Apache Week issue 291

                                APACHE WEEK
                                      
The essential weekly guide for users of the world's most popular Web server.
                         Issue 291: 12th April 2002
                                      
                                 In this issue
                                       
     * Apache 2.0 released
     * Under development
     * Featured articles
     * O'Reilly Open Source Convention 2002
     * Apache Week giveaway
       
                              Apache 2.0 released
                                       
     The first release of Apache 2.0 happened last week. Read our
     [1]special feature all about the history of development on Apache
     2.0, the release schedules, and some features to help you use this
     new release
     
     There have been a number of press articles in the last week about
     this release. Firstly [2]CNN.com take a look at the new version and
     quote Dan Kusnetzky of research company IDC:
     
     "From what I'm hearing, the performance improvements are
     significant". 
     
     Although they later seem to get confused about multitasking:
     
     "With the prior version of Apache, the server typically wasn't able
     to do several tasks at once."
     
     The CNN story is also at [3]InfoWorld. Other stories are available
     from [4]CNet, [5]internet.com, [6]ZDNet, and [7]vnunet.com.
     Finally, read some comments from the public in a [8]Slashdot
     article.
     
                               Under development
                                       
     Traffic on the developer list trebled over the last week as the
     2.0.34 release was abandoned in favour of 2.0.35, after fixes for
     problems with mod_autoindex and in content-type handling were
     checked in. In a move which came as a surprise to some, a vote was
     then cast on making 2.0.35 the recommended stable Apache httpd
     server, and was quickly passed.
     
     The usual routine of testing the code on the live server at
     apache.org before making the public release announcement was
     skipped for 2.0.35. Once live testing did begin, problems were
     quickly found with segfaults caused by GET requests including a
     Range header, and APR's mmap handling.
     
     The default MPM in 2.0 for Unix systems is currently prefork, which
     implements the processing model used in 1.3. Of the two
     thread-based processing modules in 2.0, [9]worker and perchild,
     worker is generally considered to be more stable; but a serious
     problem found was found in testing this week where the worker MPM
     becomes unresponsive under high load. Several solutions have been
     proposed, and performance guru Brian Pane checked-in a new
     experimental MPM based on worker, but using a "leader/follower"
     design. The current worker MPM uses a dedicated thread to listen
     for new connections, which are then passed off to other threads for
     processing. In the new leader MPM, the job of listening for
     connections rotates between threads, with an idle thread being
     awakened each time the current listener thread accepts a new
     connection.
     
                               Featured articles
                                       
     In this section we highlight some of the articles on the web that
     are of interest to Apache users.
     
     This [10]security checklist for the Apache web server is prepared
     by InterSect Alliance and aims to guide experienced system
     administrators in configuring their web server and underlying
     platform to be as secure as required by their existing security
     plan. Some of the areas it covers are Apache's configuration, user
     identification and authentication, encryption, access control, and
     auditing.
     
     The Developer Shed concludes its two-part [11]"Error Handling In
     PHP" article by showing you real-world examples of how to write
     custom handlers to handle errors triggered by your own code. It
     also demonstrates how to roll back the error handler, log errors to
     a file or as an email message, and use PHP's output-buffering
     functions.
     
     [12]"Fingerprinting Port80 Attacks: Part Two" takes a further look
     into web server attack signatures. Other than providing additional
     common and advanced patterns, it includes a few examples on cross
     site scripting and headers exploitation, and touches on error codes
     and logging too. As before, it is not meant to be an exhaustive
     list of port 80 exploits but hopefully it will help you identify
     more attack patterns in your logs, and add more rules to your
     Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS). For those who missed the first
     installment, you may refer to it [13]here.
     
     [14]"Apache SOAP type mapping, Part 2" continues where it left off
     by teaching you how to write your own serialisation and
     deserialisation when there isn't one to your liking in the Apache
     SOAP toolkit. An example application which implements
     schema-constrained SOAP is also presented.
     
                     O'Reilly Open Source Convention 2002
                                       
     San Diego, California plays host to this key conference between
     July 22nd and 26th, and brings together the leaders of all the
     critical open source technologies - including Apache - to give you
     an inside look at how to configure, optimise, code, and manage
     them.
     
     This years event looks pretty exciting for Apache users as it
     includes a whole conference dedicated to PHP (including a look at
     PHP 4.1 and Beyond), a track on Apache 2.0, and a key presentation
     "Open Source and Java: Lessons from the Apache Experience"
     
     Register now, or find out more at at the [15]conference web site.
     Read our in depth account of [16]the 2001 Convention.
     
                             Apache Week giveaway
                                       
     Last week [17]we reviewed the "mod_perl Developer's Cookbook". If
     reading the [18]sample chapters available at its companion website
     has whetted your appetite, you may be interested to read this
     additional excerpt - [19]"Chapter 4: Communicating with the Apache
     Server" provided by WebReference.com.
     
     We have three copies of the "mod_perl Developer's Cookbook" to give
     away to lucky readers, thanks to the authors. For a chance to get
     your hands on a copy of this book, answer this simple question:
     
     Which ingredient are you most likely to find in [20]Chili Con
     Carne?
     A) Beef B) Vodka C) Chocolate
     
     Send your answer (A, B, or C) to [21][email protected] to reach us
     no later than 16th April 2002. Your e-mail address will not be used
     for anything other than to let you know if you won. Three winners
     will be drawn at random from all correct entries submitted, we
     disqualify people who make more than one entry, no cash
     alternative, void where prohibited, editors' decision is final.
       ______________________________________________________________
     
     This issue brought to you by: Mark Cox, Mark J Cox, Joe Orton, Min
     Min Tsan
     Comments or criticisms? Please email us at
     [22][email protected].
     
     [23]Apache Week is copyright 1996-2002 by [24]Red Hat, Inc.

References

   1. http://www.apacheweek.com/features/ap2
   2. http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/04/11/apache.2.idg/
   3. http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/04/09/020409hnapache.xml
   4. http://news.com.com/2100-1001-878325.html
   5. http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article/0,,10_1005491,00.html
   6. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2107909,00.html
   7. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1130714
   8. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/04/06/0216250
   9. http://www.apacheweek.com/issues/01-08-10#dev
  10. http://www.intersectalliance.com/projects/ApacheConfig/
  11. http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/PHP/ErrorHandling/ErrorHandling2/page1.html
  12. http://www.cgisecurity.com/papers/fingerprinting-2.html
  13. http://www.cgisecurity.com/papers/fingerprint-port80.txt
  14. http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-soapmap2/
  15. http://conferences.oreilly.com/oscon/
  16. http://www.apacheweek.com/features/oscon2001
  17. http://www.apacheweek.com/features/book-mod_perlcookbook
  18. http://www.modperlcookbook.org/chapters.html
  19. http://www.webreference.com/programming/perl/cookbook/chap4/
  20. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/nakedchef/recipe_wk1.shtml#chilli
  21. mailto:[email protected]
  22. mailto:[email protected]
  23. http://www.apacheweek.com/
  24. http://www.redhat.com/

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