Apache: The Definitive Guide, 3rd Edition
Ben Laurie, Peter Laurie ......[O'Reilly Publishing]
December 2002, 568 pages ......[Buy it at BookPool]
With the advent of Apache 2.0.X, and it's new security features and configuration options, the apache web server has insured it's position as the most secure, configurable and fun web server in the known universe.
The authors of Apache: The Definitive Guide know whereof they speak, Ben Laurie is a core member of the Apache team, and Peter is his father.
They are very plain spoken about the advantages of running Apache on UNIX versus Windows. The simple truth, as they state it, is that Windows does not present a serious and useful security model and cannot be trusted for important things like corporate web services, or really for anything where a persons livelihood might be at risk.
That said, they get down to the business of building and configuring apache, and the advantages and disadvantages of the various and sundry modules that can be built into or added to an existing Apache installation.
There is a good introductory section on my favorite Apache module, mod_rewrite. As they point out, mod_rewrite is black magic of the highest order... but I think they understate the obscurity of it's syntax. I am a regex guru, and I have a very hard time with mod_rewite's flow control switches, which are entirely unique to it!
I recommend this book for anyone taking their first trip into web-server wonderland. It provides a good introduction to the concepts and terminology that the Apache online documents assume the user is already familiar with, and which are not easily assimilated via a cold approach of the docs.
Since the publishing of this book Apache has expanded its scope far beyond the original web server. You can visit http://www.apache.org to see the many ongoing fun projects. For questions, you can search this [Apache Forum] hosted by [Nabble] which currently archives all the Apache mailing lists. You can browse or search to find out what the current Apache community is talking about.
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