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Recommended update for Apache

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(Last modified: 17MAY2002)


solutions Recommended update for Apache SuSE Linux Maintenance Web (c3fa549aeef047f95ae75afadd247681)

Applies to

Product(s): SuSE eMail Server III
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 7 for IA32
SuSE Linux Connectivity Server

Package: apache
Release: 20020517
Obsoletes: none

Indications

Everyone using the Apache web server should update this package.

Contraindications

None.

Description

This is a bugfix update to apache 1.3.24, the supported and recommended version by the Apache Group. This version contains many bugfixes and some improvements especially in the mod_proxy module.
For a complete changelog please refer to
http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/CHANGES_1.3
Other changes to the RPM package:
  • build with the 2.8.8-1.3.24 mod_ssl patchset (see http://www.modssl.org/news/changelog.html for a complete list of changes)
  • activate modules in the right order by moving the Include statement for suse_loadmodule.conf to the right place (after all LoadModule statements)

Installation notes

Updating the Apache package
This update is provided as an RPM package that can easily be installed onto a running system by using this command:
rpm -Uvh apache.rpm
Updating related (module) packages
If you have some of the mod_ssl, mod_php4, mod_perl, mod_dav, backhand, or jserv packages installed you should update them as well with the new packages that have been built against this apache version.
Some of them (mod_ssl, mod_php4) have been version updated as well and should only be used with this apache package, not with older releases.
Apache modules from the developer media set that are not covered by the maintenance contract might continue to work with this version of apache but have not been tested.
Notes on server (re-)configuration
At first make sure that all related packages (module packages like mod_ssl, mod_php4, etc.) have been updated as well.
The main configuration file of the server (/etc/httpd/httpd.conf) is replaced with the update by the packaged default httpd.conf. This is necessary due to small configuration changes for the new apache version. An existing httpd.conf is renamed to httpd.conf.rpmsave. If you had changes in
httpd.conf you will need to merge the settings now.
In the simplest case, when only the SuSEconfig-generated configuration files are used, you need to run
SuSEconfig --module apache
after the package update.
If you had done changes to httpd.conf the best procedure usually is to merge the changes into the new httpd.conf file, in addition to running SuSEconfig.
(In general, it is a good idea to keep one's own changes separate from the filesupplied with the package, i.e. put them into an extra file that is included with a
Include /etc/httpd/httpd.conf.local
statement or alike.)
A command like
diff -u /etc/httpd/httpd.conf.rpmsave /etc/httpd/httpd.conf | less
can be helpful to make out the changes. Note that some parameters like ServerName can be replaced by SuSEconfig (see the inline documentation in httpd.conf for details).
You might also want to check the settings in
/etc/rc.config.d/apache.rc.config
to make sure that modules that are not needed are not enabled.
Restarting the server
Before actually trying to restart the server you might want to issue the command
httpd -t
to validate the configuration. (In the case that apache is to be
configured for SSL you would need to run: httpd -t -DSSL)
This will make reasonably sure that the server can actually get going again after it has been stopped.
After reconfiguration of the server and validation of the syntax the server needs to be restarted with the command:
rcapache restart
In case of problems watch the log files closely with
tail -f /var/log/httpd/*log &
while restarting.

links to download packages

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