Specifications

Apache will be listening to port 80 (unless you changed the Port, Listen, or BindAddress direc-
tives in the configuration files) after it starts. To connect to the server and access the default
page, launch a browser and enter this URL:
http://localhost/
This should respond with a welcome page similar to that shown in Figure A.1, 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. If your host isn’t connected to the Internet, you might have to use this URL:
http://127.0.0.1/
This is the IP address that means localhost.
If you have changed the port number from 80, you will need to append
:port_number on the
end of the URL.
Note that Apache CANNOT share the same port with another TCP/IP application.
Differences Between Apache for Windows and UNIX
Here are the main differences between Apache for Windows and Apache for UNIX:
• Apache for Windows is multithreaded, but it does not use a separate process for each
request, as with UNIX. Instead there are usually only two Apache processes running: a
parent process and a child, which handles the requests. Within the child, a separate
thread handles each request. So, process management directives are different.
• The directives that accept filenames as arguments now must use Windows filenames
instead of UNIX ones. However, because Apache uses UNIX-style names internally, you
must use forward slashes, not backslashes. Drive letters can be used; if omitted, the drive
with the Apache executable will be assumed.
• Apache for Windows has the capability to load modules at runtime, without recompiling
the server. If Apache is compiled normally, it will install a number of optional modules
in the \modules directory. To activate these, or other modules, the new 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/mod_status.so
See the online manual for details at
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_so.html#loadmodule
• Apache for Windows version 1.3 series is implemented in synchronous calls. This poses
an enormous problem for CGI authors, who won’t see unbuffered results sent immedi-
ately to the browser. This is not the behavior described for CGI in Apache, but it is a
Appendixes
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