Overview of new features in Apache 2.0

Enhancements:

Core Enhancements
Module Enhancements

Core Enhancements

This document describes some of the major changes between the + 1.3 and 2.0 versions of the Apache HTTP Server.

Core Enhancements
Module Enhancements

Core Enhancements

Unix Threading
Unix Threading: On Unix systems with POSIX threads support, Apache can now run in a hybrid multiprocess, multithreaded mode. This improves scalability for many, but not all configurations.
New Build System
New Build System: The build system has been rewritten from scratch to be based on autoconf and libtool. This makes Apache's configuration system more similar to that of other packages.
Multiprotocol Support
Multiprotocol Support: Apache now has some of the infrastructure in place to support serving multiple protocols. mod_echo has been written as an example.
Better support for non-Unix - platforms
Better support for non-Unix + platforms: Apache 2.0 is faster and more stable on non-Unix platforms such as BeOS, OS/2, and Windows. With the @@ -39,7 +40,7 @@ implemented in their native API, avoiding the often buggy and poorly performing POSIX-emulation layers.
New Apache API
New Apache API: The API for modules has changed significantly for 2.0. Many of the module-ordering/-priority problems from 1.3 should @@ -48,7 +49,7 @@ have been added that provide additional module capabilities without patching the core Apache server.
IPv6 Support
IPv6 Support: On systems where IPv6 is supported by the underlying Apache Portable Runtime library, Apache gets IPv6 listening @@ -56,29 +57,33 @@ IPv6 numeric address strings (e.g., "Listen [fe80::1]:8080").
Filtering
Filtering: Apache modules may now be written as filters which act on the stream of content as it is delivered to or from the - server. This allows, for example, the output of CGI scripts - to be parsed for Server Side Include directives using the - INCLUDES filter in mod_include.
Multilanguage Error Responses
Multilanguage Error Responses: Error response messages to the browser are now provided in several languages, using SSI documents. They may be customized by the administrator to achieve a consistent look and feel.
Simplified configuration
Simplified configuration: Many confusing directives have been simplified. The often confusing Port and BindAddress directives are gone; only the - Listen directive is used for IP address binding; the - ServerName directive specifies the server name and port number - only for redirection and vhost recognition.
Native Windows NT Unicode Support
Native Windows NT Unicode Support: Apache 2.0 on Windows NT now uses utf-8 for all filename encodings. These directly translate to the underlying Unicode @@ -87,57 +92,79 @@ This support does not extend to Windows 95, 98 or ME, which continue to use the machine's local codepage for filesystem access.
Regular Expression Library Updated: Apache 2.0 includes the Perl + Compatible Regular Expression Library (PCRE). All regular + expression evaluation now uses the more powerful Perl 5 + syntax.

Module Enhancements

mod_ssl
mod_ssl: New module in Apache 2.0. This module is an interface to the SSL/TLS encryption protocols provided by OpenSSL.
mod_dav
mod_dav: New module in Apache 2.0. This module implements the HTTP Distributed Authoring and Versioning (DAV) specification for posting and maintaining web content.
mod_auth_digest
mod_deflate: New module in Apache 2.0. This module allows supporting + browsers to request that content be compressed before delivery, + saving network bandwidth.
mod_auth_ldap: New module in Apache 2.0.41. This module allows an LDAP + database to be used to store credentials for HTTP Basic + Authentication. A companion module, mod_ldap + provides connection pooling and results caching.
mod_auth_digest: Includes additional support for session caching across processes using shared memory.
mod_charset_lite
mod_charset_lite: New module in Apache 2.0. This experimental module allows for character set translation or recoding.
mod_file_cache
mod_file_cache: New module in Apache 2.0. This module includes the functionality of mod_mmap_static in Apache 1.3, plus adds further caching abilities.
mod_headers
mod_headers: This module is much more flexible in Apache 2.0. It can - now modify request headers used by mod_proxy, and it can - conditionally set response headers.; This module is much more flexible in Apache 2.0. It can now + modify request headers used by mod_proxy, and + it can conditionally set response headers.
mod_proxy
mod_proxy: The proxy module has been completely rewritten to take advantage - of the new filter infrastructure and to implement a more - reliable, HTTP/1.1 compliant proxy. In addition, new - <Proxy> configuration sections provide more readable - (and internally faster) control of proxied sites; overloaded - <Directory "proxy:..."> configuration are not supported. The - module is now divided into specific protocol support modules - including proxy_connect, proxy_ftp and proxy_http.; The proxy module has been completely rewritten to take + advantage of the new filter infrastructure and to implement a + more reliable, HTTP/1.1 compliant proxy. In addition, new + <Proxy> + configuration sections provide more readable (and internally + faster) control of proxied sites; overloaded <Directory + "proxy:..."> configuration are not supported. The module is + now divided into specific protocol support modules including + proxy_connect, proxy_ftp and proxy_http.
mod_negotiation
mod_negotiation: A new ForceLanguagePriority directive can be used to assure that the client receives a single document in all cases, rather than @@ -146,14 +173,14 @@ provide more consistent results and a new form of type map that can include document content is provided.
mod_autoindex
mod_autoindex: Autoindex'ed directory listings can now be configured to use HTML tables for cleaner formatting, and allow finer-grained control of sorting, including version-sorting, and wildcard filtering of the directory listing.
mod_include
mod_include: New directives allow the default start and end tags for SSI elements to be changed and allow for error and time format configuration @@ -162,15 +189,11 @@ (now based on Perl's regular expression syntax) can be retrieved using mod_include's variables $0 .. $9.
mod_auth_dbm
mod_auth_dbm: Now supports multiple types of DBM-like databases using the AuthDBMType directive.
mod_auth_db: Has been removed in favor of mod_auth_dbm with the AuthDBMType - directive.

Core Enhancements

Unix Threading
Unix Threading: On Unix systems with POSIX threads support, Apache can now run in a hybrid multiprocess, multithreaded mode. This improves scalability for many, but not all configurations.
New Build System
New Build System: The build system has been rewritten from scratch to be based on autoconf and libtool. This makes Apache's configuration system more similar to that of other packages.
Multiprotocol Support
Multiprotocol Support: Apache now has some of the infrastructure in place to support serving multiple protocols. mod_echo has been written as an example.
Better support for non-Unix - platforms
Better support for non-Unix + platforms: Apache 2.0 is faster and more stable on non-Unix platforms such as BeOS, OS/2, and Windows. With the @@ -44,7 +47,7 @@ implemented in their native API, avoiding the often buggy and poorly performing POSIX-emulation layers.
New Apache API
New Apache API: The API for modules has changed significantly for 2.0. Many of the module-ordering/-priority problems from 1.3 should @@ -53,7 +56,7 @@ have been added that provide additional module capabilities without patching the core Apache server.
IPv6 Support
IPv6 Support: On systems where IPv6 is supported by the underlying Apache Portable Runtime library, Apache gets IPv6 listening @@ -64,29 +67,34 @@ IPv6 numeric address strings (e.g., "Listen [fe80::1]:8080").
Filtering
Filtering: Apache modules may now be written as filters which act on the stream of content as it is delivered to or from the - server. This allows, for example, the output of CGI scripts - to be parsed for Server Side Include directives using the - INCLUDES filter in mod_include.
Multilanguage Error Responses
Multilanguage Error Responses: Error response messages to the browser are now provided in several languages, using SSI documents. They may be customized by the administrator to achieve a consistent look and feel.
Simplified configuration
Simplified configuration: Many confusing directives have been simplified. The often confusing Port and BindAddress directives are gone; only the - Listen directive is used for IP address binding; the - ServerName directive specifies the server name and port number - only for redirection and vhost recognition.
Native Windows NT Unicode Support
Native Windows NT Unicode Support: Apache 2.0 on Windows NT now uses utf-8 for all filename encodings. These directly translate to the underlying Unicode @@ -95,6 +103,14 @@ This support does not extend to Windows 95, 98 or ME, which continue to use the machine's local codepage for filesystem access.
Regular Expression Library Updated: Apache 2.0 includes the Perl + Compatible Regular Expression Library (PCRE). All regular + expression evaluation now uses the more powerful Perl 5 + syntax.

Overview of new features in Apache 2.0

Core Enhancements

See also

Core Enhancements

Module Enhancements