HowTo Compile Apache 1.3 for MKDoc

Following are instructions for installing apache and mod_perl by compiling them from source for a back-end MKDoc server and using Apache 2.x as a front facing proxy.

Compiling Apache 1.3.x from source is generally needed for MKDoc (Apache 2.x which comes with many GNU/Linux distros is not suitable), see the mod_perl site for more details.

See the mod_gzip instructions for running Apache 1.3.x without a Apache 2.x proxy.

Apache, mod_ssl and mod_perl

The following assumes that you have openssl-devel packages installed already and in their default locations, if not see the mod_perl and mod_ssl instructions on perl.apache.org for using a source disto of openssl.

Download the source code

The latest apache 1.3.x can be downloaded from here: http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi

The latest mod_ssl from here: http://www.modssl.org/source/

The latest mod_perl from here: http://perl.apache.org/download/

wget ftp://mirror.positive-internet.com/apache/httpd/apache_1.3.33.tar.gz
wget ftp://mirror.positive-internet.com/apache/httpd/apache_1.3.33.tar.gz.asc
wget http://www.modssl.org/source/mod_ssl-2.8.24-1.3.33.tar.gz
wget http://www.modssl.org/source/mod_ssl-2.8.24-1.3.33.tar.gz.asc
wget http://perl.apache.org/dist/mod_perl-1.29.tar.gz
wget http://perl.apache.org/dist/mod_perl-1.29.tar.gz.asc

Check the sigs

gpg --recv-key 08C975E5
gpg --verify apache_1.3.33.tar.gz.asc
gpg --recv-key 26BB437D
gpg --verify mod_ssl-2.8.24-1.3.33.tar.gz.asc
gpg --recv-key 88C3A5A5
gpg --verify mod_perl-1.29.tar.gz.asc

Uncompress and extract

tar -zxvf apache_1.3.33.tar.gz
tar -zxvf mod_ssl-2.8.24-1.3.33.tar.gz
tar -zxvf mod_perl-1.29.tar.gz

Make and install

Make and install mod_perl with mod_gzip and apache:

cd mod_ssl-2.8.24-1.3.33
./configure --with-apache=../apache_1.3.33
cd ../mod_perl-1.29
perl Makefile.PL APACHE_SRC=../apache_1.3.33/src \
  DO_HTTPD=1 EVERYTHING=1 USE_APACI=1 \
  APACI_ARGS='--enable-module=ssl'
make
make test
su
make install
cd ../apache_1.3.33
make install

Using mod_rewrite and Apache 2

If you want the Apache 2.x that comes with your distro to remain installed then one way to do this is to run the MKDoc Apache on a high port such as 8080 and use mod_rewrite to send requests on port 80 there.

Note that is has advantages: the ‘front-end’ apache-2.x deals with slow-clients and can perform content compression and encryption, this leaves the ‘backend’ apache-1.3 as a dedicated mod_perl server. This backend doesn't need to be compiled with mod_ssl or mod_gzip.

This is an example conf file that could be dropped into /etc/httpd/conf.d/ on a Fedora / RedHat distro:

# Editor: vim:syn=apache
#
# the mkdoc apache is in /usr/local/apache
# and the site is in /var/mkdoc/sites/example.org
#
<VirtualHost *:80>
 ServerName            www.example.org
 ServerAlias           example.org
 ServerAlias           users.example.org
 ServerAdmin           admin@example.org
 RewriteEngine On
 RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^users\.
 RewriteRule /?(.*) http://users.example.org:8080/$1 [P,L]
 RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.
 RewriteRule /?(.*) http://www.example.org:8080/$1 [P,L]
 RewriteRule /?(.*) http://www.example.org/$1 [R=permanent,L]
 ErrorLog logs/example-error_log
 CustomLog logs/example-access_log combined
</VirtualHost>

If you drop this file into the /etc/httpd/conf.d/ directory as deflate.conf then the front end Apache 2.x will do compression:

# Editor: vim:syn=apache
#
# mod deflate
<Location />
 # More info: http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/mod/mod_deflate.html
 #
 # Insert filter
 SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
 #
 # Netscape 4.x has some problems...
 BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html
 #
 # Netscape 4.06-4.08 have some more problems
 BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip
 #
 # MSIE masquerades as Netscape, but it is fine
 BrowserMatch \bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html
 # NOTE: Due to a bug in mod_setenvif up to Apache 2.0.48
 # the above regex won't work. You can use the following
 # workaround to get the desired effect:
 # BrowserMatch \bMSI[E] !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html
 #
 # Don't compress images or PDFs
 SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \
   \.(?:gif|jpe?g|png|pdf)$ no-gzip dont-vary
 #
 # Don't compress compressed data
 SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \
   \.(?:exe|t?gz|zip|bz2|sit|rar)$ no-gzip dont-vary
 #
 # Don't compress compressed music,  mp3's and ogg
 SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \
   \.(?:mp3|ogg)$ no-gzip dont-vary
 #
 # Make sure proxies don't deliver the wrong content
 Header append Vary User-Agent env=!dont-vary
</Location>

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