Apache

httpd(8), also known as Apache or Apache2, is one of the oldest and most extensible web servers. It has survived so long precisely because it is so extensible; system administrators have been able to continuously tune and upgrade the server for modern best practices.

Installation

Most Linux and BSD distributions offer a package for httpd(8), but it will be named differently across systems. The most common names are apache and apache2.

Supporting programs like htpasswd(1) are sometimes split into a separate package named like apache2-utils.

For systemd-capable systems, start and enable httpd.service or apache2.service (again, differing across systems).

For Alpine, try:

rc-service apache2 start
rc-update add apache2

Otherwise try:

service apache2 start
#also: stop, restart, and reload

For BSD distributions, try:

/usr/local/sbin/apachectl start
#also: stop, restart, and graceful

See apachectl(8) for more information.

To launch the server on startup, update /etc/rc.conf:

apache_enable="YES"

Configuration

Server

The server is configured by a central file. Distributions disagree about the correct location for this file. Try all of the following:

• /etc/apache2.conf

• /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

• /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

• /usr/local/etc/apache/httpd.conf

Virtual Hosts

Virtual hosts are declared in domain-specific files. An example site configuration for a CGI script, such as cgit.

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
  ServerName git.my-domain.com
 
  DocumentRoot /usr/share/cgit
  Alias / /usr/share/cgit/cgit.cgi

  <Document '/usr/share/cgit/'>
    Options ExecCGI FollowSymLinks
    Require all granted
    AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
    DirectoryIndex cgit.cgi
  </Document>
 
  ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
  CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Encryption

See here for details.

Authentication

A document can be set to require authentication, except for a local network user.

<Document "/">
  AuthType Basic
  AuthName "Authentication Required"
  AuthUserFile /var/www/ftp-htpasswd
  <RequireAny>
    Require valid-user
    Require ip 192.168
    Require ip 10
  </RequireAny>
</Document>

This method of authentication is 'good-enough' for personal uses. It relies entirely on the traffic encryption (HTTPS).

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