8, 2007, at 5:35 PM, Urijah Kaplan wrote:

Okay, at first glance what you said was just a lot of jargon. I'm
slowly trying to translate, so please tell me if I'm on the right
track.

1) What's a "graceful" restart? Right now, I'm just pressing restart
on the simple control panel godaddy gives me. When I ssh in, what
should I type in? (I'm guessing you mean restarting Apache and not the
whole server--right? How do you do that?)

Godaddy?  I thought we were talking about your server?  Or do you  

lease your server from Godaddy?

Anyway, from our preceding conversation I assume that your Apache is  

installed from a Centos (or Red Hat Enterprise) RPM package.  This  

package typically installs a startup script /etc/init.d/httpd:  

execute this without arguments to see what it can do:

[root@centos38 root]# /etc/init.d/httpd

Usage: httpd {start|stop|restart|condrestart|reload|status|fullstatus| 

graceful|help|configtest}

These are far more options than Apache provides by default, and most  

of them have to do with Red Hat specific stuff, but note the presence  

of 'restart' and 'graceful'.

restart makes Apache re-read its configuration file. All child  

processes are terminated, and users currently being served a page  

will be cut off.

graceful makes Apache re-read its configuration file, but the child  

processes are allowed to finish serving their current requests before  

dying.

2)  Where are these VirtualHost Settings stored? I don't see them in
/etc/httpd/conf/welcome.conf I don't really need a VirtualHost (I
think), because this server will be for only one site. Is there any
downside to using a Virtual Host?

The Red Hat package, which is NOT a standard configuration of Apache,  

is configured through /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf, which includes all  

the files /etc/httpd/conf.d/*.conf . If you have any VirtualHost  

declarations for a listening port, the first of those in the list  

will get all requests on that port, except if there is a  

NameVirtualHost and the client is accessing sites by name. The  

default configuration has one virtual host, for SSL.

The matching algorithm is complicated and occasionally trips me up,  

too.  You can find information about it on:

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/vhosts/

3) What does "non-matching requests (that don't contain a matching
Host: header)" mean?

Most web sites today operate as name-based virtual hosts, where a web  

server on one IP addres serves many sites, whose hostnames all  

resolve to the same IP address.  So how does Apache know with which  

virtual host configuration to handle each incoming request?  The  

solution is that all modern browsers send a "Host: hostname" header  

along with its requests.  The server uses that information to route  

the incoming requests.  Requests without that Host: header (like  

Internet Explorer 2 used to send) arrive at a default virtual host,  

which is the first listed in your configuration file that listens on  

the Port that receives the request.

4)Where is the DirectoryIndex directive? What does it do?

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_dir.html#directoryindex

5)I sense a lot of reading coming up for me...

Enjoy.  The advantage of a steep learning curve is that you get to  

learn a lot in a very short time.

Keep in mind that Apache is free, and you can install a copy on your  

own machine to experiment.

S.

--
sctemme@xxxxxxxxxx            http://www.temme.net/sander/
PGP FP: 51B4 8727 466A 0BC3 69F4  B7B8 B2BE BC40 1529 24AF

smime.p7s