The freeware Apache web server runs on about half of the world's existing web sites, and it is rapidly increasing in popularity. Apache: The Definitive Guide, written and reviewed by key members of the Apache Group, is the only complete guide on the market today that describes how to obtain, set up, and secure the Apache software. Apache was originally based on code and ideas found in the most popular HTTP server of the time: NCSA httpd 1.3 (early 1995). It has since evolved into a far superior system that can rival (and probably surpass) almost any other Unix-based HTTP server in terms of functionality, efficiency, and speed. The new version now includes support for Win32 systems. This new second edition of Apache: The Definitive Guide fully describes Windows support and all the other Apache 1.3 features. Contents include:

• The history of the Apache Group

• Obtaining and compiling the server

• Configuring and running Apache on Unix and Windows, including such topics as directory structures, virtual hosts, and CGI programming

• The Apache 1.3 Module API

• Apache security

• A complete list of configuration directives

With Apache: The Definitive Guide, web administrators new to Apache can get up to speed more quickly than ever before by working through the tutorial demo. Experienced administrators and CGI programmers, and web administrators moving from Unix to Windows, will find the reference sections indispensable. Apache: The Definitive Guide is the definitive documentation for the world's most popular web server. Includes CD-ROM with Apache manuals and demo sites discussed in the book.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 46 Ratings

Not for Newbies or Windows Users - 2002-12-30
Reviewer Rating:
Really, this book can be described as the Apache httpd manual in much greater detail.

The book covers pretty much everything you might want to know about running Apache on a *nix or Windows Operating System, but the basic attitude toward Windows users is "If it doesn't work for you - tough luck", which is fine, since Apache really isn't meant to run on Windows as anything more than a test server anyway. Still, I fear that a lot of the Windows folks who are jumping into the Open Source craze may pick this book up and be greatly disappointed.

Another problem I had with the book was the fact that it plays out as more of a step by step manual for setting up specific features of Apache. This makes it fairly difficult to use it for reference later on, but perhaps the idea was that once you got through this book, you could use the web and the manual as a reference instead.

All in all, the book is fairly useful, it just takes some getting used to. If you plan to use it to set up a Windows server, you'd probably be better off braving the various forums and threads out there available to Apache users. However, if you have a good Operating System (BSD, Unix, or Linux), and you want some extra help setting up your Apache server, or setting up specific parts of your Apache server, by all means give this book a shot. It's an above average book, but it's below average by O'Reilly standards.

Great Intro Book - 2002-09-09
Reviewer Rating:
Apache the Definitive Guide 2nd Edition

Hallelujah!
I think this book was exactly what I needed. Coming over from the M$ world where everything is a GUI, the httpd.conf file was a bit frustrating. Apache's online documentation was not newbie friendly. This book bridges that gap. I liked the way they begin with NO conf file and explains the Apache errors, and how to fix it in the conf file. The book then goes on adding additional functionality and options.

This book does not explain every configuration option available to Apache, and it is a bit outdated (covers up to version 1.3.n). The book did come with a CD with sample conf files, but I found that I didn't even need to use them. The book is NOT a complete desktop reference, but it helped me understand Apache conf files so now the Apache online documentation makes sense.

This book showed me the ropes and I'm successfully running Apache as my web server, which is all I was trying to do.

Where's the Big Picture - 2002-04-11
Reviewer Rating:

Very basic, generalized. Not much there. - 2003-05-11
Reviewer Rating:
If you've used Apache without even reading about any detailed configurations, you'd still not see anything new in this book. I can see this book being a little useful for beginners, but even then, it's not really getting into very detailed information about the configurations and whatnot for module installs/additions. I can see someone new still getting frustrated with this book if they run into a problem.

I picked it up, well, because I buy every O'Reilly book that comes out (seriously) and thought I might be able to find something interesting, useful or that I wasn't aware of or forgot... maybe even a little tip about efficiency, compiling options or just anything of interest.

This is no more useful than the README and INSTALL files that come with Apache's source code. I'm not sure I want to even give this two stars come to think of it. I just don't see the point to this book. A let down coming from O'Reilly.

This book served its purpose. - 2004-09-13
Reviewer Rating:
Now you may think that there are better books out there. And there maybe. However this book is a "five star" book. I bought this book for a beginning apache class. We were able to follow the instructions and down load the Apache server from the Internet. The only problem we had was with the NIS system that was not anticipated in this book. It was a lot more important to use this book to read the flat files and see how they were related to each other. The section on Extra Modules (chapter 12) gave a way to improve the server and go outside the scope of this book. This book covered more details than I was looking for; this ways different people can use the book to target their particular needs. You can safely say:

"This book has everything you need to set up an apache server."


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