In this issue

ASF member and mod_ssl author Ralf Engelschall released his book, Apache Desktop Reference, just before the new year. The aim of the book is to provide a concise but comprehensive reference guide to using Apache at compilation, configuration, and run time.

This 200 page book is published by Addison Wesley and now available in stores. What makes this book somewhat unique amongst other books on Apache in that it is also available in its entirety free download online. Rather than providing a HTML representation, Ralf has opted to make PDF and Postscript versions available, allowing you to download and view the book just as if you had purchased it.

Apache Site: www.apache.org/httpd
Release: 1.3.14 (Released 13^th October 2000) (local download sites)
Beta: None
Alpha: 2.0a9 (Released 12^th December 2000) (local download sites)

Apache 1.3.14 is the current stable release. Users of Apache 1.3.12 and earlier on Unix and Windows systems should upgrade to this version. Read the Guide to 1.3.14, 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.

These bugs have been found in 1.3.14 and will be fixed in the next release. The next release of Apache is expected this month.

• mod_status should test the refresh value to make sure it is a valid integer otherwise the page refreshes at very high speed. PR#5067
• mod_auth_dbm will not build correctly on Red Hat Linux 7 due to changes in the location of db1 headers
• Apache crashes with a segmentation fault if a LoadModule directive is incorrectly placed inside a VirtualHost container. PR#6942
• The proxy module, mod_proxy, did not set a default garbage collection interval time if none was specified in a configuration file
• mod_cgi on Win32 and Netware was not always capturing stderr output from scripts. PR#6161
• glibc-2.1.2 needs extra defines for the recent changes to using sysv semaphore serialised accepts to compile

The following features and changes have also been recently added to Apache and will be part of the next release.

• Apache modules on Unix are usually recognised by their .so filename extensions, but on Windows .dll has always been used. From Apache 1.3.15, Windows platforms will also use .so filename extensions for Apache modules.
• Apache now needs the awk utility script to be compiled from the supplied Makefile.win or the InstallBin project in the Visual Studio IDE
• On Windows, a new command line option -k config can be used to reset the default options for a named service. These options are also displayed when testing the httpd.conf file with -t. If upgrading Apache from 1.3.14 or earlier you will need to use the syntax apache -k config -n servicename -f conffile to upgrade the service arguments.
• Cleanups and changes to the Apache makefiles for Windows

A series of alpha releases of Apache 2.0 are being made available from the Apache site. The latest alpha, a9, was released on the 12th December and has a number of additions and fixes since the last alpha released in November. A beta release of Apache was planned for the end of December (see Apache Today where Ryan Bloom discusses why Apache 2.0 beta was delayed). However, a number of issues just before the deadline caused further delay and it is likely to be later this month before the beta is released.

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

Stas Bekman talks about improving mod_perl performance. He starts off with choosing the right operating system and hardware in part I, comparing various benchmarking tools in part II and now in part III, he continues with code profiling and memory measurement techniques.

The Developer Shed is back this new year with the second part of "Object-Oriented Programming In Perl". It explains object methods, properties, inheritance, constructors and destructors, and shows you how to build your own objects through the examples of building an automobile and a world clock. It also kicks off the new "Getting More Out Of Apache" series with virtual hosts and Server-Side Includes.

PHP versus Perl, which would you choose? In a recent article, John Lim justifies his preference for using PHP instead of Perl from four aspects: learning curves, separation of code and data, speed, and maturity. "Best Practices: PHP Coding Style" stresses the importance of having a coding standards and sheds some light on the PHP PEAR Project.

Thanks to the hundreds of you who entered the competition to win the Wrox Press book "Beginning PHP4", and congratulations to the four lucky winners; Michael Tubbe and Tyler Bannister in Canada, Manish Kathuria in India, and Keith Higgs in the USA.

We asked where is the next ApacheCon conference being held. The correct answers was Santa Clara. Don't worry if you didn't win, we'll have more competitions to win useful Apache goodies soon.

Read the Apache Week review of "Beginning PHP4".