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Apache Configuration



Hi!

I don't know if it is off-topic (after all, Linux is the only (?)
operating system which bundles Apache). According to researches and
surveys (e.g. http://www.netcraft.com ), Apache + its derivatives
take about 50% (!) of the web sites, like all the "competitors"
together (including Netscape, Microsoft, NCSA, CERN, IBM, SWS, OWS,
etc.). The 3 reasons why Apache takes "only" 50% are:

1. It runs only under UNIX and OS/2 (1.3 will run under Win95/NT).
2. It lacked SSL (now there is a free implementation).
3. It is *very* unfriendly, especially in comparison to Microsoft
   and Netscape.

As (1) and (2) are being solved, (3) remains the only reason why
Apache doesn't take the whole "market".

I thought about writing a module to support HTTP-based interactive
run-time configuration for Apache. Of course, it must be very
restrictive and secure: By default, it will deny any access from
outside the same IP, and it will require a password, which will be
compared to the password of the user who invoked the Apache (using
the same mechanism of login and su).

I know it can be written as a CGI (instead of a module). But CGI-BINs
depend on the configuration in many aspects, such as their placement
and directory (which must be part of the hierarchy that Apache was
configured to use as the "RootDocument"), permissions to use CGI,
etc. If it will be written as a module and will have a special
prefix (instead of http), it will not depend on anything else (of
course, after modifying the configuration, you will have to specify
the configuration file where to save the modified configuration).

I don't want a simple interface which will have links to all the
options at any point (e.g. links to all the directives in the root,
links to all of the optional first arguments of the specific
directive after choosing a directive, and so on). I am talking
about a real friendly interface. In addition, a context sensitive
help can be added easily; After all, there is already HTML
documentation for each of the directives.

The only problem is that there are so many directives and options in
Apache, so most of the people (including me) know only some of them.
Although it reminds us how important is to have such an interface
(since currently nobody uses these unknown options), it doesn't help
me in developing this interface  :-(

Can anyone contribute to this voluntary project?  Someone who knows
*all* the directives and options?   Does anyone have something to
say about my idea?  I'll be glad to get feedback!

Thanks in advance,
-- 
Eli Marmor
marmor@elmar.co.il
El-Mar Software Ltd.