Arch Linux

jigawot

Member

Registered: 2008-09-25

Posts: 3

Installing Apache Modules

I am trying to install some apache modules.  With other distros, I can just run yum or apt-get to install these modules, but pacman doesn't seem to have them.  The modules I'm looking for are mod_dav_svn and mod_proxy_html.  I "borrowed" mod_proxy_html.so from another distro, but I'm quite sure this isn't the "Arch way" of doing things.  So, how am I supposed to get these modules installed in my apache?

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: Installing Apache Modules

The recommended way is to create Arch packages for them, using the Arch Build System (ABS). Full details are in the wiki.

Check the AUR first - someone else may have already done them.

jigawot

Member

Registered: 2008-09-25

Posts: 3

Re: Installing Apache Modules

Thanks for your prompt reply.

So I read the wiki page about ABS and installed it and such, and now I'm looking for the source to compile the mod_dav_svn module, but I can't even find that.  All of the google searches I've done about mod_dav_svn don't say anything about getting it or compiling it, just, "make sure you have mod_dav_svn installed," which doesn't really help me.  It would appear this module is readily available for just about every major distro with a package manager, except Arch.

Maybe it is just me, but this seems far more difficult than it should be.  I'm new to Arch, but I'm not new to Linux.  Maybe I've been spoiled by RedHat and Ubuntu being able to get just about any package with a simple call on the command line.  Is this fairly typical for Arch?  If a recompile is necessary, will I need to compile just the module or all of apache?  Can I get some pointers on where to start?

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: Installing Apache Modules

Well.. we both should have looked a bit harder.

The mod_dav_svn source code is included in the subversion tarball, and is therefore built as part of the subversion package, in line with Arch packaging standards. If you have our subversion package, you have mod_dav_svn.

The mod_proxy_html source code is available online, first hit on Google.

Compiling from source seems difficult at first if you're not used to it, just like anything else. If you're serious about using Arch, you will get used to it. More generally, the official Arch repos provide the core packages for the distro, along with any other packages that the Arch dev team are interested in maintaining. The AUR, which includes the Community repo, provides additional packages contributed by Arch users. It appears that you are the first Archer who would like to use mod_proxy_html, so you are now in a position to make your own contribution to the community. Thanks in advance!

jigawot

Member

Registered: 2008-09-25

Posts: 3

Re: Installing Apache Modules

No wonder Google was no help finding how to compile & install mod_dav_svn -- I don't have to.  <Feeling slightly sheepish>  My SVN works like a charm, and all I had to do was load that .so I didn't know I had.

So, I'd be happy to contribute to the AUR with a mod_proxy_html.so.  Thanks for the pointer on where to get the source.  I think I came across it before, but didn't feel like compiling it since I had the .so from another distro.  Now, I've done some compiling on Linux before.  I've even written my own source and compiled it with gcc.  For each of my projects, I always wrote a makefile.  So, when I downloaded the source, I was a little dismayed to see a solitary .c file accompanied by a .conf file for use with apache when the .so is built.  I tried compiling it by guessing the includes from the top of the source file.  This, obviously, didn't work.  I'm getting a ton of compiler errors.

I tried using the apxs tool, which I found thanks to Google, but get the same long list of compiler errors.  Have I missed a step here?  What is the typical procedure for compiling apache modules?  I'm more used to compiling whole programs, not just modules.

Thanks again for your patience with an Arch newbie.

Last edited by jigawot (2008-10-06 00:22:12)