The Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to as Apache (pronounced /əˈpætʃiː/), is a web server A web server has defined load limits, because it can handle only a limited number of concurrent client connections (usually between 2 and 60,000, by default between 500 and 1,000) per IP address (and TCP port) and it can serve only a certain maximum number of requests per second depending on: notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a Web browser, one can view Web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them using hyperlinks. Using concepts from earlier hypertext systems, the World Wide Web was invented in 1989 by the English and in 2009 2009 is the current year of the Anno Domini/Common Era in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. It is a common year starting on Thursday and the last year of the 2000s decade became the first web server to surpass the 100 million web site milestone ^[2]. Apache was the first viable alternative to the Netscape Communications Corporation Netscape Communications was a US computer services company, best known for its web browser. The browser was once dominant in terms of usage share, but lost most of that share to Internet Explorer during the first browser war. By the end of 2006, the usage share of Netscape browsers had fallen, from over 90% in the mid 1990s, to less than 1% web server (currently known as Sun Java System Web Server Sun Java System Web Server is a web server designed for medium and large business applications. Sun Java System Web Server builds on the earlier Sun ONE Web Server, iPlanet Web Server, and Netscape Enterprise Server products), and has since evolved to rival other Unix Unix is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna. Today's Unix systems are split into various branches, developed over time by AT&T as well as various commercial vendors and non-profit organizations-based web servers in terms of functionality and performance. The majority of all web servers using Apache are Linux Linux is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed by anyone under the terms of the GNU GPL and other free web servers.

Apache is developed and maintained by an open community of developers under the auspices of the Apache Software Foundation The Apache Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation (classified as 501(c)(3) in the United States) to support Apache software projects, including the Apache HTTP Server. The ASF was formed from the Apache Group and incorporated in Delaware, USA, in June 1999,. The application is available for a wide variety of operating systems An operating system is an interface between hardware and user; an OS is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the resources of the computer. The operating system acts as a host for computing applications that are run on the machine. As a host, one of the purposes of an operating system is to handle the, including Unix Unix is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna. Today's Unix systems are split into various branches, developed over time by AT&T as well as various commercial vendors and non-profit organizations, GNU GNU (pronounced /ɡəˈnuː/ , or in some countries /ˈnjuː/) is a computer operating system composed entirely of free software. Its name is a recursive acronym for GNU's Not Unix; it was chosen because its design is Unix-like, but differs from Unix by being free software and containing no Unix code. Development of GNU was initiated by Richard, FreeBSD FreeBSD is a Unix-like free operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via the Berkeley Software Distribution branch through the 386BSD and 4.4BSD operating systems. It runs on Intel x86 family (IA-32) IBM PC compatible computers, Sun UltraSPARC, IA-64, AMD64, PowerPC, ARM and NEC PC-9801 architectures along with Microsoft's Xbox. Support for, Linux Linux is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed by anyone under the terms of the GNU GPL and other free, Solaris Solaris is a UNIX-based operating system introduced by Sun Microsystems in 1992 as the successor to SunOS, Novell NetWare NetWare is a network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, and the network protocols were based on the archetypal Xerox Network Services stack, Mac OS X Mac OS X is a line of computer operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc., and since 2002 has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems. It is the successor to Mac OS 9, the final release of the "classic" Mac OS, which had been Apple's primary operating system since 1984. Mac OS X, whose "X", Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal, OS/2 OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 " line of second-generation personal computers. OS/2 is no longer, TPF, and eComStation eComStation is a PC operating system based on OS/2, published by Serenity Systems, USA. It includes several additions and accompanying software. Released under the Apache License The Apache License is a free-software license authored by the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). The Apache License (versions 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0) requires preservation of the copyright notice and disclaimer, but it is not a copyleft license — it allows use of the source code for the development of proprietary software as well as free and open, Apache is characterized as free Free software or software libre is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with minimal restrictions only to ensure that further recipients can also do these things and that manufacturers of consumer-facing hardware and open source Open source software is defined as computer software for which the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that meets the Open Source Definition or that is in the public domain. This permits users to use, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified software.

Since April 1996 Apache has been the most popular HTTP server on the World Wide Web The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a Web browser, one can view Web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them using hyperlinks. Using concepts from earlier hypertext systems, the World Wide Web was invented in 1989 by the English. As of March 2009^[update] Apache served over 46% of all websites A website is a collection of related web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that are addressed with a common domain name or IP address in an Internet Protocol-based network. A web site is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via the Internet or a private local area network and over 66% of the million busiest.^[3]

History and name

The first version of the Apache web server was created by Robert McCool, who was heavily involved with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications The National Center for Supercomputing Applications is a state-federal partnership to develop and deploy national-scale cyberinfrastructure that advances science and engineering. NCSA operates as a unit of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign but it provides high-performance computing resources to researchers across the country. Support web server, known simply as NCSA HTTPd The NCSA HTTPd was a web server originally developed at the NCSA by Robert McCool and others. It was among the earliest web servers developed, following Tim Berners-Lee's CERN HTTPd, Tony Sanders' Plexus server, and some others. It was for some time the natural counterpart to the Mosaic web browser in the client-server World Wide Web. It also. When McCool left NCSA in mid-1994, the development of httpd stalled, leaving a variety of patches for improvements circulating through e-mails. These patches were provided by a number of other developers besides McCool: Brian Behlendorf, Roy Fielding Roy Thomas Fielding is an American computer scientist. He is one of the principal authors of the HTTP specification (RFC 2616), and a frequently-cited authority on computer network architecture, Rob Hartill Robert Hartill is a computer programmer and web designer best known for his work on the Internet Movie Database website and the Apache web server. Notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web, David Robinson, Cliff Skolnick, Randy Terbush, Robert S. Thau, Andrew Wilson, Eric Hagberg, Frank Peters and Nicolas Pioch, and they thus helped to form the original "Apache Group".

There have been two explanations of the project's name. According to the Apache Foundation, the name was chosen out of respect for the Native American Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as intact political communities. There has tribe of Apache Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the American Southwest. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan (Apachean) language, and are related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan speakers of Alaska and western Canada. The (Indé), well-known for their endurance and their skills in warfare.^[4] However, the original FAQ on the Apache Server project's website, from 1996 to 2001, claimed that "The result after combining [the NCSA httpd patches] was a patchy server.^[5][6] The first explanation was supported at an Apache Conference^[7] and in an interview in 2000 by Brian Behlendorf, who said that the name connoted "Take no prisoners. Be kind of aggressive and kick some ass".^[8] Behlendorf then contradicted this in a 2007 interview, stating that "The Apache server isn't named in honor of Geronimo's tribe" but that so many revisions were sent in that "the group called it 'a patchy Web server'".^[9] Both explanations are probably appropriate^[10] though the pun explanation has fallen into disfavor.^[11]

Version 2 of the Apache server was a substantial re-write A rewrite in computer programming is the act or result of re-implementing a large portion of existing functionality without re-use of its source code. When the rewrite is not using existing code at all, it is common to speak of a rewrite from scratch. When instead only parts are re-engineered, which have otherwise become complicated to handle or of much of the Apache 1.x code, with a strong focus on further modularization and the development of a portability layer, the Apache Portable Runtime. The Apache 2.x core has several major enhancements over Apache 1.x. These include UNIX threading In computer science, a thread of execution results from a fork of a computer program into two or more concurrently running tasks. The implementation of threads and processes differs from one operating system to another, but in most cases, a thread is contained inside a process. Multiple threads can exist within the same process and share resources, better support for non-Unix platforms (such as Microsoft Windows), a new Apache API In computer science, an application programming interface is an interface defining the ways by which an application program may request services from libraries and/or operating systems. An API determines the vocabulary and calling conventions the programmer should employ to use the services. It may include specifications for routines, data, and IPv6 Internet Protocol version 6 is the next-generation Internet Protocol version designated as the successor to version 4, IPv4, the first implementation used in the Internet and still in dominant use currently[update]. It is an Internet Layer protocol for packet-switched internetworks. The main driving force for the redesign of Internet Protocol was support.^[12] The first alpha release A software release is the distribution of an initial or upgraded version of a computer software product. The software engineers and company doing the work decide on how to distribute the program or system, or changes to that pre downloads and compact discs of Apache 2 was in March 2000, with the first general availability release on April 6, 2002.^[13]

Version 2.2 introduced a more flexible authorization API. It also features improved cache modules and proxy modules.^[14]

Features

Apache supports a variety of features, many implemented as compiled modules which extend the core functionality. These can range from server-side programming language support to authentication schemes. Some common language interfaces support mod_perl, mod_python, Tcl Tcl is a scripting language created by John Ousterhout. Originally "born out of frustration"—according to the author—with programmers devising their own (poor quality) languages intended to be embedded into applications, Tcl gained acceptance on its own and is generally thought to be easy to learn, but powerful in competent hands. It, and PHP PHP is a scripting language originally designed for producing dynamic web pages. It has evolved to include a command line interface capability and can be used in standalone graphical applications. Popular authentication modules include mod_access, mod_auth, mod_digest, and mod_auth_digest, the successor to mod_digest. A sample of other features include SSL Transport Layer Security and its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), are cryptographic protocols that provide security and data integrity for communications over networks such as the Internet. TLS and SSL encrypt the segments of network connections at the Transport Layer end-to-end and TLS Transport Layer Security and its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), are cryptographic protocols that provide security and data integrity for communications over networks such as the Internet. TLS and SSL encrypt the segments of network connections at the Transport Layer end-to-end support (mod_ssl), a proxy In computer networks, a proxy server is a server that acts as a go-between for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers. A client connects to the proxy server, requesting some service, such as a file, connection, web page, or other resource, available from a different server. The proxy server evaluates the request according to module, a URL rewriter (also known as a rewrite engine A rewrite engine is software that modifies a web URL's appearance . Rewritten URL's (sometimes known as short or fancy URL's) are used to provide shorter and more relevant-looking links to web pages. The technique adds a degree of separation between the files used to generate a web page and the URL that is presented to the world, implemented under mod_rewrite), custom log files (mod_log_config), and filtering support (mod_include and mod_ext_filter).

Popular compression methods on Apache include the external extension module, mod_gzip, implemented to help with reduction of the size (weight) of web pages served over HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol is an application-level protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. Its use for retrieving inter-linked resources led to the establishment of the World Wide Web. Apache logs can be analyzed through a web browser using free scripts such as AWStats/W3Perl or Visitors Visitors is a minimalistic HTTP server log analysis program written in C. It does not require any configuration or write access to the filesystem. Visitors can produce output in plain text or HTML format and also creates Graphviz dot files showing popular paths between pages on a site.

Virtual hosting Virtual hosting is a method that servers such as web servers use to host more than one domain name on the same computer, sometimes on the same IP address allows one Apache installation to serve many different actual websites. For example, one machine with one Apache installation could simultaneously serve www.example.com, www.test.com, test47.test-server.test.com, etc.

Apache features configurable error messages, DBMS A Database Management System is a set of computer programs that controls the creation, maintenance, and the use of the database of an organization and its end users. It allows organizations to place control of organizationwide database development in the hands of Database Administrators (DBAs) and other specialist. DBMSes may use any of a variety-based authentication databases, and content negotiation Content negotiation is a mechanism defined in the HTTP specification that makes it possible to serve different versions of a document at the same URI, so that user agents can specify which version fit their capabilities the best. One of the most classical uses of this mechanism is to serve an image in GIF or PNG format, so that a browser that. It is also supported by several graphical user interfaces A graphical user interface is a type of user interface which allows people to interact with electronic devices such as computers; hand-held devices such as MP3 Players, Portable Media Players or Gaming devices; household appliances and office equipment with images rather than text commands. A GUI offers graphical icons, and visual indicators, as (GUIs).

Use

Apache is primarily used to serve both static content and dynamic Web pages Classical hypertext navigation, with HTML or XHTML alone, provides "static" content, meaning that the user requests a web page and simply views the page and the information on that page on the World Wide Web. Many web applications In software engineering, a web application or webapp is an application that is accessed via web browser over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. It is also a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable are designed expecting the environment and features that Apache provides.

Apache is the web server component of the popular LAMP The acronym LAMP refers to a solution stack of software, usually free and open source software, used to run dynamic Web sites or servers. The original expansion is as follows: web server application stack, alongside Linux, MySQL, and the PHP/Perl/Python (and now also Ruby) 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 also included with many Linux distributions.

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 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, followed by Sun Microsystems' Sun Java System Web Server and a host of other applications such as Zeus Web Server.

License

The software license under which software from the Apache Foundation is distributed is a distinctive part of the Apache HTTP Server's history and presence in the open source software community. The Apache License allows for the distribution of both open and closed source derivations of the source code.

The Free Software Foundation does not consider the Apache License to be compatible with version 2 of the GNU General Public License (GPL) in that software licensed under the Apache License cannot be integrated with software that is distributed under the GPL:

This is a free software license but it is incompatible with the GPL. The Apache Software License is incompatible with the GPL because it has a specific requirement that is not in the GPL: it has certain patent termination cases that the GPL does not require. We don't think those patent termination cases are inherently a bad idea, but nonetheless they are incompatible with the GNU GPL.^[15]

However, version 3 of the GPL includes a provision (Section 7e) which allows it to be compatible with licenses that have patent retaliation clauses, including the Apache License.

The name Apache is a registered trademark and may only be used with the trademark holder's express permission.^[16]

See also

• Nginx
• .htaccess
• ApacheBench
• Comparison of web servers
• LAMP (software bundle)
• POSSE project
• Stronghold (software)
• XAMPP

References

1. ^ "About the Apache HTTP Server Project". Apache Software Foundation. http://httpd.apache.org/ABOUT_APACHE.html. Retrieved on 2008-06-25.
2. ^ "February 2009 Web Server Survey". Netcraft. http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2009/02/18/february_2009_web_server_survey.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-29.
3. ^ "March 2009 Web Server Survey". Netcraft. http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2009/03/15/march_2009_web_server_survey.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-29.
4. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions". The Apache Software Foundation. 2007. http://www.apache.org/foundation/faq.html#name. Retrieved on 2008-04-23.
5. ^ "Information on the Apache HTTP Server Project". 1996-10-28. http://web.archive.org/web/19961028123412/http://www.apache.org/info.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-01.
6. ^ "Information on the Apache HTTP Server Project". 2001-08-03. http://web.archive.org/web/20010803130101/http://www.apache.org/info.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-01.
7. ^ Bowen, Rich (2001-05-12). "A Patchy Server and the FAQ". apache-docs mailing list. http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/httpd-docs/200105.mbox/%3c200105121825.f4CIPwK01232@rhiannon.rcbowen.com%3e. Retrieved on 2008-10-01.
8. ^ "Apache Power". Features. Linux Magazine. 2000-04. http://web.archive.org/web/20050214074858/http://www.linux-mag.com/2000-04/behlendorf_02.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-01.
9. ^ Babcock, Charles (2007-01-13). "High Five: Meet Brian Behlendorf, CTO of CollabNet". InformationWeek (CMP Media). http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/open_source/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196900465.
10. ^ Slive, Joshua (2001-05-12). "Re: A Patchy Server and the FAQ". apache-docs mailing list. http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/httpd-docs/200105.mbox/%3CPine.GSO.4.31.0105121135550.16571-100000@garibaldi.commerce.ubc.ca%3E. Retrieved on 2008-10-01.
11. ^ "Why the name "Apache"?". Apache Server Frequently Asked Questions. The Apache Software Foundation. http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/misc/FAQ.html#name. Retrieved on 2008-04-23.
12. ^ "Overview of new features in Apache 2.0". Apache HTTP Server Documentation. 2.0. The Apache Software Foundation. 2007. http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/new_features_2_0.html.
13. ^ "Apache 2 Release". England: Apache Week. 2002-04-06. http://www.apacheweek.com/features/ap2.
14. ^ "Overview of new features in Apache 2.2". Apache HTTP Server Documentation. 2.2. The Apache Software Foundation. 2007. http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/new_features_2_2.html.
15. ^ Various Licenses and Comments about Them from GNU
16. ^ "Apache License and Distribution FAQ". The Apache Software Foundation. 2007. http://www.apache.org/foundation/licence-FAQ.html#Marks.

External links

• Project home page

Categories: 1996 software | Unix software | Apache Software Foundation | Free software programmed in C | Free web server software | Cross-platform software

See Also:

• Apache HTTP Server
• Web Server
• Internet Information Server

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