Apache Server
From HostPedia
Apache (stands for "Apache HTTP Server") is one of the leading web servers in the world today. it is a cross platform server software which enables hosting of one or more web sites on a single machine.
Contents |
Apache History
While at the beginning, Apache was almost a sole alternative to Netscape Communications Corporation web server (now known as "Sun Java System Web Server"), it evolved in to the most advanced and highly popular web servers in the market.
Through the years, new competitors such as Microsoft Internet Information Services and .NET platform caused a significant decline of its market, As of October 2007 Apache market share has dropped a little bellow 50%.
Even though, Apache is still considered one of the best Web Servers in the world, offering stability, good performance and highly configurable (and of course - popular).
Development
Apache is developed and maintained by an open community of developers under the "Apache Software Foundation" wing. The application is designed to work with a wide variety of operating systems including:
- Unix and Unix-like operating systems such as FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris and Mac OS X.
- Microsoft Windows.
- Novell NetWare
Apache is free software / open source software.
Features
Apache supports a variety of features, many implemented as compiled modules which extend the core functionality. See the following sample features:
- Server-side programming language support.
- Authentication schemes.
- Common language interfaces support mod_perl, mod_python, Tcl, and PHP.
- Popular authentication modules include mod_access, mod_auth, and mod_digest.
- SSL and TLS support (mod_ssl).
- proxy module.
- URL rewriter (also known as a rewrite engine, implemented under mod_rewrite).
- custom log files (mod_log_config), and filtering support (mod_include and mod_ext_filter).
- Apache logs can be analyzed through a web browser using free scripts such as AWStats/W3Perl or Visitors.
- Virtual hosting allows one Apache installation to serve many different actual websites. For example, one machine, with one Apache installation could simultaneously serve www.mydomain.com, www.anotherdomain.com, subdomain.mydomain.com, etc.
- configurable error messages.
- DBMS-based authentication databases, and content negotiation.
Server usage
Apache is primarily used to serve both static content and dynamic Web pages on the World Wide Web. Many web applications are designed expecting the environment and features that Apache provides.
Apache is the web server component of the popular XAMPP web server application stack, alongside MySQL, and the PHP/Perl/Python programming languages.
Apache is redistributed as part of various proprietary software packages including the Oracle Database or the IBM WebSphere application server. Mac OS X integrates Apache as its built-in web server and as support for its WebObjects application server. It is also supported in some way by Borland in the Kylix and Delphi development tools. Apache is included with Novell NetWare 6.5, where it is the default web server.
Apache is used for many other tasks where content needs to be made available in a secure and reliable way. One example is sharing files from a personal computer over the Internet. A user who has Apache installed on their desktop can put arbitrary files in the Apache's document root which can then be shared.
Programmers developing web applications often use a locally installed version of Apache in order to preview and test code as it is being developed.
Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) is the main competitor to Apache, trailed by Sun Microsystems' Sun Java System Web Server and a host of other applications such as Zeus Web Server.