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From: Ryan Bloom <rbb@covalent.net>
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Organization: Covalent Technologies
To: new-httpd@apache.org, Graham Leggett <minfrin@sharp.fm>
Subject: Re: Apache config files and alternate config sources
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 06:46:25 -0700
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On Thursday 16 August 2001 02:46, Graham Leggett wrote:
> Ryan Bloom wrote:
> > If you use a pre-processor, then you can make a sane decision.  If the
> > LDAP server isn't responding, don't tell Apache to restart.  If you get
> > half-way through updating the config file on disk, don't try to restart
> > Apache. If you mix the two, you open yourself up to more problems during
> > error conditions.
> >
> > The code is easier if we keep these things separate, and we allow for a
> > more robust server IMNSHO.
>
> Hmmmm... you're 100% right - but I'm trying to figure out a way for all
> of this to work elegantly that does not require any user confusion.
>
> What could be done is that such a preprocessor stage be built into the
> apachectl script. The graceful restart process would then be this:
>
> 1) run preprocessor on httpd.conf and generate a new file called
> httpd.conf-<date> containing all registry keys, LDAP objects, external
> files, whatever. If this fails - throw an error and don't restart.
>
> 2) run "httpd -f httpd.conf-<date> -t" to check if the syntax is
> correct. If this fails - throw an error and don't restart.
>
> 3) run actual restart or graceful restart.
>
> This way the user does not have to know or care about the checking
> process - they make a config file that has Include directives that point
> to either a windows registry or LDAP server and everything magically
> works. There is no change to the Apache webserver code, only the
> apachectl script.
>
> The <date> bit allows a bit of audit trail to be created, but if this is
> too much having a single file is fine. Thoughts?

++1.

Ryan

______________________________________________________________
Ryan Bloom                        	rbb@apache.org
Covalent Technologies			rbb@covalent.net
--------------------------------------------------------------