Apache Week issue 327

                                APACHE WEEK

The essential weekly guide for users of the world's most popular Web server.
                          Issue 327: 9th May 2003

                                 In this issue

     * Administrative
     * Under development
     * Conferences
     * Featured articles

                                Administrative

     On  Friday,  May  9,  at  2100 EDT, the Red Hat list server will be
     taken  off-line  for  an  extended  period  of time for machine and
     software  upgrades. The outage is expected to last around 20 hours.
     The upgrades will have the following consequences:

     * The  Web  interface  for  the Apache Week lists will move to a new
       location at: http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo
     * The  Web interface for the Apache Week lists will have some design
       changes to fit in with the www.redhat.com website.

     After  the  list  server is brought back on-line we will send out a
     password reminder email. You may also receive a copy of the initial
     welcome message.

                               Under development

     The  documentation  project  has made several advancements recently
     with  the  XML-based  documentation;  the manual is currently being
     translated into several non-English languages, the results of which
     are  [1]now  available,  in varying states of completeness. The man
     pages  are  now also being generated from the same XML sources used
     to generate the HTML.

     [2]Ken  Coar's  patches to conditionally allow the use of URIs with
     an  encoded  slash  character ([3]covered previously) have now been
     committed  to  the  stable 2.0 branch, and can be enabled using the
     AllowEncodedSlashes directive.

                                  Conferences

O'Reilly Open Source Convention 2003

     If  you've  visited  the  [4]O'Reilly  Convention web site recently
     you'll  probably  have noticed a cute Apache Week logo. Apache Week
     are  proud  to  be  media  sponsors for the 2003 annual Open Source
     Convention  being held this year in Portland Oregon from July 7-11.
     Past  conferences have had a heavy Apache bias, and this year is no
     different  with  a  dedicated  Apache  track  and more than a dozen
     Apache  sessions  and  tutorials  featuring  some well known Apache
     developers  including  Stas  Bekman, Greg Stein, Justin Erenkrantz,
     and  Rich  Bowen. In addition there are complete tracks relating to
     PHP, MySQL, XML, and so much more that you'll have as many problems
     as we always do deciding which sessions to attend.

     Apache Week will be there to give you the lowdown on the event (and
     the  parties!)  but  it's  nothing  like  being  there yourself and
     meeting  the experts. [5]Registration is now open and you can get a
     large discount if you register before May 23rd.

     Read  the Apache Week review of the [6]2002 convention, the [7]2001
     convention, and the [8]2000 convention.

LinuxWorld Conference 2003

     Billed  as  the  "world's  leading  gathering  place for anyone and
     everyone  interested  in Linux and other open source technologies",
     LinuxWorld  Conference and Expo makes its way to San Francisco from
     August  4-7th  2003. Apache Week has visited LinuxWorld in the past
     although  we spent nearly all our time on the expo floor talking to
     the  companies  that  were  doing  things  with Apache and ended up
     missing all the talks.

     This  time  at  the  conference you can hear from Apache expert and
     occasional Apache Week author, Paul Weinstein, who is talking about
     how  to  get up and running with Apache 2.0 on Linux. Apache Week's
     own  editor,  [9]Mark  J  Cox,  will  also  be  there talking about
     "Security  Response  and  Vendor  Accountability  for  Open  Source
     Software," drawing directly on his experience of the way the Apache
     group deal with security issues.

     Find out more from the [10]LinuxWorld website

                               Featured articles

     In  this  section we highlight some of the articles on the web that
     are of interest to Apache users.

     The   February  2003  issue  of  Linux  Magazine  talks  about  two
     third-party   Apache   modules   in   [11]"Throttling  Apache"  and
     [12]"mod_security".  The  first  article  explains how mod_throttle
     enables  you  to  control  bandwidth usage within a server, virtual
     host,  directory, and location context, and also track and regulate
     incoming  requests  by  client  IP  addresses, authenticated remote
     users,  or local user IDs according to policies that require a size
     and  a  time  limit. Then it shows you how to build it as a Dynamic
     Shared  Object  (DSO)  module,  install  it,  and  implement  a few
     policies  for  a  real-life  scenario. Meanwhile the latter gives a
     brief  overview  of mod_security and provides a few examples of how
     its  directives  can  be  configured  to  secure  your  Web-enabled
     applications.

     Rich  Bowen  allows  us  a  glimpse  into  the future Apache 2.2 in
     [13]"Safer  Apache  Driving with AAA". First of all, he defines the
     terms  authentication, authorisation, and access control (AAA), and
     then  highlights  the major differences in the AAA code between the
     development  branch  of  the Apache 2.0 tree and Apache 2.0.45, and
     ends with the benefits of this change.

     [14]"mod_deflate   and   Apache  2.0.x"  compares  the  results  of
     compression  using  mod_deflate in Apache 2.0.x against mod_gzip in
     Apache  1.3.x despite the different compression algorithm used. The
     conclusion is that although mod_deflate came in second, it is still
     an effective way to save bandwidth.

     If  you  plan to drop by your local bookstore this weekend, be sure
     to  check  out  these  book  reviews  before your trip: [15]"Apache
     Server  2.0:  The  Complete  Reference",  [16]"Professional  Apache
     Tomcat", and [17]"Apache: The Definitive Guide". Who knows, you may
     be  tempted  to  add  these  books  to your shopping list! But then
     again, you may perhaps drop them from your list.
       ______________________________________________________________

     This issue brought to you by: Mark J Cox, Joe Orton, Min Min Tsan
     Comments or criticisms? Please email us at
     [18][email protected].

     [19]Apache Week is Copyright 2003 [20]Red Hat, Inc.

References

   1. http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.1/
   2. http://httpd.apache.org/contributors/#coar
   3. http://www.apacheweek.com/issues/02-11-08#dev
   4. http://conferences.oreillynet.com/os2003/
   5. http://conferences.oreillynet.com/pub/w/23/register.html
   6. http://www.apacheweek.com/features/oscon2002
   7. http://www.apacheweek.com/features/oscon2001
   8. http://www.apacheweek.com/issues/00-07-21
   9. http://httpd.apache.org/contributors/#cox
  10. http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/
  11. http://www.linux-mag.com/2003-02/lamp_01.html
  12. http://www.linux-mag.com/2003-02/diy_01.html
  13. http://www.serverwatch.com/tutorials/article.php/2202671
  14. http://evolt.org/article/mod_deflate_and_Apache_2_0_x/20/60104/index.html
  15. http://net-security.org/review.php?id=60
  16. http://www.unixreview.com/documents/s=7822/ur0304m/
  17. http://www.unixreview.com/documents/s=7822/ur0304n/
  18. mailto:[email protected]
  19. http://www.apacheweek.com/
  20. http://www.redhat.com/

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