Apache - The Definitive Guide
ISBN 1-56592-528-9 Price approximately
£23.50 UK
Ben Laurie & Peter Laurie
15 Chapters, 5 appendices index in 355 pages
Chapter List
ix Preface
1 Getting Started
2 Our First Web Site
3 Toward a Real Web Site
4 Common Gateway Interface (CGI)
5 Authentication
6 MIME, Content and Language Negotiation
7 Indexing
8 Redirection
9 Proxy Server
10 Server Side Includes
11 What's Going On ?
12 Extra Modules
13 Security
14 The Apache API
15 Writing Apache Modules
A Support Organisations
B The echo Program
C NCSA and Apache Compatibility
D SSL Protocol
E Sample Apache Log
Index
Synopsis
Apache is one of the most well known GNU applications. It runs a large part of the internet and this small blue green planet which is our own. Apache -The Definitive Guide explains everything you wanted to know and a few other things. The only other book that comes anywhere near it for excellence or sophistication is the one that is published by Wrox Press.
Review
Apache - The Definitive Guide is a book that sets out to give the reader a full explanation of the Apache web server and the various things that are associated with it. Both the UNIX and Win32 versions are described and many examples are given. There are no injuns anywhere but you might see the odd horse or two :-) Presumably the U.S Marshall is just along the canyon somewhere ? (if his men haven't been paid off again ? )
The authors are a father and son team. Ben Laurie is a member of the core Apache Group and has been a programmer since 1978. Peter Laurie is Ben's father and he is a freelance journalist who has written some computer books. He used to be the editor of Practical Computing.
Just inside the front cover there is an Apache quick reference card which in itself is worth owning. This is a lot like the quick reference cards that you can get from the Free Software Foundation. The book starts with an easy to understand explanation of the basic configuration of "Our First Web Site" The rest of the book shows some excellent examples of configuration files. Towards the end there is a section on Apache modules and the book finishes with a sample Apache log. I've not been able to get hold of a log file from anyone.
Apache - The Definitive Guide should appeal to a most of us who have to set up a web server but need to understand a bit more. A burning log to light up the lonesome virtually real trail of information technology ? And there's a horse or two as well ? This is a publication which fully explains the virtually real landscape and even makes it interesting along the way :-)
Colophon
" The animal featured on the front cover of Apache - The Definitive Guide is an Appaloosa horse. Developed by the Nez Perce Indians of northeastern Oregon, the name Appaloosa derives from the nearby Palouse River. Although spotted horses are believed to be almost as old as the equine race itself - Cro-Magnon cave paintings depict spotted horses - the Appaloosa is the only established breed of spotted horse. The Appaloosa was bred to be a hunting and war horse and as such they have great stamina., are highly athletic and agile and have docile temperaments. When the Nez Perce, led by Chief Joseph, surrendered to the U.S Army in 1876 and were exiled to Oklahoma, the Appaloosa breed was almost eradicated. In 1938 the Appaloosa Horse Club was formed in Moscow, Idaho, and the breed was revived. The horse club now registers approximately 65 000 horses making it the third largest registry in the world. No longer a war horse, Apaloosas can be found in many equestrian venues, from trail riding to western competition to pleasure riding. "
Could *you* say that about the MS Windows registry ?
Review by Richard Ibbotson
