Using Apache With Novell NetWare

This document explains how to install, configure and run Apache 2.0 under Novell NetWare 5.x and above. If you find any bugs, or wish to contribute in other ways, please use our bug reporting page.

The bug reporting page and dev-httpd mailing list are not provided to answer questions about configuration or running Apache. Before you submit a bug report or request, first consult this document, the Frequently Asked Questions page and the other relevant documentation topics. If you still have a question or problem, post it to the novell.devsup.webserver newsgroup, where many Apache users are more than willing to answer new and obscure questions about using Apache on NetWare.

Most of this document assumes that you are installing Apache from a binary distribution. If you want to compile Apache yourself (possibly to help with development, or to track down bugs), see the section on Compiling Apache for NetWare below.

Requirements
Downloading Apache for NetWare
Installing Apache for NetWare
Running Apache for NetWare
Configuring Apache for NetWare
Compiling Apache for NetWare

Requirements

Apache 2.0 is designed to run on NetWare 5.x and above.

If running on NetWare 5.0 you must install Service Pack 7 or above.

If running on NetWare 5.1 you must install Service Pack 4 or above.

If running on NetWare 6 you must install Service Pack 1 or above.

NetWare service packs are available here.

Downloading Apache for NetWare

Information on the latest version of Apache can be found on the Apache web server at http://www.apache.org/. This will list the current release, any more recent alpha or beta-test releases, together with details of mirror web and anonymous ftp sites.

Installing Apache for NetWare

There is no Apache install program for NetWare currently. You will need to compile apache and copy the files over to the server manually. An install program will be posted at a later date.

Follow these steps to install Apache on NetWare from the binary download (assuming you will install to sys:/apache2):

Unzip the binary download file to the root of the SYS: volume (may be installed to any volume)
Edit the httpd.conf file setting ServerRoot and ServerName to reflect your correct server settings
Add SYS:/APACHE2 to the search path. EXAMPLE: SEARCH ADD SYS:\APACHE2

Follow these steps to install Apache on NetWare manually from your own build source (assuming you will install to sys:/apache):

Create a directory called Apache2 on a NetWare volume
Copy APACHE2.NLM, APRLIB.NLM, HTDIGEST.NLM, HTPASSWD.NLM to SYS:/APACHE2
Create a directory under SYS:/APACHE2 called CONF
Copy the HTTPD-STD.CONF file to the SYS:/APACHE2/CONF directory and rename to HTTPD.CONF
Copy the MIME.TYPES and MAGIC files to SYS:/APACHE2/CONF directory
Copy all files and subdirectories in \HTTPD-2.0\DOCS\ICONS to SYS:/APACHE2/ICONS
Copy all files and subdirectories in \HTTPD-2.0\DOCS\MANUAL to SYS:/APACHE2/MANUAL
Copy all files and subdirectories in \HTTPD-2.0\DOCS\ERROR to SYS:/APACHE2/ERROR
Copy all files and subdirectories in \HTTPD-2.0\DOCS\DOCROOT to SYS:/APACHE2/HTDOCS
Create the directory SYS:/APACHE2/LOGS on the server
Create the directory SYS:/APACHE2/CGI-BIN on the server
Create the directory SYS:/APACHE2/MODULES and copy all nlm modules into the modules directory
Edit the HTTPD.CONF file searching for all @@Value@@ markers and replacing them with the appropriate setting
Add SYS:/APACHE2 to the search path. EXAMPLE: SEARCH ADD SYS:\APACHE2

Apache may be installed to other volumes besides the default SYS volume.

Running Apache for NetWare

To start Apache just type apache at the console. This will load apache in the OS address space. If you prefer to load Apache in a protected address space you may specify the address space with the load statement as follows:

    load address space = apache2 apache2

This will load Apache into an address space called apache. Running multiple instances of Apache concurrently on NetWare is possible by loading each instance into its own protected address space.

After starting Apache, it will be listening to port 80 (unless you changed the Listen directive in the configuration files). To connect to the server and access the default page, launch a browser and enter the server's name or address. This should respond with a welcome page, and a link to the Apache manual. If nothing happens or you get an error, look in the error_log file in the logs directory.

Once your basic installation is working, you should configure it properly by editing the files in the conf directory.

To unload Apache running in the OS address space just type the following at the console:

    unload apache2

or

    apache2 shutdown

If apache is running in a protected address space specify the address space in the unload statement:

    unload address space = apache2 apache2

When working with Apache it is important to know how it will find the configuration files. You can specify a configuration file on the command line in two ways:

-f specifies a path to a particular configuration file

    apache2 -f "vol:/my server/conf/my.conf"

    apache -f test/test.conf

In these cases, the proper ServerRoot should be set in the configuration file.

If you don't specify a configuration file name with -f, Apache will use the file name compiled into the server, usually "conf/httpd.conf". Invoking Apache with the -V switch will display this value labeled as SERVER_CONFIG_FILE. Apache will then determine its ServerRoot by trying the following, in this order:

A ServerRoot directive via a -C switch.
The -d switch on the command line.
Current working directory
The server root compiled into the server.

The server root compiled into the server is usually "sys:/apache2". invoking apache with the -V switch will display this value labeled as HTTPD_ROOT.

Apache 2.0 for NetWare includes a set of command line directives that can be used to modify or display information about the running instance of the web server. Each of these directives must be preceded by the keyword APACHE2:

RESTART - Instructs Apache to terminate all running worker threads as they become idle, reread the configuration file and restart each worker thread based on the new configuration.
VERSION - Displays version information about the currently running instance of Apache.
MODULES - Displays a list of loaded modules both built-in and external.
DIRECTIVES - Displays a list of all available directives.
SETTINGS - Enables or disables the thread status display on the console. When enabled, a status of the number of running threads is displayed along with their status.
SHUTDOWN - Terminates the running instance of the Apache web server.

Configuring Apache for NetWare

Apache is configured by files in the conf directory. These are the same as files used to configure the Unix version, but there are a few different directives for Apache on NetWare. See the Apache documentation for all the available directives.

The main differences in Apache for NetWare are:

Because Apache for NetWare is multithreaded, it does not use a separate process for each request, as Apache does in some Unix implementations. Instead there are only threads running: a parent thread, and a multiple child threads which handle the requests. So the "process"-management directives are different:

MaxRequestsPerChild - Like the Unix directive, this controls how many requests a worker thread will serve before exiting. The recommended default, MaxRequestsPerChild 0, causes the thread to continue servicing request indefinitely. It is recommended on NetWare, unless there is some specific reason, that this directive always remain set to 0.

StartThreads - This directive tells the server how many threads it should start initially. The recommended default is StartThreads 50.

MinSpareThreads - This directive instructs the server to spawn additional worker threads if the number of idle threads ever falls below this value. The recommended default is MinSpareThreads 10.

MaxSpareThreads - This directive instructs the server to begin terminating worker threads if the number of idle threads ever exceeds this value. The recommended default is MaxSpareThreads 100.

MaxThreads - This directive limits the total number of work threads to a maximum value. The recommended default is ThreadsPerChild 250.

ThreadStackSize - This directive tells the server what size of stack to use for the individual worker thread. The recommended default is ThreadStackSize 65536.
The directives that accept filenames as arguments now must use NetWare filenames instead of Unix ones. However, because Apache uses Unix-style names internally, you must use forward slashes, not backslashes. It is recommended that all rooted file paths begin with a volume name. If omitted, Apache will assume the SYS: volume.
Apache for NetWare has the ability to load modules at runtime, without recompiling the server. If Apache is compiled normally, it will install a number of optional modules in the \Apache2\modules directory. To activate these, or other modules, the LoadModule directive must be used. For example, to active the status module, use the following (in addition to the status-activating directives in access.conf):
```
    LoadModule status_module modules/status.nlm
```
Information on creating loadable modules is also available.

Compiling Apache for NetWare

Compiling Apache requires MetroWerks CodeWarrior 6.x or higher to be properly installed.

First, unpack the Apache distribution into an appropriate directory. Then go to the httpd and httpd/srclib/apr subdirectories of the Apache distribution and unzip the files ApacheNW.mcp.zip and libaprnw.mcp.zip respectively. You may use a recent version of WinZip to accomplish this. The main Metrowerks project files for Apache (ApacheNW.mcp)and the Apache Portable Runtime (libaprnw.mcp) are now ready to use. Just double click on them from within explorer and they should automatically launch the MetroWerks CodeWarrior IDE.

All major pieces of Apache and APR are built using the ApacheNW.mcp and LibAprNW.mcp project files. This includes modules such as status, info, proxy, etc.

Once Apache has been built, it needs to be installed on a NetWare volume's root directory. The default is the sys:/Apache2 directory.

Before running the server you must fill out the conf directory. Copy the file HTTPD-STD.CONF from the distribution conf directory and rename it to HTTPD.CONF. Edit the HTTPD.CONF file searching for all @@Value@@ markers and replacing them with the appropriate setting. Copy over the conf/magic and conf/mime.types files as well.

Requirements:

The following development tools are required to build Apache 2.0 for NetWare:

Metrowerks CodeWarrior 6.0 or higher with the NetWare PDK 3.0 or higher.
NetWare Libraries for C (LibC)
WinSock 2 Developer Components for NetWare
AWK utility (awk, gawk or similar.) Brian Kernighan's http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/bwk/ site has a compiled native Win32 binary, http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/bwk/awk95.exe. The utility must be found in your windows path and must be rename to awk.exe.

Building Apache using the Metrowerks Project Files:

Set the environment variable "NovellLibC" to the location of the NetWare Libraries for C SDK (ex. Set NovellLibC=c:\novell\ndk\libc).
Make sure that the path to the CodeWarrior command line tools (MWCCNLM.exe, MWLDNLM.exe) has been included in the system's PATH environment variable.
Make sure that the path to the AWK utility has been included in the system's PATH environment variable.
Download the source code and unzip to an appropriate directory on your workstation.
Change directory to \httpd\srclib\apr\build and run the batch file prebuildnw.bat. The batch file will setup the build environment for building the APR libraries. It will also run 2 AWK scripts that will generate the export files for APR.
Change directory to \httpd\srclib\apr and extract the project file LIBAPRNW.mcp from the LIBAPRNW.mcp.zip file.
Open the LIBAPRNW.mcp project file in the Metrowerks IDE.
Select the target "Build Util - Gen URL Delim" and build the target. This target will produce the NLM "GENURI.nlm"
Copy the file GENURI.nlm to the SYS: volume of a NetWare server and run using the following command:
- SYS:\genuri > sys:\uri_delims.h
Copy the file "uri_delims.h" to the directory \httpd\srclib\apr-util\uri on the build machine.
Select the target "APR Debug NLM" or "APR Release NLM" in the IDE and build. This will produce the file APRLIB.nlm.
- OPTIONAL: Select any of the LIB targets to produce a statically linkable libraries.
Change directory to \httpd\build and run the batch file prebuildnw.bat. This batch file will setup the build environment for building the APACHE.nlm. It will also run several AWK scripts that will generate the export files for APACHE.
Change directory to \http and extract the project file ApacheNW.mcp from the ApacheNW.mcp.zip file.
Open the ApacheNW.mcp project file in the Metrowerks IDE.
Select the target "Build Utility - DFTables" and build the target.
Select the target "Build Util - Gen Test Chars" and build the target.
Copy the files "GENCHARS.nlm" and "DFTABLES.nlm" to the SYS: volume of a NetWare server and run using the following commands:
- SYS:\genchars > sys:\test_char.h
- SYS:\dftables > sys:\chartables.c
Copy the files "test_char.h" and "chartables.c" to the directory \httpd\os\netware on the build machine.
Select the target "Apache Full Debug" or "Apache Full Release" in the IDE and build. This will produce the file APACHE2.nlm along with all of the external module NLMs.