In this issue

Some complex interactions between mod_dir, mod_negotiation and the filters interface in Apache 2.0 were worked out this week; the end result being to classify filters into three different major types: connection filters, protocol filters, and resource filters. The different types of filter are distinguished by their lifetime: a connection filter is in place for the entire connection (such as mod_ssl's SSL filter), a protocol filter lasts for the entire duration of the HTTP request (an example being the core filter used to calculate the Content-Length header), and a resource filter lasting as long as the content generated by the underlying resource (an example being mod_include). The changes made fixed several long-standing problems, particularly in sub-request handling.

In the midst of the upheaval, a tag was made for a 2.0.33 release, although concerns were voiced about whether this release could be publicised as anything other than an alpha.

Last week we covered a major security issue found in some versions of PHP (CAN-2002-0081). Vendor updates seen so far from:

• Debian (2 Mar 2002)
• EnGarde (1 Mar 2002)
• Mandrake (28 Feb 2002)
• Red Hat (27 Feb 2002)
• Slackware (5 Mar 2002)
• SuSE (28 Feb 2002)
• Trustix (28 Feb 2002)

We also covered a potential security issue found in Apache-SSL and mod_ssl (CAN-2002-0082). Vendor updates seen so far from:

• Conectiva (4 Mar 2002)
• EnGarde (1 Mar 2002)
• Red Hat (7 Mar 2002)
• Trustix (28 Feb 2002)

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

It has been slightly more than a year since the debut of Moto, an embedded server-side programming language, and now its creator David Hakim is revitalising it by adding many new extensions. If your web content is everlasting, you can choose to compile your Moto pages using the included Moto module compiler (mmc) into an Apache module.

"Improving Performance by Profiling PHP Applications" shows you how to quickly analyse and optimise your PHP code by using the PEAR::Benchmark library. It illustrates this by providing a real-life scenario from the author's personal experience as an example. Meanwhile, SearchWebManagement.com has created a PHP resources page to help PHP users understand PHP, the latest flaw, and its solution.

From stopping bad robots last week, today we look at how to build a Perl-based web crawler by creatively using some of the CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) modules in "Web Mining with Perl". Tommie Jones examines the LWP::Simple, HTML::TableExtract, HTML::LinkExtor, HTML::Parser, String::CRC, and Data::Dumper module and provides an example script of each module in action to demonstrate how each module can be used as part of a web crawler.

"Jakarta-Tomcat on FreeBSD 4.4" focuses on writing servlets with Tomcat in stand-alone mode. First it installs the Linux J2SDK after adding Linux binary compatibility to FreeBSD. Then it builds a native port and also installs OpenJIT before setting up and launching Tomcat.