"Apache: The Definitive Guide, 3rd Edition"

Reviewed by: Alton R. Pouncey

SCSA, SCNA, CCNA, CIW Professional
Assisting the SOHO with Linux and wireless networks since 2000.

Having read other O'Reilly books, I was prepared for this book to not be for novice level readers, who have never set up a web server before. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered quite the opposite. I would not recommend this book for intermediate or seasoned veteran web site administrators, though, unless you just want a reference manual nearby. I did like the fact that the main directives that you need to work with were presented in a "dead tree" format and so constant reference to the online documentation was not necessary. However, I was not pleased with the lack of depth concerning version 2.x of Apache. Most of the directives and examples deal with version 1.3.x and while this is not necessarily a bad thing, it would have been refreshing to see the authors deal more with the emerging technology of version 2.x. As is typical with most any technical manual, there were quite a few typos and some outright incorrect information in a few places. Whether this is due to the authors' actual manuscript or caused in editing, I do not know but some of the bits of incorrect information are glaring. For example, in laying out the explanation of the Anonymous_NoUserID directive, there is contradictory information regarding the behavior of this directive just a few paragraphs later.

Another glaring lack of information, in my opinion, was Chapter 15: PHP. There are only 5 pages devoted to the subject. This edition was published in December, 2002, when version 4.3.0 of PHP was released, allowing plenty of time to at least write half as much about PHP as the authors did about CGI and Perl (Chapter 16, 43 pages in length). And in this chapter, the authors use register_globals in their example script, which according to the PHP NEWS file (similar to a Changelog in other software), is a big NO NO:

• 22 Apr 2002, Version 4.2.0

     - ATTENTION!! register_globals defaults to 'off' now !!!

Register_globals should not be used in PHP scripts for the same reason the authors stress to use the taint flag in Perl scripts - to prevent malicious data or programs being sent by "The Bad Guys" in disguise in your scripts. I was pleased with the depth of attention paid to SSL in Chapter 11. Again, in my opinion, this is a good reason to have a "dead tree" version of the SSL directives on my bookshelf rather than having to constantly refer to the online manual.

Chapter 12: Running a Big Web Site, was a complete waste of paper to me. Except for the issue of load balancing, this chapter barely touched only a few of the facets of running a large website. This chapter needed either to be expanded a great deal or not written at all. I did learn a great deal about mod_perl and what it can do for a site. I had been planning to experiment with mod_perl for some time and this has given me a reason to do so.

Overall, I give this book a 3 out of 5 rating. It is not the best book I have read regarding Apache and integrating it with various languages and databases but it is not completely lacking in infor- mation either. I do hope the authors expand on the use of Apache 2.x in the fourth edition and spend less time on version 1.3.x.