Apache HTTP Server

Related articles

• MariaDB
• PhpMyAdmin
• Adminer
• Xampp
• mod_perl

LAMP refers to a common combination of software used in many web servers: Linux, Apache, MySQL/MariaDB, and PHP. This article describes how to set up the Apache HTTP Server on an Arch Linux system. It also tells you how to optionally install PHP and MariaDB and integrate these in the Apache server.

If you only need a web server for development and testing, Xampp might be a better and easier option.

Installation

This document assumes you will install Apache, PHP and MariaDB together. If desired however, you may install Apache, PHP, and MariaDB separately and simply refer to the relevant sections below.

You can install apache, php, php-apache and mariadb from the official repositories.

Configuration

Apache

For security reasons, as soon as Apache is started by the root user (directly or via startup scripts) it switches to the UID/GID specified in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf. The default is user http and it is created automatically during installation.

Change httpd.conf and optionally extra/httpd-default.conf to your liking and start httpd.service using systemd.

Apache should now be running. Test by visiting http://localhost/ in a web browser. It should display a simple Apache test page.

User directories

User directories are available by default through http://localhost/~yourusername/ and show the contents of ~/public_html (this can be changed in /etc/httpd/conf/extra/httpd-userdir.conf).

If you do not want user directories to be available on the web, comment out the following line in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf:

Include conf/extra/httpd-userdir.conf

You must make sure that your home directory permissions are set properly so that Apache can get there. Your home directory and ~/public_html/ must be executable for others ("rest of the world"). This seems to be enough:

$ chmod o+x ~
$ chmod o+x ~/public_html

Restart httpd.service to apply any changes.

SSL

To use SSL, you will need to install openssl.

Create a self-signed certificate (you can change the key size and the number of days of validity):

# cd /etc/httpd/conf
# openssl genpkey -algorithm RSA -pkeyopt rsa_keygen_bits:2048 -out server.key
# chmod 600 server.key
# openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr
# openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt

Then, in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf, uncomment the following three lines:

LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so
LoadModule socache_shmcb_module modules/mod_socache_shmcb.so
Include conf/extra/httpd-ssl.conf

Restart httpd.service to apply any changes.

Virtual Hosts

If you want to have more than one host, uncomment the following line in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf:

Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

In /etc/httpd/conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf set your virtual hosts. The default file contains an elaborate example that should help you get started.

To test the virtual hosts on you local machine, add the virtual names to your /etc/hosts file:

127.0.0.1 domainname1.dom 
127.0.0.1 domainname2.dom

If you want to use SSL on vhosts, copy the file httpd-ssl.conf to a custom named *.conf file, copy the <VirtualHost .. </VirtualHost> block to the number of vhosts, edit the file so it matches with the httpd-vhosts.conf file and change line SSL Include conf/extra/httpd-ssl.conf inside /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf:

cp -R /etc/httpd/conf/extra/httpd-ssl.conf /etc/httpd/conf/extra/httpd-ssl-vhosts.conf

Restart httpd.service to apply any changes.

Managing lots of virtual hosts

If you have a huge amount of virtual hosts, you may want to easily disable and enable them. It is recommended to create one configuration file per virtual host and store them all in one folder, eg: /etc/httpd/conf/vhosts.

First create the folder:

# mkdir /etc/httpd/conf/vhosts

Then place the single configuration files in it:

# nano /etc/httpd/conf/vhosts/domainname1.dom
# nano /etc/httpd/conf/vhosts/domainname2.dom
...

In the last step, Include the single configurations in your /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf:

#Enabled Vhosts:
Include conf/vhosts/domainname1.dom
Include conf/vhosts/domainname2.dom

You can enable and disable single virtual hosts by commenting or uncommenting them.

Advanced Options

These options in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf might be interesting for you:

Listen 80

This is the port Apache will listen to. For Internet-access with router, you have to forward the port.

If you want to setup Apache for local development you may want it to be only accessible from your computer. Then change this line to Listen 127.0.0.1:80.

ServerAdmin you@example.com

This is the admin's email address which can be found on e.g. error pages.

DocumentRoot "/srv/http"

This is the directory where you should put your web pages.

Change it, if you want to, but do not forget to also change <Directory "/srv/http"> to whatever you changed your DocumentRoot too, or you will likely get a 403 Error (lack of privileges) when you try to access the new document root. Do not forget to change the Require all denied line, otherwise you will get a 403 Error.

AllowOverride None

This directive in <Directory> sections causes Apache to completely ignore .htaccess files. If you intend to use mod_rewrite or other settings in .htaccess files, you can allow which directives declared in that file can override server configuration. For more info refer to the Apache documentation.

Tip: If you have issues with your configuration you can have Apache check the configuration with: apachectl configtest

More settings can be found in /etc/httpd/conf/extra/httpd-default.conf:

To turn off your server's signature:

ServerSignature Off

To hide server information like Apache and PHP versions:

ServerTokens Prod

Troubleshooting

If you have problems with Apache then the first place where you can find more information is logs:

 systemctl status httpd

will show the daemon status and system logs. Apache logs you can be found in /var/log/httpd/.

If you encounter Error: PID file /run/httpd/httpd.pid not readable (yet?) after start.

Comment out the unique_id_module:

 #LoadModule unique_id_module modules/mod_unique_id.so

PHP

Note: libphp5.so included with php-apache does not work with mod_mpm_event (FS#39218). You'll have to use mod_mpm_prefork instead. Otherwise you will get the following error:

Apache is running a threaded MPM, but your PHP Module is not compiled to be threadsafe.  You need to recompile PHP.
AH00013: Pre-configuration failed
httpd.service: control process exited, code=exited status=1

To use mod_mpm_prefork, open /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf and replace

LoadModule mpm_event_module modules/mod_mpm_event.so

with

LoadModule mpm_prefork_module modules/mod_mpm_prefork.so

As an alternative, you can use mod_proxy_handler (see #Using php5 with php-fpm, mod_proxy_fcgi and mod_proxy_handler below).

To enable PHP, add these lines to /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf:

• Place this in the LoadModule list anywhere after LoadModule dir_module modules/mod_dir.so:

LoadModule php5_module modules/libphp5.so

• Place this at the end of the Include list:

Include conf/extra/php5_module.conf

If your DocumentRoot is not /srv/http, add it to open_basedir in /etc/php/php.ini as such:

open_basedir=/srv/http/:/home/:/tmp/:/usr/share/pear/:/path/to/documentroot

Restart httpd.service using systemd

To test whether PHP was correctly configured: create a file called test.php in your Apache DocumentRoot directory (e.g. /srv/http/ or ~/public_html) with the following contents:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

To see if it works go to: http://localhost/test.php or http://localhost/~myname/test.php

For advanced configuration and extensions, please read PHP.

Using php5 with php-fpm, mod_proxy_fcgi and mod_proxy_handler

Note: Unlike the widespread setup with ProxyPass, the proxy configuration with mod_proxy_handler and SetHandler respects other Apache directives like DirectoryIndex. This ensures a better compatibility with software designed for libphp5, mod_fastcgi and mod_fcgid. If you still want to try ProxyPass, experiment with a line like this:

ProxyPassMatch ^/(.*\.php(/.*)?)$ fcgi://127.0.0.1:9000/srv/http/$1

• Install php-fpm and mod_proxy_handler^AUR

• Set listen in /etc/php/php-fpm.conf like this:

; use ip/port instead of unix socket, mod_proxy_fcgi does not support it
listen = 127.0.0.1:9000
;listen = /run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock

listen.allowed_clients = 127.0.0.1

• Append following to /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf:

LoadModule proxy_handler_module modules/mod_proxy_handler.so
<FilesMatch \.php$>
    SetHandler "proxy:fcgi://127.0.0.1:9000/"
</FilesMatch>
<IfModule dir_module>
    DirectoryIndex index.php index.html
</IfModule>

• Restart the restart apache php-fpm daemon again.

# systemctl restart httpd.service php-fpm.service

Using php5 with apache2-mpm-worker and mod_fcgid

• Uncomment following in /etc/conf.d/apache:

HTTPD=/usr/bin/httpd.worker

• Uncomment following in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf:

Include conf/extra/httpd-mpm.conf

• Install the mod_fcgid and php-cgi packages from the official repositories.

• Create /etc/httpd/conf/extra/php5_fcgid.conf with following content:

/etc/httpd/conf/extra/php5_fcgid.conf

# Required modules: fcgid_module

<IfModule fcgid_module>
	AddHandler php-fcgid .php
	AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
	Action php-fcgid /fcgid-bin/php-fcgid-wrapper
	ScriptAlias /fcgid-bin/ /srv/http/fcgid-bin/
	SocketPath /var/run/httpd/fcgidsock
	SharememPath /var/run/httpd/fcgid_shm
        # If you don't allow bigger requests many applications may fail (such as WordPress login)
        FcgidMaxRequestLen 536870912
        # Path to php.ini – defaults to /etc/phpX/cgi
        DefaultInitEnv PHPRC=/etc/php/
        # Number of PHP childs that will be launched. Leave undefined to let PHP decide.
        #DefaultInitEnv PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN 3
        # Maximum requests before a process is stopped and a new one is launched
        #DefaultInitEnv PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS 5000
        <Location /fcgid-bin/>
		SetHandler fcgid-script
		Options +ExecCGI
	</Location>
</IfModule>

• Create the needed directory and symlink it for the PHP wrapper:

# mkdir /srv/http/fcgid-bin
# ln -s /usr/bin/php-cgi /srv/http/fcgid-bin/php-fcgid-wrapper

• Edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf:

#LoadModule php5_module modules/libphp5.so
LoadModule fcgid_module modules/mod_fcgid.so
Include conf/extra/php5_fcgid.conf

and restart httpd.

Note: As of Apache 2.4 you can now use mod_proxy_fcgi (part of the official distribution) with PHP-FPM (and the new event MPM). See this configuration example.

MariaDB

Configure MySQL/MariaDB as described in MariaDB.

Uncomment at least one of the following lines in /etc/php/php.ini:

extension=pdo_mysql.so
extension=mysqli.so

Warning: As of PHP 5.5, mysql.so is deprecated and will fill up your log files.

You can add minor privileged MySQL users for your web scripts. You might also want to edit /etc/mysql/my.cnf and uncomment the skip-networking line so the MySQL server is only accessible by the localhost. You have to restart MySQL for changes to take effect.

Restart httpd.service using systemd

Tip: You may want to install a tool like phpMyAdmin, Adminer or mysql-workbench^AUR to work with your databases.

External links

• Apache Official Website
• PHP Official Website
• MariaDB Official Website
• Tutorial for creating self-signed certificates
• Apache Wiki Troubleshooting