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Why I Hate The Apache Web Server: Lessons Learned From IRC Rich Bowen

This document summarizes the author's frustrations with the Apache web server. In three sentences: The author finds Apache to be fragile, confusing, and missing requested features. It breaks too easily from small configuration changes. Its configuration options and directives are disorganized and unintuitive. Common requests from users like variable syntax, if/else, and reloading configurations without restarting are still not implemented.

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mskadu
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36 views

Why I Hate The Apache Web Server: Lessons Learned From IRC Rich Bowen

This document summarizes the author's frustrations with the Apache web server. In three sentences: The author finds Apache to be fragile, confusing, and missing requested features. It breaks too easily from small configuration changes. Its configuration options and directives are disorganized and unintuitive. Common requests from users like variable syntax, if/else, and reloading configurations without restarting are still not implemented.

Uploaded by

mskadu
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Why I Hate The Apache

Web Server
Lessons learned from IRC

Rich Bowen

Note: Opinions expressed are those of our users, as


expressed on IRC. The goal of this talk is to make people
aware of things which those "outside" see as problems, but
which we tend to be so used to that we don't see at all. If I
get carried away, feel free to throw fruit.

1
Why do I hate thee? Let me count the reasons.

Fragile

Confusing

Missing stuff that


EVERYONE asks for

2
Fragile
Breaks easily. Small changes have big results

Options +Indexes Includes MultiViews


Options Indexes Includes Multiviews

The first of these forbids Indexes.


The second one permits them.

Huh?

3
Disclaimer

“But that’s not supported syntax!”

Then it should throw an error and break, not


do something utterly unexpected

Unfortunately, several major Linux distros


ship with this broken-but-almost-looks-right
configuration, or variants thereof

4
Example 2
Vhosts ... wow, don’t get me started

# My IP address is 192.168.1.200
NameVirtualHost *:80
<VirtualHost 192.168.1.200:80>
...
</VirtualHost>

That vhost is silently ignored.

Yeah. That’s intuitive.

5
Discussion

“But the docs say not to do that!”

Yes, I know. I wrote that line in the docs.


It’s still really irritating.

6
Another ...
Require Valid-user

Unlike every other Apache config setting,


“Require” is case sensitive, so that’s not valid

valid_user would be nice too

Oh, and “Require User” and “Require Group”


don’t work either.

7
Missing (asked daily on IRC)

Can I set a variable and use it later?

Can I have an if/else syntax?

Can I please reload my configuration file


without restarting my server?

How do I make ServerTokens return “Bob’s


Handy Dandy HTTP Server”? (Yes, this is
silly, but it would sure shut a lot of people
up finally.)

8
What else?
mod_imap

How many of you have actually used that


module?

How many of you who are not committers


know what it does?

Why is it on by default?

Come on folks. Netscape added client-side


image maps in 1995!

9
And while we’re on the topic

mod_cern_meta?

Who even knows what this module does?


For the record, yes, I do. But I doubt any of you have ever used it.

10
CONFUSING
NumServers ServerLimit ThreadLimit
ThreadsPerChild StartThreads StartServers
MaxSpareThreads MinSpareServers
MaxSpareServers MinSpareThreads MaxClients
MaxThreadsPerChild MaxRequestsPerChild
MaxRequestsPerThread ThreadStackSize

Oh sweet God make it stop

11
What’s that directive called?

RLimitMem, RLimitCPU, RLimitNProc

I have to look these up every time

Of course, since they don’t seem to do what


the docs say, maybe that’s not a bad thing.

12
Am I running out of time yet?

Why do I have to set up two separate vhosts


for http://example.com/ and https://
example.com/ when they’re the same
website?

Why are dynamic vhosts so darned hard?

Why doesn’t the default configuration file


match the “security tips” document?

13
mod_rewrite

I probably don’t need to say anything


more than just “mod_rewrite”. But I will.

“Voodoo” and “... flexibility of sendmail”

The docs practically scream “GO AWAY!”

14
RewriteMap

Nice, but have you ever found an


actual useful example?

Oh, and the example script for


generating db map files doesn’t
actually work. (Note: Paul fixed this 2 weeks
ago. See httxt2dbd)

15
How about this?
If I want these two aliases to work, I have
to:
Alias /foo/bar /path/bar
Alias /foo /path/other
But if I want two Locations to work, I have
to do it the other way around:

<Location /foo>
</Location>

<Location /foo/bar>
</Location>
16
But wait! There’s more!
Why does the env option in CustomLog use =!
instead of != like everyone else in the world?

Why isn’t there a simple “log out” method for


Basic authentication? We’ve only been asking
for it since 1993.

What’s up with the 2 G file limit?

17
Who’s Al?

Allow from Al

Apache should just magically know what I


mean and do the right thing.

18
Oh, yeah, one more
thing
Yes, I want a pony

19

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