We\u2019re compiling an Apache web server for a test system.<\/p>\n
This tutorial is also available as a video walk through<\/a>.<\/p>\n In professional use of the web server it\u2019s very often the case that special requirements (security, additional debugging messages, special features from a new patch, etc.) force you to leave behind the distribution packages and quickly create some binaries on your own. In this case it\u2019s important for the infrastructure to be prepared and to already have experience compiling and running your own binaries on production systems. It\u2019s also easier to work with self-compiled Apache in a laboratory-like setup, which is also beneficial in terms of debugging.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not all that important where the source code is located. The following is a recommendation based on the File Hierarchy Standard<\/a>. The FHS defines the path structure of a Unix system; the structure for all stored files. Note that in the second command Create folder:<\/p>\n Take ownership of folder:<\/p>\n Change directory to the folder:<\/p>\n Since the release of version 2.4, the Apache web server comes without two important libraries that used to be part of the distribution. We now have to install Let\u2019s start with apr<\/em> and download the package.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll now download the checksum of the source code file from Apache. We\u2019ll verify the integrity of the source code we downloaded that way. For better security we\u2019ll be using a secure connection for downloading. Without https this verification doesn\u2019t make much sense. Both files, the source code and the small checksum file, should be placed together in The test should not result in any problems, OK<\/em>. We can now continue with unpacking, pre-configuring and compiling apr<\/em>.<\/p>\n After unpacking, we now change to the new directory containing the source code and start configure<\/em>. This configures the compiler. We specify the installation path and configure<\/em> gathers a variety of information and settings about our system. Sometimes, a warning about Things typically missing:<\/p>\n And once we are at it, let\u2019s install everything else we are going to need throughout this and the following tutorials:<\/p>\n These are the package names on Debian-based distributions. The packages may have different names elsewhere. The absence of these files can be easily rectified by re-installing them using the utilities from your own distribution. Afterwards, run configure<\/em> again, perhaps re-install something again and eventually the script will run successfully (individual warnings during the configure<\/em> steps are no big problem. We just need to be sure the script did not die unexpectedly).<\/p>\n Once it runs without a problem, we can assume that the time for compiling has come.<\/p>\n This takes a moment after which we get the compiled apr<\/em>, which we promptly install.<\/p>\n Once this is successful, we\u2019ll do the same with apr-util<\/em>.<\/p>\n Once this works in both cases we\u2019re ready for the web server itself.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll now download the program code from the internet. This can be done by downloading it directly from Apache<\/a> in a browser or, to save the Apache Project\u2019s bandwidth, by using wget to get it from a mirror.<\/p>\n The compressed source code is approximately 5 MB in size.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll now download the checksum of the source code file from Apache. At least it\u2019s available as a sha1 checksum<\/em>. We\u2019ll again be using a secure connection for better security. Without https this verification doesn\u2019t make much sense.<\/p>\n After verification we can unpack the package.<\/p>\n This results in approximately 38 MB.<\/p>\n We now enter the directory and configure the compiler with our entries and with information about our system. Unlike apr<\/em>, our entries are very extensive.<\/p>\n This is where we define the target directory for the future Apache web server, again compiling in compliance with the FHS<\/em>. Following this, there are two options for linking the two libraries installed as a precondition. We use We then define that we want all (all<\/em>) modules to be compiled. Of note here is that all<\/em> does not really mean all. For historical reasons all<\/em> means only all of the core modules, of which there are quite a few. The shared<\/em> keyword indicates that we would like to have the modules compiled separately in order to then be able to link them as optional modules. And lastly, When executing the configure<\/em> command for the web server, it may be necessary to install additional packages. However, if you have installed all those named in the second step, you should be covered.<\/p>\n Once configure<\/em> is completed, we are ready for the compiler. Nothing should go wrong any longer at this point.<\/p>\n This takes some time and 38 MB becomes just under 100 MB.<\/p>\n When compiling is successful, we then install the Apache web server we built ourselves. Installation must be performed by the super user. But right afterwards we\u2019ll see how we can again take ownership of the web server. This is much more practical for a test system.<\/p>\n Installation may also take some time.<\/p>\nWhy are we doing this?<\/h3>\n
Step 1: Preparing the directory tree for the source code<\/h3>\n
whoami<\/code> evaluates to the username and not root (despite sudo<\/code>).<\/p>\nsudo mkdir \/usr\/src\/apache<\/code><\/p>\nsudo chown $(whoami) \/usr\/src\/apache<\/code><\/p>\ncd \/usr\/src\/apache<\/code><\/p>\nStep 2: Meeting the requirements for apr and apr-util<\/h3>\n
apr<\/code> and apr-util<\/code> ourselves before being able to compile Apache. apr<\/code> is the Apache Portable Runtime library. It adds additional features to the normal set of C libraries typically needed by server software. They include features for managing hash tables and arrays. These libraries aren\u2019t used by the Apache web server alone, but also by other Apache Software Foundation projects, which is why they were removed from Apache\u2019s source code. Like apr<\/code>, apr-util<\/code> is part of the Portable Runtime libraries supplemented by apr-util<\/code>.<\/p>\n<\/a>$><\/span> wget<\/span> https:\/\/archive.apache.org\/dist\/apr\/apr-1.7.6.tar.bz2<\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n\/usr\/src\/apache<\/code>. We can now verify the checksum:<\/p>\n<\/a>$><\/span> wget<\/span> https:\/\/archive.apache.org\/dist\/apr\/apr-1.7.6.tar.bz2.sha256<\/span>\n<\/a>$><\/span> sha256sum<\/span> --check apr-1.7.6.tar.bz2.sha256<\/span>\n<\/a>apr-1.7.6.tar.bz2<\/span>: OK<\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n<\/a>$><\/span> tar<\/span> -xvjf apr-1.7.6.tar.bz2<\/span>\n<\/a>$><\/span> cd<\/span> apr-1.7.6<\/span>\n<\/a>$><\/span> .\/configure<\/span> --prefix=\/usr\/local\/apr\/<\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\nlibtoolT<\/code> is printed but it can be ignored. The configure command frequently complains about missing components. One thing is certain: Without a working compiler we will be unable to compile and it\u2019s configure\u2019s task to check whether everything is assembled correctly.<\/p>\n\n
\n
<\/a>$><\/span> make<\/span><\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n<\/a>$><\/span> sudo<\/span> make install<\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n<\/a>$><\/span> cd<\/span> \/usr\/src\/apache<\/span>\n<\/a>$><\/span> wget<\/span> https:\/\/archive.apache.org\/dist\/apr\/apr-util-1.6.3.tar.bz2<\/span>\n<\/a>$><\/span> wget<\/span> https:\/\/archive.apache.org\/dist\/apr\/apr-util-1.6.3.tar.bz2.sha256<\/span>\n<\/a>$><\/span> sha256sum<\/span> --check apr-util-1.6.3.tar.bz2.sha256<\/span>\n<\/a>apr-util-1.6.3.tar.bz2<\/span>: OK<\/span>\n<\/a>$><\/span> tar<\/span> -xvjf apr-util-1.6.3.tar.bz2<\/span>\n<\/a>$><\/span> cd<\/span> apr-util-1.6.3<\/span>\n<\/a>$><\/span> .\/configure<\/span> --prefix=\/usr\/local\/apr\/ --with-apr=\/usr\/local\/apr\/<\/span>\n<\/a>$><\/span> make<\/span><\/span>\n<\/a>$><\/span> sudo<\/span> make install<\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\nStep 3: Downloading the Apache source code and verifying the checksum<\/h3>\n
<\/a>$><\/span> cd<\/span> \/usr\/src\/apache<\/span>\n<\/a>$><\/span> wget<\/span> https:\/\/archive.apache.org\/dist\/httpd\/httpd-2.4.66.tar.bz2<\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n<\/a>$><\/span> wget<\/span> https:\/\/archive.apache.org\/dist\/httpd\/httpd-2.4.66.tar.bz2.sha256<\/span>\n<\/a>$><\/span> sha256sum<\/span> --check httpd-2.4.66.tar.bz2.sha256<\/span>\n<\/a>httpd-2.4.66.tar.bz2<\/span>: OK<\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\nStep 4: Unpacking and configuring the compiler<\/h3>\n
<\/a>$><\/span> tar<\/span> -xvjf httpd-2.4.66.tar.bz2<\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n<\/a>$><\/span> cd<\/span> httpd-2.4.66<\/span>\n<\/a>$><\/span> .\/configure<\/span> --prefix=\/opt\/apache-2.4.66 --with-apr=\/usr\/local\/apr\/bin\/apr-1-config \\<\/span><\/span>\n<\/a> --with-apr-util<\/span>=\/usr\/local\/apr\/bin\/apu-1-config \\<\/span><\/span>\n<\/a> --enable-mpms-shared<\/span>=event \\<\/span><\/span>\n<\/a> --enable-mods-shared<\/span>=all \\<\/span><\/span>\n<\/a> --enable-nonportable-atomics<\/span>=yes<\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n--enable-mpms-shared<\/code> to select a process model for the server. Simply put, this is like an engine type: gasoline (petrol) or diesel. In our case, event<\/code>, worker<\/code>, prefork<\/code> and a few experimental engines are available. In this case we\u2019ll take the event<\/code> model, which is the new standard in 2.4 and has significantly better performance over the other architectures. In the 2.0 and 2.2 version lines there was significantly more to consider besides performance, but this set of problems has been significantly defused since 2.4 and it\u2019s best for us to continue with event<\/code>. More information about the different process models (MPMs<\/em>) is available from the Apache Project.<\/p>\nenable-nonportable-atomics<\/code> is a compiler flag which instructs the compiler to use special options which are available only on modern x86 processors and have a favorable impact on performance.<\/p>\nStep 5: Compiling<\/h3>\n
<\/a>$><\/span> make<\/span><\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\nStep 6: Installing<\/h3>\n
<\/a>$><\/span> sudo<\/span> make install<\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n