In this issue

The first alpha of Apache 2.0 is expected to be available the next week. Apache 2.0 has not yet reached the quality required for a beta release and it still has a number of known bugs. The Apache group have been working on Apache 2.0 for a long time, with initial plans for 2.0 reported in February 1998 (issue 102). In September 1999 (issue 173) we published a Apache 2.0 preview.

Don't panic if you are not going to make it to ApacheCon 2000 in Orlando next week. Apache Week will be there and we will have an extended report from the conference over the next few issues. If you are attending, the Apache Week staff will be more than willing to accept your hospitality in the bar. After all, it'd be rude not to.

Apache Site: www.apache.org
Release: 1.3.12 (Released 25^th February 2000) (local download sites)
Beta: None

Apache 1.3.12 is the current stable release. Users of Apache 1.3.11 and earlier on Unix and Windows systems should upgrade to this version. Read the Guide to 1.3.12, the Guide to 1.3.11 for information about changes between 1.3.9 and 1.3.11 and the Guide to 1.3.9 for information about changes between 1.3.6 and 1.3.9.

Most bugs listed below include a link to the entry in the Apache bug database where the problem is being tracked. These entries are called "PR"s (Problem Reports). Some bugs do not correspond to problem reports if they are found by developers.

• Proxying of HTTPS requests fail under Windows NT. PR#2014, PR#4680, PR#5107, PR#5823
• The proxy garbage collection routine on Windows NT fails to open directories, causing many error messages to be logged. PR#3640
• Compiling on OS/2 products a few warning messages.
• The benchmarking utility, ApacheBench (ab), would fail to compile stand-alone.
• The return value in an APXS error message was incorrectly calculated.
• The platform name used as part of the server version string would incorrectly return "Unix" for BeOS machines.
• Some versions of sed have a restriction causing problems with APACI where "1,/<pattern>/" commands start searching for <pattern> at the 2nd line.
• DSO loads fail with "permission denied" errors on AIX 4.1.5 due to changes made to support AIX 4.2
• Chunked encoding is broken on EBCDIC platforms due to the recent changes in global handling of CRLF
• Apache on Windows was making assumptions about the default shell (cmd.exe for NT, command.com for others). Instead it should use the COMSPEC environment variable.
• The ServerTokens directive treats invalid keywords as equivallent to 'Full'

Patches for bugs in Apache 1.3.12 will be made available in the apply_to_1.3.12 subdirectory of the patches directory on the Apache site. Some new features and other unofficial patches are available in the 1.3 patches directory. For details of all previously reported bugs, see the Apache bug database and known bugs pages. Many common configuration questions are answered in the Apache FAQ.

The majority of development work is now being focused on Apache 2.0, with the hopes of a public alpha-test version being available in March 2000.

Although development work on Apache 1.3 has mostly stopped, a few minor features and fixes have been added this week. These additions will form part of Apache 1.3.13 if it is ever released.

• Administrators who are nervous about their full server version details being public will be able to use the new keyword 'ProductOnly' in the ServerTokens directive. When used, Apache will only return the string "Apache" as the server version. Sites such as the Netcraft in England make it easy for anyone to examine what server sites are running.
• The proxy module mod_proxy has been patched so that it can be built on BeOS 4.5.2
• A number of code cleanups have been made to Apache. The cleanups were originally contributed as part of the patches from SGI to speed up Apache. Although the performance parts are not going to become part of Apache 1.3, the minor fixes have been applied.
• The new digest authentication module, mod_auth_digest has had a number of fixes and upgrades applied. These include the ability to compile using a C++ compiler, and alterations to the nonce to potentially allow the sharing of authentication realms across machines.

"Introducing Apache" is a series of articles published by the O'Reilly Network Apache DevCenter. This week "Getting, Installing, and Running Apache" by Rael Dornfest looks at three popular methods of installing Apache under Linux; binary installations, using the Red Hat Packager Manager, and compiling from scratch.

In "Bleeding-Edge XML: XLink and Apache", XML.com look at a recent tutorial session given about the Apache Cocoon project. Cocoon is part of the Apache Software Foundation's XML Apache project.