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A Day in the Life of #Apacheby Rich Bowen, coauthor of Apache Cookbook12/04/2003 |
Author's note: I spend a lot of time on IRC. I mean a lot of time. Time when I really should be doing other things. After all, IRC is a great place to go for answers to questions. The trouble is, everybody seems to ask the same questions, day after day. And the folks that answer the questions tend to get frustrated with the folks asking the questions, and either stop answering, or start flaming. So it occurred to me that I should really start writing up some of these conversations and put them on my web site. About the same time, O'Reilly approached me about writing an article to coincide with the release of Apache Cookbook, which I co-wrote with Ken Coar. I pitched the idea of a series based on my IRC conversations, and voilà, someone is actually going to pay me to do this. Ain't life grand?
Today's piece jump-starts this new series, "A Day in the Life of #Apache", here on ONLamp. The goal of these articles will be to condense some of those frequent IRC conversations into a format that can be used to help folks with these commonly occurring problems, while, at the same time, reducing the burn-out rate of IRC tech support. And, of course, other folks can benefit from these articles without having to put up with the strange and surreal world that is IRC. There will be a Talkback at the end of each of these articles -- please let me know what you think.
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Related Reading Apache Cookbook |
Day One
Welcome to "day one" on #apache. Today, we encounter a user who is having difficulty getting his .htaccess file working. With the help of Fajita, we'll try to solve this problem. (Fajita is the name of the infobot that runs on the channel.) In future articles, we'll tackle some more difficult problems, but in the first few of this series, we'll look at the problems that seem to come up every day.
#apache is an IRC channel that runs on the
irc.freenode.net IRC network. And, in case you wondered, I'm DrBacchus. (I'm not a real doctor, but I play one on IRC.) To join this channel, you need to install an IRC client (XChat, MIRC, and bitchx are some of the more popular clients, although there are roughly 3 bazillion other ones, too) and enter the following
commands:
/server irc.freenode.net
/join #apacheHere's the first snippet of my conversation with this user:
-->b3g1nn3r has joined #apache
<b3g1nn3r> Can anybody help me?
<DrBacchus> That would depend entirely on the nature of
your problem.
<b3g1nn3r> Well, I'm using a .htaccess file,
and it's not working.
<DrBacchus> details?
<fajita> You need to give us a few additional details.
What, exactly, is happening, and how does this differ from what
you expect to be happening? Perhaps the biggest challenge in troubleshooting Apache problems (or, really, any problem at all) is getting "customers" to clearly state what the problem is that they are experiencing. Most of the time, once we can persuade them to tell us exactly what is happening, and what they are trying to do, the solution winds up being fairly simple.
<b3g1nn3r> I created a .htaccess file and
put some directives in it, but when I load pages from that
directory, it appears that the .htaccess file is
being ignored.
<DrBacchus> What is AllowOverride set to?
<b3g1nn3r> AllowOverride None
<fajita> AllowOverride None means "Please ignore my
htaccess files."The AllowOverride directive controls the use of
.htaccess files. These are
files that permit users who don't have access to the main server-configuration file to override the configuration settings on the
server for particular directories.
Since many server admins don't want users to override
this configuration, the default Apache configuration file does
not permit .htaccess files. Or, stated differently,
we want server admins to have to make the conscious choice to
permit this feature, rather than having it enabled by default.
And so the default configuration file contains
AllowOverride None for most scopes, as Fajita
noted.
<b3g1nn3r> So what should I have it set to?
<DrBacchus> That depends on what you are putting in your
.htaccess file.AllowOverride is not simply turned on or off.
Rather, Apache configuration directives fall into a number of
broad categories, and AllowOverride allows you to
permit, or not permit, these categories of directives in
.htaccess files.
Here are those categories, and what they mean:
AuthConfig |
Directives related to authentication, such as
AuthName and Require. |
|---|---|
FileInfo |
Directives about the file type, such as MIME type (e.g.,
AddType) or language (e.g.,
LanguagePriority). |
Indexes |
Directives relating to automatic directory listings, such
as DirectoryIndex and
ReadmeName. |
Limit |
Directives limiting access by host address (i.e.,
Order, Allow, and
Deny). |
Options |
Allows the setting of the Options directive,
and also the use of the XBitHack directive. |
<b3g1nn3r> AllowOverride All?
<fajita> AllowOverride All is a really bad idea, because
it implies AllowOverride Options, which lets people do stuff
like Options FollowSymlinks and Options ExecCGI, even though
they are explicitly disabled in the main config. While Fajita's opinion here is not necessarily the only view
on the matter, it does reflect a common theme in sysadmining.
Namely, only turn on the stuff that you need. There are probably
cases where AllowOverride All is appropriate. But
usually, what you really want to do is determine what is actually
needed, and set AllowOverride to permit just the
directives you are actually using. For example, if you are
using the .htaccess file just to set a MIME type in
a particular directory, then it is sufficient to set
AllowOverride FileInfo.
<b3g1nn3r> So, how do I know what to set AllowOverride to
in a given situation?
<DrBacchus> You look in the Apache documentation for that
particular directive, and see what the Override
field says. That's what you have to set
AllowOverride to in order to permit that
directive, and other related directives.And, of course, some directives aren't allowed in
.htaccess files at all. When considering a
particular directive, there are two things that you should look
for in the documentation. For example, if we look in the docs for
the AuthType directive, we see the following:
AuthTypeDirective
The two pieces of information we're interested in here
are the Context line, which says that this
directive is permitted in .htaccess files, and the
Override line, which says that
AllowOverride would need to be set to
AuthConfig in order for that to be permitted.
Many directives can't be put in .htaccess files
at all. For example, it wouldn't make much sense to change the
ServerName or Port of a server on a
per-directory basis.
<b3g1nn3r> Oh, thanks. Setting AllowOverride to the
correct value made my .htaccess file work. Thanks for your
help!
<-- b3g1nn3r has left #apacheOf course, we never did know what b3g1nn3r was trying to do with his .htaccess file, but, in this particular case, it didn't actually matter.
In summary, here's what we learned:
Apache's default configuration file contains
AllowOverride None, which causes .htaccess files to get ignored.Each Apache configuration directive has documentation that tells you whether you can put that directive in a .htaccess file at all, and, if so, what you need to set
AllowOverridein order to permit it.
Stay tuned. Next month we'll tackle another common Apache dilemma.
Rich Bowen is a member of the Apache Software Foundation, working primarily on the documentation for the Apache Web Server. DrBacchus, Rich's handle on IRC, can be found on the web at www.drbacchus.com/journal.
O'Reilly & Associates recently released (November 2003) Apache Cookbook.
Sample Chapter 9, "Error Handling," is available free online.
You can also look at the Table of Contents, the Index, and the full description of the book.
For more information, or to order the book, click here.
Return to Apache DevCenter.
You must be logged in to the O'Reilly Network to post a talkback.
Showing messages 1 through 10 of 10.
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the #apache clinic
2003-12-04 17:25:35 anonymous2 [Reply | View]
Speaking as another regular on #apache ...
My observation is that we have two distinct types of newbie on #apache, those who are prepared to help themselves, and those who expect to be spoonfed every last detail. The first category (usually) find us friendly and helpful, while the second are annoying and sometimes go on complaining about lack of help after everyone has given up on them. DrBacchus is exceptionally patient, even with the idiots. -
the #apache clinic
2003-12-05 01:25:34 anonymous2 [Reply | View]
> DrBacchus is exceptionally patient, even with the idiots.
That usuall doesn't last long. Those idiots can squeeze the last bit of patience even from those who had plenty of patience. -
the #apache clinic
2003-12-06 07:56:18 anonymous2 [Reply | View]
It's really all in how you view them. We tend to divide our "clients" into two categories.
There are the folks that need help. These people are not idiots. They simply need assistance. When I go to get my car fixed, I am in exactly the same position that they are in - utterly ignorant, and needing help. If the auto mechanic treated me the way that some folks get treated on IRC, then he'd lose a lot of business. One is no better than these folks because one knows more in one puny little area of knowledge. Conversely, these folks are probably very knowledgeable in an area in which I'm completely ignorant.
Then there are the folks that refuse to be helped - either because they beligerently refuse to provide information, or answer questions, that will assist their solution. Or because they refuse to help themselves by doing stuff like reading documentation. These people are idiots, and deserve only to be ignored. Life is entirely too short to get frustrated with them.
--Rich -
the #apache clinic
2003-12-09 21:55:45 anonymous2 [Reply | View]
" When I go to get my car fixed"
(a) you're paying for that, aren't you?
(b) you don't just tell the mechanic what's wrong - you let him look at it and make an expert diagnosis. Smart newbies provide relevant information and URLs for their servers. -
the #apache clinic
2003-12-11 11:08:52 anonymous2 [Reply | View]
That's a really dumb newbie who gives you their url. Think security. -
the #apache clinic
2003-12-10 05:52:12 anonymous2 [Reply | View]
Well, yeah. That's why I don't use analogies very often. They always break down under pressure.
Hopefully my point was obvious, though.
A large percentage of our audience *don't* give us relevant information, refuse to let us see their config files, and don't describe their problems in any more detail than "it doesn't work," "It's too slow," and the like.
Also, I reject the notion that being paid for it has a lot to do with it. After all, Apache itself is developed on volunteer basis. And, don't tell my boss, but I have a lot more passion about doing this "free" support than I ever do about the support that I get paid for.
--Rich
I guess at some point I should register, rather than keeping posting anonymously. -
the #apache clinic
2003-12-06 07:55:35 anonymous2 [Reply | View]
For DrBacchus, the patience lasts way beyond what the rest of the 4 or 5 other helpful/clueful people in the channel could drum up together.
But then again - #apache has to be a nice and quiet thing compared to sysadm on SCO boxes or having your editor ranting about deadlines.
The most annoying behaveour (apart from the occasional trolls) we have to deal with are people stating a question (without first saying hi usually) then leaving 10 seconds later while you're typing an answer.
This now happens so often that many ops and longtime members just wait a few minutes before answering a question of an unknown user to see if they're persistent enough to wait.