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diff --git a/apache.adoci b/apache.adoci deleted file mode 100644 index 8c3b259..0000000 --- a/apache.adoci +++ /dev/null @@ -1,134 +0,0 @@ -== Apache Practical, Week 4 == - -This practical is about installing and configuring an Apache web server. Since -we need special features (e.g. support for PCRE), we cannot just install the -version provided by our package manager. Instead, we have to build Apache from -source. - -At the end of the practical, we should be able to access public pages on the -web server but also private pages which require HTTP authentication. - -=== Problem 1: Dependencies issue with APR and APR-Util === - -When we try to configure the build of Apache for the first time, it complains -about missing dependencies: APR (Apache Portable Runtime) and APR-util (Apache -Portable Runtime Utility). i.e. a command looking like this: - - $ ./configure --prefix=<pfx> --with-included-apr --with-pcre=/usr/local/pcre - -gives this output: - - > configure: error: Bundled APR requested but not found at ./srclib/. - > Download and unpack the corresponding apr and apr-util packages to ./srclib/. - -==== Resolution ==== - -Because these two libraries have to be linked with Apache during the build -process, we have to install them in order to be able to build. - -Apache build system already provides us a directory './srclib/' that can be used to -build the libraries along with the Apache itself. It saves us the time of -building them separately. So all we have to do is download the source code of -these two libraries and extract them is './srclib/' - - $ wget -q http://mir2.ovh.net/ftp.apache.org/dist//apr/apr-1.5.1.tar.gz - $ tar xzf apr-1.5.1.tar.gz -C ./srclib/ - $ wget -q http://apache.websitebeheerjd.nl//apr/apr-util-1.5.4.tar.gz - $ tar xzf apr-util-1.5.4.tar.gz -C ./srclib/ - -Since Apache build process expects directories named 'apr' and 'apr-util', we can -create symlinks. - - $ ln -s apr-1.5.1 srclib/apr - $ ln -s apr-util-1.5.4 srclib/apr-util - -Another attempt of running './configure' confirms us that APR and APR-util are -now in place and ready to be built. - -=== Problem 2: pcre-config is not found - -Even though, there is no more dependency issues with APR, the build process now -complains about a missing binary: 'pcre-config' - - > configure: error: pcre-config for libpcre not found. PCRE is required and available from http://pcre.org/ - -==== Resolution ==== - -'pcre-config' and eventually most of '-config' binaries are used by build -processes to portably retrieve linker and compiler flags for a given library. -On Debian and Ubuntu, these binaries are often provided by the '-dev' packages. -In our case, it is 'libpcre3-dev'. - - $ sudo apt-get install libpcre3-dev - -'./configure' now runs without any issue. We can then build and install Apache. - -=== Problem 3: Need of restarting the web server === - -During the configuration of the HTTP authentication, we have to restart the web -server each time we make a single modification because 'httpd.conf' is read at -startup. It becomes very cumbersome when we are not familiar with the syntax on -the configuration file. - -==== Resolution ==== - -Apache provides us a way to use configuration files that are read on the fly. -We often refer to these files as '.htaccess'. In our case, we can configure the -authentication on the fly by replacing in 'httpd.conf' - - AllowOverride None - -by - - AllowOverride AuthConfig - -and restarting the web server. This way, we can write our configuration -directives 'htdocs/private/.htaccess' and test them without reloading Apache. - -=== Problem 4: Web Browsers keep the authentication details === - -Most web browsers, until they are restarted, save your credentials whenever you -successfully pass HTTP authentication so that you do not need to provide them -again when you reload the same page. It is very annoying when we are testing -our HTTP authentication because we need to restart our browser after each -successful attempt. - -==== Resolution ==== - -Instead of using a web browser to test our authentication, we can use 'curl' -which is a tool capable of executing a HTTP request, print the answer and quit -without saving the credentials. - -For that, we first have to install it if it is not already present: - - $ sudo apt-get install curl - -Then we can perform queries to our web server (the '-u' option allows to provide -a 'user:password' pair). - -Only interesting excerpts of the output is shown below - -.Failing to access '/private' without providing user/password: -========== - - $ curl http://csvm2C4E.kent.ac.uk/private/ - > <title>401 Unauthorized</title> - -========== - -.Failing to access '/private' by providing a wrong password: -========== - - $ curl http://csvm2C4E.kent.ac.uk/private/ -u admin:wrong_pass - > <title>401 Unauthorized</title> - -========= - -.Successing to access '/private' by providing both a good username and password -========= - - $ curl http://csvm2C4E.kent.ac.uk/private/ -u admin:good_pass - > This content is private. If you can read this message, it means that you have successfully passed HTTP authentication. - -========= - |