7.5.1.4. Changing the default configuration
The default Apache configuration serves all web content from one directory: /var/www/html . To perform more advanced web serving, the default configuration needs to be modified.
Apache can be configured by using Fedora's graphical configuration tool or by editing configuration files, but you can't alternate between the two approaches. Most experienced Apache administrators prefer to directly edit the configuration file because it provides direct access to all of Apache's features and because it is more convenient when accessing a remote server. However, Fedora's graphical configuration tool is quite powerful and is a good place to start if you're not familiar with Apache setup.
7.5.1.5. Configuring Apache graphically
To configure Apache graphically, select System→Administration→Server Settings→HTTP (or in KDE, Administration→Server Settings→HTTP). The httpd configuration dialog, a simple tabbed window (shown in Figure 7-17), will appear.
Figure 7-17. Graphical configuration tool for Apache httpd
Start with the Main tab and enter the server name and webmaster's email address. The server name must contain only alphanumeric characters; it will be used as a hostname and combined with the current domain name to build a fully qualified domain name (FQDN).
The webmaster's address is displayed in server error messages and could be harvested by web spiders, so it is a good idea to use a disposable email alias and change it frequently to thwart spammers.
The Available Addresses area is used only if you wish to prevent the web server from using some network interfaces, or if you wish to use a nonstandard TCP/IP port (the default for HTTP is port 80). This is usually left at the default setting.
The Virtual Hosts tab shown in Figure 7-18 is used to configure Apache to respond to requests for multiple web sitesfor example, www.fedorabook.com and www.tylers.info . By default, a single entry is present, labeled Default Virtual Host.
Figure 7-18. Virtual host configuration
To edit an existing entry or add a new entry, use the Edit or Add buttons. In either case, the window shown on the right of Figure 7-18 will appear, with these tabs:
General Options
Enter the name of the virtual host (this information is only for your reference, so you can be as descriptive as you want), the Document Root directory that will store documents for this host, and the webmaster email address (if different from the default).
If you choose a Document Root that is not within /var/www/html and have SELinux active, you will need to change the security context of that directory (see Lab 8.2, "Using SELinux").
Page Options
When Apache receives a request for a directory (such as http://www.fedorabook.com/example/ ), it will search that directory for files that can serve as an index to the contents of that directory. Traditionally, the index is named index.html , but you may wish to use other names, such as index.php , home.html , or index.htm . Use the Directory Page Search List area of this tab to configure all of the possible names for the index file, in your desired order of precedence.
Apache is preconfigured with standard pages that are displayed when an error occurs. To override any of these pages and present a custom error message, highlight the page in the Error pages list and click Edit. A dialog box will appear; change the error message behavior from Default to File and enter the location of the page you wish to use (or select URL and specify the local URL of the web page). You can customize the footer displayed at the bottom of default error pages using the Default Error Page Footer control.
Logging
Apache maintains two logs per virtual host: a transfer log , which records what was sent to clients, and an error log , which records any problems encountered. By default, all virtual hosts will share one pair of logs, but to analyze statistics separately for each virtual host, you'll need to specify separate logfiles for each. To do this, change the "Log to file" name for the Transfer Log from logs/access_log to a name that includes an indication of the virtual hostname, such as logs/ fedorabook_ access_log . Do the same for the Error log, changing logs/error_log to logs/ fedorabook_ error_log . Alternately, you can consolidate logs from several servers using syslog by selecting the Use System Log option and entering the hostname or IP address of the syslog server.
The default logfile format does not contain referrer information, so you can't tell where your visitors are coming from or how they're navigating your site. To add this information, select the checkbox "Use custom logging facilities" and set the "Custom log string" to combined .
Performance
This tab should actually be named Permission, since it controls what is permitted in web directories. Click on the Edit button in the Default directory options section to edit the options for the virtual host's Document Root directory; available permission options include ExecCGI (run scripts), FollowSymLinks (follow symbolic links to files), Includes (process server-side include directives in files), IncludesNOEXEC (process server-side includes, except scripts), Indexes (use index files such as index.html when a directory is requested), MultiViews (enable content negotiation such as automatic language or image-type selection), and SymLinksIfOwnerMatch (follow symbolic links if the link and the target are owned by the same user).
To set the permissions for a particular directory, click the Add button in the lower part of the window (or, if the directory is already listed, click the Edit button). Enter the directory name in the Directory field at the bottom of the window and set the Options checkboxes for the options you wish to enable in this directory. By default, all remote computers (hosts) will have access to the content in this directory; the Allow and Deny list options can be used to permit (or deny) access only from certain hosts. The hosts can be identified by hostname (fedorabook.com), partial domain name (.com), IP address (192.168.100.1), or IP address and netmask or bit count ( 192.168.100.0/255.255.255.0 , or the equivalent 192.168.100.0/24 ).
To enable the use of .htaccess files, select the checkbox labeled "Let .htaccess override directory options."
There is also a tab for SSLused for secure, encrypted web servingand a tab for Environment, which is used to pass information to web scripts, but the options on those tabs are not used for basic web serving.
Once the virtual host is configured, click OK to return to the main HTTP configuration window ( Figure 7-17 ).
The Server and Performance Tuning tabs in the main HTTP configuration window do not normally require adjustment.
After configuring Apache, click OK to save your configuration (a confirmation dialog may appear).
7.5.1.6. Directly editing Apache's configuration file