Apache Week issue 335

                                APACHE WEEK

The essential weekly guide for users of the world's most popular Web server.
                       Issue 335: 26th September 2003

                                 In this issue

     * Under development
     * In the news
     * Featured articles

                               Under development

     The  subject  of  using  the  colon  character in a URL arose after
     [1]Jeff  Trawick  discovered  that  such URLs elicit a 403 error on
     Windows  but a 404 error on Unix platforms. On Windows the colon is
     forbidden  as  it  is used as the drive letter separator; there was
     some discussion about how the colon could be allowed when passed as
     PATH_INFO to a PHP script, for instance.

     The  APR  project,  which  develops the portability library used in
     2.0,  produced a new release this week, version 0.9.4, along with a
     redesigned  [2]web  site  by [3]Justin Erenkrantz. The APR CVS tree
     was  recently  split  into  two  branches;  the HEAD of the tree is
     working  towards  a 1.0 release, whereas the 0.9 maintenance branch
     is  kept  for  backwards-compatible  changes  only.  The  httpd 2.1
     (unstable)  tree  hence uses the HEAD of APR; the stable 2.0 branch
     uses the APR 0.9 branch.

     [4]Test  tarballs  have  been  made available from the 2.0 tree for
     those   wishing   to  test  the  forthcoming  2.0.48  release.  The
     developers  are  hoping  to  get a few more fixes from the 2.1 tree
     tested and back-ported before the official release.

                                  In the news

Apache Everywhere I

     The  Register  report  from  the  Intel  Developer Forum with their
     article [5]"Goodbye, PC; hello, PS (Personal Server)". Intel have a
     vision  that  in  the  future  we  will  all need to carry around a
     personal    server   comprising   of   storage,   processing,   and
     communications.  Their  prototype  runs  an  embedded  Linux OS and
     exports a filesystem via WebDAV using Apache inside. At Apache Week
     we  think  having a few million people running Apache on a personal
     server  is a good thing; it will certainly create some great market
     share stats for [6]Netcraft.

Apache Everywhere II

     Each  month we relay the latest Apache market share statistics from
     Netcraft,  but we don't need to bother again. Apache now officially
     serves  100%  of  all web sites on the Internet (with a little help
     from  Verisign).  Whilst  the  [7]controversy  over the decision by
     Verisign  to  point  all  unassigned  domain  names at its Web site
     continues, we like the fact that just about any domain name you can
     think of now runs [8]Apache on Linux. However, when asked by Apache
     Week,  Netcraft  founder Mike Prettejohn told us his survey results
     now ignore these wildcard top-level domains. Spoilsport!

mod_elvis

     Yes,  it's time again for that part of the newsletter where we tell
     you  all  about  the upcoming ApacheCon conference in Las Vegas and
     how you'll really kick yourself if you miss it. Apache Week will be
     there,  at  the  Alexis Park Hotel in November, but unlike previous
     years  we  won't  be writing much of it up for the newsletter; we'd
     prefer to get you to [9]go and register for the conference and turn
     up  in person. It also means we can spend our spare evenings in the
     bar  instead  of working on Apache Week. The schedule is now online
     and  includes  talks on how the BBC integrated IP geography systems
     into Apache 2, how to secure the web server, everything you want to
     know about XML parsing, and much more.

                               Featured articles

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

     Bradley  J.  Bartram  has  advice  on [10]"Stress Testing an Apache
     Application  Server  in  a  Real  World Environment". He covers the
     tools you need to do the testing, how to set up a test environment,
     and how to interpret the results as well as giving a number of tips
     for designing dynamic applications.

     In  the  article [11]"Single Sign-on for Your Web Applications with
     Apache and Kerberos", Jason Garman looks at the complicated task of
     integrating  a web server with Kerberos. He discusses a module that
     enables  Apache to interoperate with Internet Explorer clients in a
     Windows  domain,  transparently  passing  their  domain credentials
     through  the use of Kerberos, with no separate username or password
     prompts.

     Finally  this  week,  Jack Wallen shows us how to [12]"Use Apache's
     mod_rewrite  to  make  URLs  more user friendly", by creating rules
     that can hide long path names and scripts.
       ______________________________________________________________

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

     [14]Apache Week is Copyright 2003 [15]Red Hat, Inc.

References

   1. http://httpd.apache.org/contributors/#trawick
   2. http://apr.apache.org/
   3. http://httpd.apache.org/contributors/#jerenkrantz
   4. http://www.apache.org/~striker/httpd-2.0.48-pre2/
   5. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/32842.html
   6. http://www.netcraft.org/
   7. http://news.com.com/2100-1032-5080384.html
   8. http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=www.pick-a-name-any-name.com
   9. http://www.apachecon.com/
  10. http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6691
  11. http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2003/09/11/kerberos.html
  12. http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6329_11-5068743.html
  13. mailto:[email protected]
  14. http://www.apacheweek.com/
  15. http://www.redhat.com/

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