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| |
| <manualpage metafile="getting-started.xml.meta"> |
| |
| <title>Getting Started</title> |
| |
| <summary> |
| <p>If you're completely new to the Apache HTTP Server, or even to running |
| a website at all, you might not know where to start, or what questions to |
| ask. This document walks you through the basics.</p> |
| </summary> |
| |
| <section id="clientserver"> |
| <title>Clients, Servers, and URLs</title> |
| |
| <p> |
| Addresses on the Web are expressed with URLs - Uniform Resource Locators |
| - which specify a protocol (e.g. <code>http</code>), a servername (e.g. |
| <code>www.apache.org</code>), a URL-path (e.g. |
| <code>/docs/current/getting-started.html</code>), and possibly a query |
| string (e.g. <code>?arg=value</code>) used to pass additional |
| arguments to the server. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p>A client (e.g., a web browser) connects to a server (e.g., your Apache HTTP Server), |
| with the specified protocol, and makes a <strong>request</strong> for a resource using the |
| URL-path.</p> |
| |
| <p>The URL-path may represent any number of things on the server. It may |
| be a file (like <code>getting-started.html</code>) a handler (like <a |
| href="mod/mod_status.html">server-status</a>) or some kind of program |
| file (like <code>index.php</code>). We'll discuss this more below in |
| the <a href="#content">Web Site Content</a> section.</p> |
| |
| <p> |
| The server will send a <strong>response</strong> consisting of a status |
| code and, optionally, a response body. |
| The status code indicates whether the request was successful, and, if not, what |
| kind of error condition there was. This tells the client what it should |
| do with the response. You can read about the possible response codes in |
| <a href="http://wiki.apache.org/httpd/CommonHTTPStatusCodes">HTTP Server |
| wiki</a>.</p> |
| |
| <p>Details of the transaction, and any error conditions, are written to |
| log files. This is discussed in greater detail below in the <a |
| href="#logs">Logs Files and Troubleshooting</a> section.</p> |
| |
| </section> |
| |
| <section id="dns"> |
| <title>Hostnames and DNS</title> |
| |
| <p>In order to connect to a server, the client will first have to resolve |
| the servername to an IP address - the location on the Internet where the |
| server resides. Thus, in order for your web server to be reachable, it |
| is necessary that the servername be in DNS.</p> |
| |
| <p>If you don't know how to do this, you'll need to contact your network |
| administrator, or Internet service provider, to perform this step for |
| you.</p> |
| |
| <p>More than one hostname may point to the same IP address, and more |
| than one IP address can be attached to the same physical server. Thus, you |
| can run more than one web site on the same physical server, using a |
| feature called <a href="vhosts/">virtual hosts</a>.</p> |
| |
| <p>If you are testing a server that is not Internet-accessible, you |
| can put host names in your hosts file in order to do local resolution. |
| For example, you might want to put a record in your hosts file to map a |
| request for <code>www.example.com</code> to your local system, for |
| testing purposes. This entry would look like:</p> |
| |
| <example> |
| 127.0.0.1 www.example.com |
| </example> |
| |
| <p>A hosts file will probably be located at <code>/etc/hosts</code> or |
| <code>C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts</code>.</p> |
| |
| <p>You can read more about the hosts file at <a |
| href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file)">Wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file)</a>, and |
| more about DNS at <a |
| href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System">Wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System</a>.</p> |
| </section> |
| |
| <section id="configuration"> |
| <title>Configuration Files and Directives</title> |
| |
| <p>The Apache HTTP Server is configured via simple text files. |
| These files may be located any of a variety of places, depending on how |
| exactly you installed the server. Common locations for these files may |
| be found <a href="http://wiki.apache.org/httpd/DistrosDefaultLayout">in |
| the httpd wiki</a>. If you installed httpd from source, the default |
| location of the configuration files is |
| <code>/usr/local/apache2/conf</code>. The default configuration file is |
| usually called <code>httpd.conf</code>. This, too, can vary in |
| third-party distributions of the server.</p> |
| |
| <p>The configuration is frequently broken into multiple smaller files, |
| for ease of management. These files are loaded via the <directive |
| module="core">Include</directive> directive. The names or locations of |
| these sub-files are not magical, and may vary greatly from one |
| installation to another. Arrange and subdivide these files as |
| makes the most sense to <strong>you</strong>. If the file arrangement |
| you have by default doesn't make sense to you, feel free to rearrange it.</p> |
| |
| <p>The server is configured by placing <a |
| href="mod/quickreference.html">configuration directives</a> in these |
| configuration files. A directive is a keyword followed by one or more |
| arguments that set its value.</p> |
| |
| <p>The question of "<em>Where should I put that |
| directive?</em>" is generally answered by considering where you want a |
| directive to be effective. If it is a global setting, it should appear |
| in the configuration file, outside of any <directive |
| type="section" module="core">Directory</directive>, <directive |
| type="section" module="core">Location</directive>, <directive |
| type="section" module="core">VirtualHost</directive>, or other section. If it is to |
| apply only to a particular directory, then it should go inside a |
| <directive type="section" module="core">Directory</directive> section referring to |
| that directory, and so on. See the <a href="sections.html">Configuration |
| Sections</a> document for further discussion of these sections.</p> |
| |
| <p>In addition to the main configuration files, certain directives may go in |
| <code>.htaccess</code> files located in the content directories. |
| <code>.htaccess</code> files are primarily for people who do not have |
| access to the main server configuration file(s). You can read more about |
| <code>.htaccess</code> files in the <a |
| href="howto/htaccess.html"><code>.htaccess</code> howto</a>.</p> |
| |
| </section> |
| |
| <section id="content"> |
| <title>Web Site Content</title> |
| |
| <p>Web site content can take many different forms, but may be broadly |
| divided into static and dynamic content.</p> |
| |
| <p>Static content is things like HTML files, image files, CSS files, |
| and other files that reside in the filesystem. The <directive |
| module="core">DocumentRoot</directive> directive specifies where in your |
| filesystem you should place these files. This directive is either set |
| globally, or per virtual host. Look in your configuration file(s) to |
| determine how this is set for your server.</p> |
| |
| <p>Typically, a document called <code>index.html</code> will be served |
| when a directory is requested without a file name being specified. For |
| example, if <code>DocumentRoot</code> is set to |
| <code>/var/www/html</code> and a request is made for |
| <code>http://www.example.com/work/</code>, the file |
| <code>/var/www/html/work/index.html</code> will be served to the |
| client.</p> |
| |
| <p>Dynamic content is anything that is generated at request |
| time, and may change from one request to another. There are numerous |
| ways that dynamic content may be generated. Various <a |
| href="handler.html">handlers</a> are available to generate content. <a |
| href="howto/cgi.html">CGI programs</a> may be written to generate |
| content for your site.</p> |
| |
| <p>Third-party modules like mod_php may be used to write code that does a |
| variety of things. Many third-party applications, written using a |
| variety of languages and tools, are available for download and |
| installation on your Apache HTTP Server. Support of these third-party |
| things is beyond the scope of this documentation, and you should find |
| their documentation or other support forums to answer your questions |
| about them.</p> |
| </section> |
| |
| <section id="logs"> |
| <title>Log Files and Troubleshooting</title> |
| <p>As an Apache HTTP Server administrator, your most valuable assets are |
| the log files, and, in particular, the error log. Troubleshooting any |
| problem without the error log is like driving with your eyes closed.</p> |
| |
| <p>The location of the error log is defined by the <directive |
| module="core">ErrorLog</directive> directive, which may be set globally, |
| or per virtual host. Entries in the error log tell you what went wrong, |
| and when. They often also tell you how to fix it. Each error log message |
| contains an error code, which you can search for online for even more |
| detailed descriptions of how to address the problem. You can also |
| configure your error log to contain a log ID which you can then |
| correlate to an access log entry, so that you can determine what request |
| caused the error condition.</p> |
| |
| <p>You can read more about logging in the <a href="logs.html">logs |
| documentation</a>.</p> |
| </section> |
| |
| <section id="other"> |
| <title>What's next?</title> |
| |
| <p>Once you have the prerequisites under your belt, it's time to move |
| on.</p> |
| |
| <p>This document covers only the bare basics. We hope that this gets you |
| started, but there are many other things that you might need to |
| know.</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi">Download</a></li> |
| <li><a href="install.html">Install</a></li> |
| <li><a href="configuring.html">Configure</a></li> |
| <li><a href="invoking.html">Start</a></li> |
| <li><a href="http://wiki.apache.org/httpd/FAQ">Frequently Asked Questions</a></li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| </section> |
| |
| </manualpage> |