Apache Install Help Needed!! Can you Help??

[wncads]

I am new to Linux. I have Red Hat Server 7.0 and am building a web server for domain hosting. I have downloaded the 1.3.17 distribution for Apache Server. According to the download instructions all I needed were the /targz /tarz and /zip directories and may not have needed all of those. Question is now that I have them burnt to a cd and can view them on the Linux box how do I install them or unzip them or whatever??? I need the quickest way to get APACHE up and installed and I am sitting here with the CD which contains the directories above but don't know what to do with it to get them installed. Also, I am reading that once I get them installed I should choose the APACI install option for faster and easier install?? is this true any opinions greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Keith

 

[rycamor]

Whoa... easy there, it sounds like you are new to any kind of Unix. You need to spend some time learning just how Unix systems work before biting off a piece too big to chew. Try reading "Running Linux" from O'Reilly (

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/runux3/).

Also, spend some time at

http://www.linuxnewbie.com

-- and

http://www.linuxnewbie.org,

they're both good.

Tip #1:

Now, generally in Unix when you want to install a piece of software from source code (such as Apache), you download ONE compressed file that contains all the code. These files are usually *.tar.gz files, but sometimes are *.tgz

What this means is that the files have first been squashed into one by the 'tar' command, and then compressed by the 'gzip' command.

For you to open this kind of file, you generally want to first copy the file to a convenient directory, such as /home/your_username, and then enter 'gunzip filename.tar.gz', which uncompresses the file, leaving it simply named 'filename.tar', then you want to untar the file, preserving the same directory structure that the developer used when tarring it, so you enter 'tar -xvf filename.tar' (You can also do both the unzipping and untarring at the same time with 'tar -zxvf filename.tar.gz')

The source files will then open in a directory (apache_1.3.17/). Then you cd into that directory and read the README file or the INSTALL file for any special instructions. These should be read to avoid any hidden gotchas. However, usually when you want to just do a default install in Unix, you just enter './configure', wait until the configuring is done, then enter 'make', which actually starts compiling the source code. When this is done, you then make sure you are logged in as 'root' (or 'su' to root) and in that directory you will enter 'make install', which does the install for you. This is often all you need to do to install Unix software from source. However, if you have any specific needs, the './configure' command can be run with many options to change your install, add or take away features, etc... (enter './configure --help' and you will see what I mean.)

The above tip is not really enough to get you fully using Apache on your system, but it should at least give you a feel for what I'm talking about. Read your documentation. Twice.