Difference between revisions of "Apache HTTP Server"

Revision as of 23:28, 20 November 2012

LAMP refers to a common combination of software used in many web servers: Linux, Apache, MySQL, 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 MySQL 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

# pacman -S apache php php-apache mysql

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

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

• Check for the existence of the http user by looking for http in the output of the following command:

 # grep http /etc/passwd

• Create the system user http if it does not exist already:

 # useradd -d /srv/http -r -s /bin/false -U http

This creates the http user with home directory /srv/http/, as a system account (-r), with a bogus shell (-s /bin/false) and creates a group with the same name (-U).

• Change httpd.conf and optionally extra/httpd-default.conf to your liking. For security reasons, you might want to change ServerTokens Full to ServerTokens Prod and ServerSignature On to ServerSignature Off in extra/httpd-default.conf.

• Start httpd (the Apache daemon).

Apache should now be running. Test by visiting http://localhost/ in a web browser. It should display a simple Apache test page. If you receive a 403 Error, comment out the following line in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf:

Include conf/extra/httpd-userdir.conf

• It is also possible to start httpd automatically at boot.

User dirs

• If you do not want user directories to be available on the web (e.g., ~/public_html on the machine is accessed as http://localhost/~user/ -Note that you can change what this points to in /etc/httpd/conf/extra/httpd-userdir.conf), comment the following line in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf since they are activated by default:

 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

• More secure way to share your home folder with apache is to add http user in group that your home folder belongs. For example, if your home folder and other sub-folders in your home folder belong to group piter, all you have to do is following:

 $ usermod -aG piter http

• Of course, you have to give read and execute permissions on ~/, ~/public_html, and all other sub-folders in ~/public_html to the group members (group piter in our case). Do something like following (modify commands for your specific case):

 $ chmod g+xr-w /home/yourusername
 $ chmod -R g+xr-w /home/yourusername/public_html

and restart httpd.

SSL

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

 # cd /etc/httpd/conf
 # openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.key 1024
 # openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr
 # cp server.key server.key.org
 # openssl rsa -in server.key.org -out server.key
 # openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt

In /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf uncomment line

 Include conf/extra/httpd-ssl.conf

and restart httpd.

Virtual Hosts

If you want to have more than one host, make sure you have

# Virtual hosts
Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf.

In /etc/httpd/conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf set your virtual hosts according the example, e.g.:

NameVirtualHost *:80

#this first virtualhost enables: http://127.0.0.1, or: http://localhost, 
#to still go to /srv/http/*index.html(otherwise it will 404_error).
#the reason for this: once you tell httpd.conf to include extra/httpd-vhosts.conf, 
#ALL vhosts are handled in httpd-vhosts.conf(including the default one),
# E.G. the default virtualhost in httpd.conf is not used and must be included here, 
#otherwise, only domainname1.dom & domainname2.dom will be accessible
#from your web browser and NOT http://127.0.0.1, or: http://localhost, etc.
#

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot "/srv/http"
    ServerAdmin root@localhost
    ErrorLog "/var/log/httpd/127.0.0.1-error_log"
    CustomLog "/var/log/httpd/127.0.0.1-access_log" common
    <Directory /srv/http/>
		    DirectoryIndex index.htm index.html
		    AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .pl
		    Options ExecCGI Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews +Includes
		    AllowOverride None
		    Order allow,deny
		    allow from all
	</Directory>
</VirtualHost>


<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin your@domainname1.dom
    DocumentRoot "/home/username/yoursites/domainname1.dom/www"
    ServerName domainname1.dom
    ServerAlias domainname1.dom
    <Directory /home/username/yoursites/domainname1.dom/www/>
		    DirectoryIndex index.htm index.html
		    AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .pl
		    Options ExecCGI Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews +Includes
		    AllowOverride None
		    Order allow,deny
		    allow from all
	</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin your@domainname2.dom
    DocumentRoot "/home/username/yoursites/domainname2.dom/www"
    ServerName domainname2.dom
    ServerAlias domainname2.dom
    <Directory /home/username/yoursites/domainname2.dom/www/>
		    DirectoryIndex index.htm index.html
		    AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .pl
		    Options ExecCGI Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews +Includes
		    AllowOverride None
		    Order allow,deny
		    allow from all
	</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Add your virtual host names to your /etc/hosts file (NOT necessary if bind is serving these domains already, but will not hurt):

127.0.0.1	domainname1.dom
127.0.0.1	domainname2.dom

and restart httpd.

If you setup your virtual hosts to be in your user directory, sometimes it interferes with Apache's 'Userdir' settings. To avoid problems disable 'Userdir' by commenting it out:

# User home directories
#Include conf/extra/httpd-userdir.conf

As said above, ensure that you have the proper permissions:

# chmod 0775 /home/yourusername/

If you have a huge amount of virtual hosts you easily want to dis- and enable, it's recommended to create one config file per virtualhost 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 config files in them:

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

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

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

You can enable and disable single virtual hosts by commenting them out 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 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

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

# ServerAdmin sample@sample.com

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

# DocumentRoot "/srv/http"

Change it, if you want to, but do not forget to also change the

<Directory "/srv/http">

to whatever you changed your DocumentRoot to, 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 Deny from all line, otherwise you will get 403 error too.

# AllowOverride None

This directive in <Directory> sections causes apache to completely ignore .htaccess files. If you intend to use rewrite mod or other settings in .htaccess files, you can allow which directives declared in that file can override server configuration. For more info refer to http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/core.html#allowoverride

PHP

• Install php-apache from the Official repositories.

• Add these lines in /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

Make sure that the following line is uncommented in the <IfModule mime_module> section:

 TypesConfig conf/mime.types

Uncomment the following line (optional):

 MIMEMagicFile conf/magic

• Add this line in /etc/httpd/conf/mime.types:

 application/x-httpd-php5		php php5

• 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.

• Test PHP: Create the file test.php in your Apache DocumentRoot directory (e.g. /srv/http/ or ~/public_html) and inside it put:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

See if it works: http://localhost/test.php or http://localhost/~myname/test.php

If the PHP code is is not executed (you see : <html>...</html>), check that you have added "Includes" to the "Options" line for your root directory in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf. Moreover, check that TypesConfig conf/mime.types is uncommented in the <IfModule mime_module> section, you may also try adding the following to the <IfModule mime_module> in httpd.conf:

AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .php

Advanced options

• It is recommended to set your timezone in /etc/php/php.ini like so: (list of timezones)

date.timezone = Europe/Berlin

• If you want to display errors to debug your php code, change display_errors to On in /etc/php/php.ini:

display_errors=On

• If you want the libGD module, install php-gd and uncomment extension=gd.so in /etc/php/php.ini:

extension=gd.so

• If you want the mcrypt module, install php-mcrypt and uncomment extension=mcrypt.so in /etc/php/php.ini:

extension=mcrypt.so

• Remember to add a file handler for .phtml if you need it in /etc/httpd/conf/extra/php5_module.conf:

DirectoryIndex index.php index.phtml index.html

Using php5 with apache2-mpm-worker and mod_fcgid

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

HTTPD=/usr/sbin/httpd.worker

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

Include conf/extra/httpd-mpm.conf

Install mod_fcgid and php-cgi packages:

# pacman -S mod_fcgid php-cgi

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

# 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
        PHP_Fix_Pathinfo_Enable 1
        # 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 needed directory and symlink for 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

Make sure /etc/php/php.ini has the directive enabled:

cgi.fix_pathinfo=1

and restart httpd.

MySQL

• Configure MySQL as described in MySQL.

• Uncomment the following line in /etc/php/php.ini:

extension=mysqli.so

• You can add minor privileged users for your web scripts in phpMyAdmin. 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.

See also

• MySQL - Article for MySQL
• PhpMyAdmin - Web frontend for MySQL typically found in LAMP environments
• Adminer - A full-featured database management tool which is available for MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MS SQL and Oracle
• Xampp - Self contained web-server that supports PHP, Perl, and MySQL
• mod_perl - Apache + Perl

External links

• http://www.apache.org/
• http://www.php.net/
• http://www.mysql.com/
• http://www.akadia.com/services/ssh_test_certificate.html
• http://wiki.apache.org/httpd/CommonMisconfigurations