HowTo Compile Apache 1.3 for MKDoc

Following are instructions for installing apache and mod_perl with mod_gzip by compiling them from source, this 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.

Apache, mod_perl and mod_gzip

Download the source code

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

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

And mod_gzip from here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mod-gzip/

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://perl.apache.org/dist/mod_perl-1.29.tar.gz
wget http://perl.apache.org/dist/mod_perl-1.29.tar.gz.asc
wget http://heanet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/mod-gzip/mod_gzip-1.3.26.1a.tgz

Check the sigs

gpg --recv-key 08C975E5
gpg --verify apache_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_perl-1.29.tar.gz
tar -zxvf mod_gzip-1.3.26.1a.tgz

Copy mod_gzip source into the apache source tree and edit the Makefile.tmpl:

mkdir apache_1.3.33/src/modules/gzip
cp mod_gzip-1.3.26.1a/*.c apache_1.3.33/src/modules/gzip/
cp mod_gzip-1.3.26.1a/*.h apache_1.3.33/src/modules/gzip/
cp mod_gzip-1.3.26.1a/Makefile.tmpl apache_1.3.33/src/modules/gzip/
vi apache_1.3.33/src/modules/gzip/Makefile.tmpl
:1,$s/LIB=libgzip.\$(LIBEXT)/LIB=libgzip.a/

Make and install

Make and install mod_perl with mod_gzip and apache:

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='--activate-module=src/modules/gzip/mod_gzip.c'
make
make test
su
make install
cd ../apache_1.3.33
make install

Configure mod_gzip

Add this to /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf:

# mod_gzip
<IfModule mod_gzip.c>
  mod_gzip_on Yes
  mod_gzip_item_include handler ^perl-script$
  mod_gzip_item_include mime text/html
  mod_gzip_item_include mime text/plain
  mod_gzip_item_include mime text/css
  mod_gzip_item_include mime application/xml
  mod_gzip_dechunk yes
  mod_gzip_min_http 1000
  mod_gzip_temp_dir /tmp
  mod_gzip_keep_workfiles No
  mod_gzip_minimum_file_size  1000
  mod_gzip_maximum_file_size  0
  mod_gzip_maximum_inmem_size 1000000
  mod_gzip_can_negotiate Yes
</IfModule>

Start Apache

Apache can now be started:

/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl start

And if you want it to start after a reboot you can add this to /etc/rc.local (sourcing the mksetenv.sh script is essential for MKDoc to work properly and you chould change the path to whereever you have MKDoc installed):

source /var/mkdoc/mksetenv.sh
/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl start

Apache, mod_ssl, mod_perl and mod_gzip

Using mod_rewrite and Apache 2

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

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

#Editor: vim:syn=apache
#
# the mkdoc apache is in /usr/local/apache
# and the site is in /var/mkdoc/sites/example.org
#
<VirtualHost 192.168.0.1:80>
 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>