Amiga Apache 1.3B3 Web Server Released

The Amiga Apache webserver is a port of the professional Apache webserver, used by more than 40% of all servers on the Internet. Amiga Apache is compatible with the original Unix Apache and uses the same configuration files and uses the same options.

The Amiga Apache webserver is enhanced with the ability to execute AREXX scripts (allthough it has no Arexx port of its own). This means that Amiga programs can interface with the server for in- and output. For example, it is possible and easy to connect a database program with Arexx support to Apache with the help of AREXX scripts.

The Amiga Apache http server project is runned by Jeff Shepherd who has made the port, Bert Vortman, maintainer of the Amiga Apache binary & source distribution, the homepage and the documentation and Brett Burridge who maintains the FAQ, Thorsten Hiddessen, Robert Ramiega, Eirik Synnes, Hans de Groot and Per-Olof Yliniemi who are running a mirror site and many beta-testers.

There are 2 mailinglists available: apache-users for contact between Amiga apache users and apache-l for betatesters. Send a mail to:

The mailinglists are running on an Amiga that is NOT connected 24h a day so expect some delay. The mailinglists are runned by the majordomo mailinglist software.

Bert Vortman, maintainer of the Apache Homepage.

Here is a selection of a list of new features that Amiga Apache supports: (more info at the Amiga Apache homepage (http://www.dsdelft.nl/~apache/).

Amiga Apache HTTP Server Version 1.3

• Optional «Spelling Correction» module added to distribution This optional module corrects frequently occurring spelling errors in document names requested from the server. This includes the correction of miscapitalized requests (as was available in a separately available mod_speling module as of Apache 1.1 already) but extends spelling correction to single inserted, omitted, transposed or mistyped characters. This catches the majority of mistyped requests. To make use of this module, it must be enabled in the server's Configuration file, and the CheckSpelling directive must be set to on.
• Enhanced Conditional Setting of Environment Variables The BrowserMatch* directives of Apache 1.2 have been joined by some more powerful brethren: SetEnvIf and SetEnvIfNoCase. These allow you to set environment variables for server and CGI use based upon all sorts of attributes of the request.
• Better Logging for Proxy Connect Errors In Apache 1.2 and earlier, when the proxy had difficulty connecting to a system it would log the error but no details. It now includes the IP address and port to which it couldn't connect.
• Enhanced SSI String Comparisons The string-based server-side include (SSI) flow-control directives provided by mod_include now include comparison for less-than (<), less-than-or-equal (<=), greater-than (>), and greater-than-or-equal (>=). Previously comparisons could only be made for equality or inequality.
• Sortable Directory Listings If a directory listing is displayed using FancyIndexing, clicking on a column title will now sort the listing in order by the values in that column. Selecting the column repeatedly will toggle between ascending and descending order. This feature can be disabled with the SuppressColumnSorting IndexOptions keyword.
• New "Magic" MIME-typing module A new module, the optional mod_mime_magic, has been added. It uses "magic numbers" and other hints from a file's contents to figure out what the contents are. It then uses this information to set the file's media type, if it cannot be determined by the file's extension.
• Support for Directory Icon Sizing The mod_autoindex module provides listings of directory contents when appropriate. If the FancyIndexing option is enabled, each file in the list is preceded by an icon representing the content type. In earlier versions of Apache, the HTML IMG tags for these icons weren't sized, so the browser had to wait until the images were loaded before it could lay out the page. With 1.3, the IndexOptions directive has two new keywords which allow you to control whether pre-sized IMG tags are used. This can substantially speed up the display of large directory listings.
• NoProxy and ProxyDomain directives added to proxy, useful for intranets.
• AddModuleInfo directive added to mod_info Allows additional information to be listed along with a specified module.
• Include directive The Include directive includes other config files immediately at that point in parsing.
• Improved HTTP/1.1-style Virtual Hosts The new NameVirtualHost directive is used to list IP address:port pairs on which HTTP/1.1-style virtual hosting occurs. This is vhosting based on the Host: header from the client. Previously this address was implicitly the same as the "main address" of the machine, and this caused no end of problems for users, and was not powerful enough. Please see the Apache Virtual Host documentation for further details on configuration.
• Year-2000 Improvements The default timefmt string used by mod_include has been modified to display the year using four digits rather than the two-digit format used previously. The mod_autoindex module has also been modified to display years using four digits in FancyIndexed directory listings.

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