BYO LINUX: Apache Web Server (20)

To my surprise, apache was very easy to install and configure. As a matter of fact, if you haven't already guessed, this particular web page was being hosted on a BYO Linux distribution that's running apache. I have a static ip for my dsl line and I just redirected you to my ip address. Anyways, on with the install. 

Unpack the apache archive and type the following: 

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./configure --prefix=/usr/apache
make
make install 
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Next, create a new user on the system and assign him a password. Type the following: 

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useradd apache
passwd apache 
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You don't need to login as this user, you can run apache as root if you would like but you will need this name in the next step. 

Edit /usr/apache/conf/httpd.conf 

Find a line that says User nobody and change the nobody to apache or whatever user you just created above. 

Scroll down a little farther and edit the line that says #ServerName *****. The asterics indicate whatever the name of your server is. You will need to uncomment this line and add the appropriate server name. In my case, I just put my static ip number in there. 

That's really all there is to a basic configuration of apache. 

Goto /usr/apache/bin and type apachectl start and you are now running a web server. To test it, if this machine is on a network, type it's ip address into your web browser and you should get a nice message on the screen from apache telling you it's working. If this is a stand-alone machine, if you installed kde2, you can use it's filemanager just like a web browser and put the loopback address in there, 127.0.0.1 

Lastly, the /usr/apache/htdocs directory is where you put your webpages.