Installing Apache (and modules) From Scratch

Contents

• The Mission
• Getting Started
• Compiling All Modules
  • mod_perl
  • rsaref
  • Open SSL
  • mm
  • mod_ssl
• Building and Installing Apache
  • Making Sure It Worked
  • the apachectl file
  • Activating SSL
  • Starting the server

Mission

• mod_perl
• mod_ssl
• Open SSL
• RSARef (A requirement for Open SSL) (local mirror)
• mm (Memory Management)
• mod_rewrite (Provided within Apache package)

Getting Started

• From the links above, download the latest sources for each modules. Make life easier for yourself and download all the packages into /export/installs/apache.
  (Apache is available at www.apache.org.)
  
• Make sure you have gcc Version 2.8 or higher (gcc -v) - I had problems with older version of gcc, such as gcc 2.7.
• Untar each of the packages within /export/installs/apache.
  For example, /export/installs/apache/apache_1.3.9 and /export/installs/apache/mm-1.0.12, and so on...
• For the RSAref package you will need to make a directory under /export/installs manually, ie. /export/installs/apache/rsaref and untar the RSARef package from within the directory.

Note: For this page, I have used mod_perl 1.21, Apache 1.3.9, Open SSL 0.9.4, RSAref 2.0, mm 1.0.12 and mod_ssl 2.4.9 (the latest for each package as of December 08/99).
I mention this because I have used the full path names when describing the install. You version number may be different, so don't be puzzled...

This procedure has also worked with older versions of the packages (ie. Apache 1.3.6).

Compiling Each Module

# cd /export/installs/apache/mod_perl-1.21
# perl Makefile.PL USE_APACI=1 EVERYTHING=1

After answering these questions a the Makefile will configure itself for the make.

After this is done, simply type make followed by make install.
(You should confirm that mod_perl was installed by looking at the files in ../apache_1.3.9/src/modules/perl - you should see mod_perl.*)

Step 2: Building RSARef

# cd /export/installs/apache/rsaref
# cp -rp install/unix local
# cd local
# make
# mv rsaref.a librsaref.a

# cd /export/installs/apache/openssl-0.9.4
# sh config -L`pwd`/../rsaref/local rsaref -fPIC
# make
# make test

# cd /export/installs/apache/mm-1.0.12
# ./configure --disable-shared
# make

# cd /export/installs/apache/mod_ssl-2.4.9-1.3.9
# ./configure --with-apache=../apache_1.3.9

Last Step: Building and Installing Apache

Please Note: Firstly, the configure command for Apache should be put into a shell script file, so you can add more modules to Apache at a later time (and not accidenatly forgetting a module).
This is easier, as the next time you want to add a module, just open the shell script file and add the configuration line and re-run the configuration.

For configuring Apache with all the modules above (and mod_rewrite - which comes within the Apache source package), I did the following:

• Created the shell script file called default.config within /export/installs/apache/apache_1.3.9 .
• Inserted the following into the script file:

  #!/bin/sh
  
  SSL_BASE=/export/installs/apache/openssl-0.9.4 RSA_BASE=/export/installs/apache/rsaref/local/ \
  EAPI_MM=/export/installs/apache/mm-1.0.12 ./configure --enable-module=ssl --prefix=/usr/apache \ 
  --activate-module=src/modules/perl/libperl.a --activate-module=src/modules/standard/mod_rewrite.o 
  

This should run smoothly. If it doesn't, the configuration must have been wrong. Check all path names and compiler options.

If everything is fine, you will see the following after running ./default.config:

Configuring for Apache, Version 1.3.9
 + using installation path layout: Apache (config.layout)
 + activated perl module (modules/perl/libperl.a)
 + activated rewrite module (modules/standard/mod_rewrite.o)
Creating Makefile
.....

• Make the source, issuing the make command.
  You will be asked to make a certificate. Do not worry about this now. Ignore the message.
• Install it all into the --prefix directory (above it was /usr/apache) with make install

apachectl

It is advised that you add/replace these lines to the configuration section:

ROOT=/usr/apache/httpd-[site]
HTTPD="/usr/apache/httpd-[site]/bin/httpd -d $ROOT"

To activate SSL, replace the above line (starting with HTTPD=) with the following:

HTTPD="/usr/apache/httpd-[site]/bin/httpd -d $ROOT -DSSL"

SSLCertificateKeyFile /usr/apache/httpd-[site]/conf/server.key # public key
SSLCertificateFile /usr/apache/httpd-[site]/conf/server.crt # key recieved from Thawte

Now check the error log..ie. tail -f /usr/apache/logs/error_log and you should see the following:

[notice] Apache/1.3.9 (Unix) mod_perl/1.21 mod_ssl/2.4.9 OpenSSL/0.9.4 configured -- resuming normal operations

Afra Ahmad 1999