ServersAn Introduction to Apache 2.0 Page 2

An Introduction to Apache 2.0 Page 2

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This
abstraction had an unexpected benefit as well:
it allows Apache to be configured for a specific site
depending on the Webmaster’s requirements. When the work began on
UNIX, MPMs the
developers couldn’t agree on the correct design. Three MPMs have
been developed so far prefork,
mpmt_pthread, and dexter. The prefork MPM does exactly what Apache
1.3 does it acts as a
pre-forking server. Mpmt_pthread stands for multi-threaded
multi-process pthread server. When
this MPM was first written, it required that pthreads was used as the
threading library. However, it is now taking advantage of the Apache
Portable Run-Time to abstract out the threading library. The name
has unfortunately remained. This is the initial version of a
hybrid thread/process server for UNIX. This MPM also preforks a
specified number of processes. Each of these processes then creates a
specified number of threads which serve the requests. In this MPM,
the number of threads per process is static. Finally, the dexter MPM
was created. This MPM creates a specified number of child processes,
which then each create a small pool of threads. As more requests
come in, the size of that pool of threads grows and shrinks to
accommodate the requests.

Modifications to Modules

Since
this article started with a new type of module, the obvious next
topic is a module that Apache users everywhere are familiar with, the
standard Apache module. These are the modules that people use
to add capabilities such as authorization checking to a server.
There have been a few modifications made to standard modules which
module writers need to be aware of.

One
of the most frequent complaints by new module authors about Apache
1.3 is that the initializer hook is called twice. This issue has
been resolved in Apache 2.0, as the initializer hook has been removed
completely. Instead of using one hook, Apache 2.0 has
provided two hooks: pre_config and post_config. In the third alpha
of 2.0, only MPMs could take advantage of pre_config hooks. That
issue is currently being resolved and all modules should have access
to the pre_config hook with the release of Apache 2.0 alpha 4.

The
configuration method for Apache has also changed with Apache 2.0.
This affects how some directives are defined and how some modules
must use the new pre_config hook.

The
biggest change between 1.3 and 2.0 when it comes to configuration is
that in 1.3, Apache configures the server one line at a time as it is
read from the configuration file. In Apache 2.0, each line is read
from the configuration file and is stored in a configuration tree.
The tree is then traversed and each directive is executed.

If the module you are writing has a directive that modifies how the
server interprets the configuration it should be declared with the
EXEC_ON_READ flag on in the req_override mask. This tells Apache 2.0
to execute the appropriate function when this directive is read
instead of when walking the tree. Very few functions should use this
flag, but if the directive
needs to read in raw text from the configuration file or process a
whole block of configuration text, this flag provides a way to do
that.

Once the
configuration is read into the tree structure, the pre_config hook is
called. This provides a way for modules to modify the tree before it
is traversed. Once all of the modules have run their pre-config
hooks, the core walks the tree and finishes configuring the server.

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