Press Release: January 10, 2008
Apache Cookbook, Second Edition--New from O'Reilly Media: Extending Apache to Meet Your Needs
One facet of the Apache web server that makes it such a remarkable piece of software is that it includes extensibility by design. That is, if the Apache package doesn't do just what you want right out of the box, you can generally extend it so that it does. Dozens of extensions are included as part of the package distributed by the Apache Software Foundation. "If one of those doesn't meet your needs," advise Ken Coar and Rich Bowen, authors of the Apache Cookbook (Second Edition, O'Reilly, US $34.99), "with several million users out there, there is an excellent chance that someone else has already done your work for you, someone who has concocted a recipe of changes or enhancements to the server that will satisfy your requirements."The Apache Cookbook is a collection of these recipes drawn from the fire hose of the Usenet newsgroups, the ApacheFAQ, Apache-related mailing lists, emailed how-to questions, problems and answers posed on IRC channels, and volunteered submissions. They all come from real-life situations, encountered either by Coar and Bowen or others who have come to them for help. Topics range from basic compilation of the source code to complex problems involving the treatment of URLs that require SSL encryption, including the following:
- Installing the most common third-party modules
- Recording visits to your web site(s), and using Apache's error logging mechanism
- Running multiple web sites using a single Apache server and set of configuration files
- Manipulating URLs -- controlling the files to which they refer, changing them from one thing to another, and making them point to other web sites
- Securing Apache against penetration and exposure
- Making Apache handle secure transactions with SSL-capable browsers -- a must for handling sensitive data such as money transfers or medical records
- Enhancing Apache with runtime scripts and making them operate as a particular user
- Customizing Apache's error messages to give your site its own unique flavor
- Configuring Apache to act as a proxy between users and web pages
- Addressing performance bottlenecks and improving Apache's overall function
Ken Coar is a member of the Apache Software Foundation, the body that oversees Apache development. He is the author of Apache Server for Dummies (January 1998) and co-author of Apache Server Unleashed (March 2000). Ken has been responsible for fielding email sent to the Apache project, and his experience with that mailing list provided a foundation for this book.
Rich Bowen is a member of the Apache Software Foundation, working primarily on the documentation for the Apache Web Server. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky, where he spends his free time GeoCaching. He also enjoys flying kites and reading stuff by Charles Dickens and his contemporaries. Rich is a coauthor of Apache Administrators Handbook and Apache Cookbook. Rich, or DrBacchus--his handle on IRC--also spends entirely too much time on #apache. You can find him on the web at www.drbacchus.com/journal/.
For more information about the book, including table of contents, index, author bio, and samples, see the catalog page for Apache Cookbook
Apache Cookbook, Second Edition
Ken Coar and Rich Bowen
ISBN: 0-596-52994-5 $34.99 US
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