Good apache http server tutorials for beginners

Question

I have just installed apache server on my system. Right now have very limited knowledge about apache. I intend to use it to write scripts that can "get" a given data from a given url and after processing it "post" to a different url.

I just want to know if there is any specific book or tutorials that would give me some knowledge about apache and enable me to write scripts to do my intended task.

PS: I have googled it but did not find any really good source. I dont want to start with something that finally turns of no use for me

Answer 1

The apache configuration contains a user guide section which can give you some very valuable starting points (check your apache version on the documentation urls); This is not simply a list of configuration options, but real guides with links to other parts of the documentation if you need more details.

I would start with:

• Configuration Files
• Configuration sections
• Url and filesystem mapping
• VirtualHosts, especially name based virtualhosts

Then you may have a look at these 3 topics:

• mod_rewrite, but start with when NOT to use mod rewrite to get a good list of alternate simpler solutions
• security
• optimisations

And my own advice, do not trust the .htaccess and mod_rewrite tricks on the net (but on Stack Overflow you can). Most of them are written by people who have never read the documentation, and most of these tricks are working by accident.