Introduction to the Apache Web Server - ApacheCon

Section 4
Configuration files
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/directives.htmlhttp://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/core.html#include
4.1 Introduction
Apache is configured with plain text files. While there are GUI (Graphical User Interface) tools for configuring
Apache, most of this section, as well as the rest of this book, will assume that you will configure Apache
using a text editor, and editing these files. (See Section 4.7 for information about GUI configuration tools.)
4.2 The files
Configuration may be in several places:
• httpd.conf
There used to be 3 distinct configuration files, each of which could contain only a
particular type of configuration directive. httpd.conf was the main server configuration
file, and contained directives relating to the operation of the primary functions
of the server. srm.comf (Server Resource Management) contained directives relating
to the resources that the server could use, such as files and directories. access.conf
contained directives relating to access control and authentication.
There was a great deal of confusion as to what directives should go into which files. This
confusion was actually increased when the restriction was lifted, and any configuration
directive could go anywhere. Seems that people would rather be told where to put
what than to be able to choose.
Finally, in 1.3.7, this whole state of affairs was put to rest, and the three configuration
files were combined into httpd.conf. The two other files were retained, but contained
nothing more than a comment encouraging you not to use the files for real directives.
httpd.conf is the main server configuration file. Some third party distributions of Apache may call
this file something different. Popular choices are apache.conf and apache2.conf.
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