Complile and install Apache

Complile and install Apache
Here i am explaining the steps to setup a LAMP server. I am hre using CentOS 5.8 64 bit to setup LAMP. There will be similar variations in other OS in LINUX. I think this will work in most of the CentOS versions.

Apache

Preliminary Checking Installations for Apache

In most of the CentOS installations httpd may be installed by default. It is better to remove those installation at first.

[root@vps ~]# rpm -q httpd
httpd-2.2.3-65.el5.centos

The following command will uninstall httpd-2.2.3-65.el5.centos rpm package.

[root@vps ~]# rpm -e httpd-2.2.3-65.el5.centos
It is needed to install the necessary compilers to use the make command. The following comand will help you to install the necessary packages.
[root@vps ~]# yum install gcc gcc-c++ -y
It is needed to Install APR and APR-UTIL packages to install Apache.

Install APR

[root@vps ~]# cd /usr/local/src
[root@vps src]# wget http://apache.techartifact.com/mirror//apr/apr-1.4.6.tar.gz
[root@vps src]# tar -xzf apr-1.4.6.tar.gz
[root@vps src]# cd apr-1.4.6
[root@vps apr-1.4.6]# ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apr
[root@vps apr-1.4.6]# make
[root@vps apr-1.4.6]# make install
Install APR-UTIL

[root@vps ~]# cd /usr/local/src
[root@vps src]# wget http://apache.techartifact.com/mirror//apr/apr-util-1.5.2.tar.gz
[root@vps src]# tar -xzf apr-util-1.5.2.tar.gz
[root@vps src]# cd apr-util-1.5.2
[root@vps apr-util-1.5.2]# ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apr-util --with-apr=/usr/local/apr/bin/apr-1-config
[root@vps apr-util-1.5.2]# make
[root@vps apr-util-1.5.2]# make install

Compile and Install Apache 2.2.x

[root@vps ~]# cd /usr/local/src
[root@vps src]# wget http://apache.techartifact.com/mirror//httpd/httpd-2.2.24.tar.gz
[root@vps src]# tar -xzf httpd-2.2.24.tar.gz
[root@vps src]# cd httpd-2.2.24

[root@vps httpd-2.2.24]# ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache --with-apr=/usr/local/apr/bin/apr-1-config --with-apr-util=/usr/local/apr-util/bin/apu-1-config --enable-ssl=/usr/include/openssl --enable-rewrite --enable-deflate --enable-suexec

*** You can check the option available for the configuration using the following command. As per your need, you can add new modules.

[root@vps httpd-2.2.24]# ./configure --help

[root@vps httpd-2.2.24]# make
[root@vps httpd-2.2.24]# make install

The following command will enable you to use use httpd command instead of giving full path of apachectl.

[root@vps httpd-2.2.24]# ln -s /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl /usr/bin/httpd
Once you have done the above configuration and the creating the symbolic link, You can check the settings of Apache using the following commands.
[root@vps ~]# httpd -M
[root@vps ~]# httpd -V

Compile and Install Apache 2.4.4

***I have noted that in Apache 2.4.x, suphp-0.7.1 cannot compile with any of the php version. There no development in suphp after 2009-03-14. So i personally do not recommend Apache 2.4.x at this time.
***Also I have noted that there are some issues in Apache 2.4.x with PHP5.2.x. So think before using Apache 2.4.x in your server.

[root@vps ~]# cd /usr/local/src
[root@vps src]# wget http://apache.techartifact.com/mirror//httpd/httpd-2.4.4.tar.bz2
[root@vps src]# tar -xjf httpd-2.4.4.tar.bz2
[root@vps src]# cd httpd-2.4.4

[root@vps httpd-2.4.4]# ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache --enable-load-all-modules --with-apr=/usr/local/apr/bin/apr-1-config --with-apr-util=/usr/local/apr-util/bin/apu-1-config --with-pcre=/usr/local/pcre/bin/pcre-config

[root@vps httpd-2.4.4]# make
[root@vps httpd-2.4.4]# make install

The following command will enable you to use use httpd command instead of giving full path of apachectl.

[root@vps httpd-2.2.24]# ln -s /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl /usr/bin/httpd
Once you have done the above configuration and the creating the symbolic link, You can check the settings of Apache using the following commands.
[root@vps ~]# httpd -M
[root@vps ~]# httpd -V
Notes:-

It is needed to install pcre to install apache2.4.x. Locate if the 'pcre-config' is in your system. If it is not available, you will encounter the following error while the installation of Apache.

Error:
configure: error: pcre-config for libpcre not found. PCRE is required and available from http://pcre.org/

Fix:
============================================================================================

[root@vps ~]# cd /usr/local/src
[root@vps src]# wget ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/pcre-8.32.tar.gz
[root@vps src]# tar -xzf pcre-8.32.tar.gz
[root@vps src]# cd pcre-8.32
[root@vps pcre-8.32]# ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/pcre
[root@vps pcre-8.32]# make
[root@vps pcre-8.32]# make install
============================================================================================

Create A startup Script for httpd
Create a file /etc/init.d/httpd with the following contents in it. You have to give the pid file location, httpd and apachectl correctly in the script to run the script.
Here in my case, these are the settings.

[root@vps ~]# locate httpd.pid
/var/run/httpd.pid

================================================================================
#!/bin/bash
#
# Startup script for the Apache Web Server
#
# chkconfig: - 85 15
# description: Apache is a World Wide Web server. It is used to serve \
# HTML files and CGI.
# processname: httpd
# pidfile: /var/run/httpd.pid
# config: /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf

# Source function library.
. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions

if [ -f /etc/sysconfig/httpd ]; then
. /etc/sysconfig/httpd
fi

# This will prevent initlog from swallowing up a pass-phrase prompt if
# mod_ssl needs a pass-phrase from the user.
INITLOG_ARGS=""

# Path to the apachectl script, server binary, and short-form for messages.
apachectl=/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl
httpd=/usr/local/apache/bin/httpd
pid=/var/run/httpd.pid
prog=httpd
RETVAL=0
# The semantics of these two functions differ from the way apachectl does
# things -- attempting to start while running is a failure, and shutdown
# when not running is also a failure. So we just do it the way init scripts
# are expected to behave here.
start() {
echo -n $"Starting $prog: "
daemon $httpd $OPTIONS
RETVAL=$?
echo
[ $RETVAL = 0 ] && touch /var/lock/subsys/httpd
return $RETVAL
}
stop() {
echo -n $"Stopping $prog: "
killproc $httpd
RETVAL=$?
echo
[ $RETVAL = 0 ] && rm -f /var/lock/subsys/httpd $pid
}
reload() {
echo -n $"Reloading $prog: "
killproc $httpd -HUP
RETVAL=$?
echo
}

# See how we were called.
case "$1" in
start)
start
;;
stop)
stop
;;
status)
status $httpd
RETVAL=$?
;;
restart)
stop
start
;;
condrestart)
if [ -f $pid ] ; then
stop
start
fi
;;
reload)
reload
;;
graceful|help|configtest|fullstatus)
$apachectl $@
RETVAL=$?
;;
*)
echo $"Usage: $prog {start|stop|restart|condrestart|reload|status"
echo $"|fullstatus|graceful|help|configtest}"
exit 1
esac

exit $RETVAL
================================================================================
[root@vps ~]# chmod +x /etc/init.d/httpd
[root@vps ~]# chkconfig --add httpd
[root@vps ~]# chkconfig httpd on

This will enable you to start and stop apache using the following commands

[root@vps ~]# /etc/init.d/httpd start
[root@vps ~]# /etc/init.d/httpd stop