A Look at the Apache 2.1 Web Server [LWN.net]

The Apache web server is one of the largest and most important open-source projects in use today. It is the most commonly used web server on the internet, and has been around since 1995. The project history document provides some useful background information. Apache is such a large project that it requires a glossary to keep track of the terminology used by the project.

[Apache] Version 2 of Apache was created several years ago as an effort to improve and restructure the popular web server, which had become somewhat overloaded with features and modifications. The current stable release of Apache is version 2.0.55. Work on the next stable release, version 2.2, is ongoing, with the unstable 2.1 series.

Development version 2.1.9-beta of Apache was announced on November 6, 2005. The main Apache web site summarizes the release: "This version of Apache is a Beta release of the unstable development branch. New features include Smart Filtering, Improved Caching, AJP Proxy, Proxy Load Balancing, Graceful Shutdown support, Large File Support, the Event MPM, and refactored Authentication/Authorization."

The new features in Apache 2.2 document lists the changes in detail, here's a quick rundown of what's new:

Refactoring of the authentication and authorization modules.
Improvements to the caching system.
A simplified and improved configuration system with easy to use configuration snippets.
Improvements to the shutdown process for httpd.
A new_mod_proxy balancer module for load balancing.
Inclusion of version 5 of the Perl Compatible Regular Expression Library.
Improvements to the output filtering system via mod_filter.
Support for files and request bodies larger than 2GB.
An experimental Event MPM for improving atomic operations.
Support for SQL databases via mod_dbd.
Improvements to the mod_authnz_ldap, mod_info, and mod_ssl modules.
An httpd -M command line option that lists all loaded modules.
Modules now use version 1.0 of the Apache Portable Runtime API.

The Apache 2.1.9 change list shows the bug fixes and other modifications that have been made for this release. For a complete manual, take a look at the Apache version 2.1 documentation.

The Upgrading to 2.1 from 2.0 document is worth a quick read before upgrading. All current versions of Apache are available for download here.

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A Look at the Apache 2.1 Web Server

Posted Nov 11, 2005 18:31 UTC (Fri) by yodermk (subscriber, #3803) [Link]

Any speculation as to when 2.2 goes gold?

I know, "when it's ready," but from those who follow the project, is that more likely to be before the end of the year, or 6-12 months down the road?

Thanks