configure - Configure the source tree

The configure script configures the source tree for compiling and installing the Apache HTTP Server on your particular platform. Various options allow the compilation of a server corresponding to your personal requirements.

This script, included in the root directory of the source distribution, is for compilation on Unix and Unix-like systems only. For other platforms, see the platform documentation.

Note

configure will not complain about --enable-foo even if foo doesn't exist, so you need to type carefully.

Modules enabled by default

Some modules are compiled by default and have to be disabled explicitly. Use the following options to remove discrete modules from the compilation process.

--disable-actions

Disable action triggering on requests, which is provided by mod_actions.

--disable-alias

Disable the mapping of requests to different parts of the filesystem, which is provided by mod_alias.

--disable-asis

Disable support for as-is filetypes, which is provided by mod_asis.

--disable-auth

Disable user-based access control provided by mod_auth. This module provides for HTTP Basic Authentication, where the usernames and passwords are stored in plain text files.

--disable-autoindex

Disable the directory listing functionality provided by mod_autoindex.

--disable-access

Disable host-based access control provided by mod_access.

--disable-cgi

mod_cgi, which provides support for CGI scripts, is enabled by default when using a non-threaded MPM. Use this option to disable CGI support.

--disable-cgid

When using the threaded MPMs worker or perchild support for CGI scripts is provided by mod_cgid by default. To disable CGI support use this option.

--disable-charset-lite

Disable character set translation provided by mod_charset_lite. This module will be installed by default only on EBCDIC systems.

--disable-dir

Disable directory request handling provided by mod_dir.

--disable-env

Enable setting and clearing of environment variables, which is provided by mod_env.

--disable-http

Disable the HTTP protocol handling. The http module is a basic one, enabling the server to function as an HTTP server. It is only useful to disable it if you want to use another protocol module instead. Don't disable this module unless you are really sure what you are doing.
Note: This module will always be linked statically.

--disable-imap

Disable support for server based imagemaps, which provided by mod_imap.

--disable-include

Disable Server Side Includes provided by mod_include.

--disable-log-config

Disable the logging configuration provided by mod_log_config. You won't be able to log requests to the server without this module.

--disable-mime

mod_mime associates the requested filename's extensions with the file's behavior and content (mime-type, language, character set and encoding). Disabling the mapping of file-extensions to MIME is normally not recommended.

--disable-negotiation

Disable content negotiation provided by mod_negotiation.

--disable-setenvif

Disable support for basing environment variables on headers, which is provided by mod_setenvif.

--disable-status

Enable the process/thread monitoring, which is provided by mod_status.

--disable-userdir

Disable the mapping of requests to user-specific directories, which is provided by mod_userdir.

Modules, disabled by default

Some modules are compiled by default and have to be enabled explicitly or by using the keywords most or all (see --enable-mods-shared below for further explanation) to be available. Therefore use the options below.

--enable-auth-anon

Enable anonymous user access provided by mod_auth_anon.

--enable-auth-dbm

mod_auth_dbm provides for HTTP Basic Authentication, where the usernames and passwords are stored in DBM type database files. Use this option to enable the module.

--enable-auth-digest

Enable RFC2617 Digest authentication provided by mod_auth_digest. This module uses plain text files to store the credentials.

--enable-auth-ldap

Enable LDAP based authentication provided by mod_auth_ldap.

--enable-cache

Enable dynamic file caching provided by mod_cache. This experimental module may be interesting for servers with high load or caching proxy servers. At least one storage management module (e.g. mod_disk_cache or mod_mem_cache) is also necessary.

--enable-cern-meta

Enable the CERN-type meta files support provided by mod_cern_meta.

--enable-charset-lite

Enable character set translation provided by mod_charset_lite. This module will be installed by default only on EBCDIC systems. On other systems, you have to enable it.

--enable-dav

Enable the WebDAV protocol handling provided by mod_dav. Support for filesystem resources is provided by the seperate module mod_dav_fs. This module is also automatically enabled with --enable-dav.
mod_dav can only be used together with the http protocol module.

--enable-dav-fs

Enable DAV support for filesystem resources, which is provided by mod_dav_fs. This module is a provider for the mod_dav module, so you should also use --enable-dav.

--enable-deflate

Enable deflate transfer encoding provided by mod_deflate.

--enable-disk-cache

Enable disk caching provided by mod_disk_cache.

--enable-expires

Enable Expires header control provided by mod_expires.

--enable-ext-filter

Enable the external filter support provided by mod_ext_filter.

--enable-file-cache

Enable the file cache provided by mod_file_cache.

--enable-headers

Enable control of HTTP headers provided by mod_headers.

--enable-info

Enable the server information provided by mod_info.

--enable-ldap

Enable LDAP caching and connection pooling services provided by mod_ldap.

--enable-logio

Enable logging of input and output bytes including headers provided by mod_logio.

--enable-mem-cache

Enable memory caching provided by mod_mem_cache.

--enable-mime-magic

Enable automatical determining of MIME types, which is provided by mod_mime_magic.

--enable-isapi

Enable the isapi extension support provided by mod_isapi.

--enable-proxy

Enable the proxy/gateway functionality provided by mod_proxy. The proxying capabilities for CONNECT, FTP and HTTP are provided by the seperate modules mod_proxy_connect, mod_proxy_ftp and mod_proxy_http. These three modules are also automatically enabled with --enable-proxy.

--enable-proxy-connect

Enable proxy support for CONNECT request handling, which is provided by mod_proxy_connect. This module is an extension for the mod_proxy module, so you should also use --enable-proxy.

--enable-proxy-ftp

Enable proxy support for FTP requests, which is provided by mod_proxy_ftp.. This module is an extension for the mod_proxy module, so you should also use --enable-proxy.

--enable-proxy-http

Enable proxy support for HTTP requests, which is provided by mod_proxy_http. This module is an extension for the mod_proxy module, so you should also use --enable-proxy.

--enable-rewrite

Enable rule based URL manipulation provided by mod_rewrite.

--enable-so

Enable DSO capability provided by mod_so. This module will be automatically enabled if you use the --enable-mods-shared option.

--enable-speling

Enable the functionality to correct common URL misspellings, which is provided by mod_spelling.

--enable-ssl

Enable support for SSL/TLS provided by mod_ssl.

--enable-unique-id

Enable the generation of per-request unique ids, which is provided by mod_unique_id.

--enable-usertrack

Enable user-session tracking provided by mod_usertrack.

--enable-vhost-alias

Enable mass virtual hosting provided by mod_vhost_alias.

Modules for developers

The following modules are useful only for developers and testing purposes and are disabled by default. Use the following options to enable them. If you are not sure whether you need one of these modules, omit them.

--enable-bucketeer

Enable the manipulation filter for buckets, which is provided by mod_bucketeer.

--enable-case-filter

Enable the example uppercase conversion output filter support of mod_case_filter.

--enable-case-filter-in

Enable the example uppercase conversion input filter support of mod_case_filter_in.

--enable-echo

Enable the ECHO server provided by mod_echo.

--enable-example

Enable the example and demo module mod_example.

--enable-optional-fn-export

Enable the example for an optional function exporter, which is provided by mod_optional_fn_export.

--enable-optional-fn-import

Enable the example for an optional function importer, which is provided by mod_optional_fn_import.

--enable-optional-hook-export

Enable the example for an optional hook exporter, which is provided by mod_optional_hook_export.

--enable-optional-hook-import

Enable the example optional hook importer, which is provided by mod_optional_hook_import.

MPMs and third-party modules

To add the necessary Multi Processing Module and additional third-party modules use the following options:

--with-module=module-type:module-file

Add a third-party module to the list of statically linked modules. The module source file module-file will be searched in the modules/module-type subdirectory of your Apache HTTP server source tree so it has to be placed there before. If it is not found here configure is considering module-file to be an absolute file path and tries to copy the source file into the module-type subdirectory.
This option is useful to add small external modules consisting of one source file. For more complex modules you should read the vendor's documentation.
If you want to build a DSO module instead of a statically linked use apxs.

--with-mpm=MPM

Choose the process model for your server. You have to select exactly one Multi-Processing Module. Otherwise the default MPM for your operating system will be taken. Possible MPMs are beos, leader, mpmt_os2, perchild, prefork, threadpool and worker.

Cumulative and other options

--enable-maintainer-mode

Turn on debugging and compile time warnings.

--enable-mods-shared=MODULE-LIST

Defines a list of modules to be enabled and build as dynamic shared modules. This mean, these module have to be loaded dynamically by using the LoadModule directive.
MODULE-LIST is a space separated list of modulenames enclosed by quotation marks. The module names are given without the preceding mod_. For example:

--enable-mods-shared='headers rewrite dav'
Additionally you can use the special keywords all and most. For example,

--enable-mods-shared=most
will compile most modules and build them as DSO modules.

--enable-modules=MODULE-LIST

This option behaves similar to --enable-mods-shared, but will link the given modules statically. This mean, these modules will always be present while running httpd. They need not be loaded with LoadModule.

--enable-v4-mapped

Allow IPv6 sockets to handle IPv4 connections.

--with-port=PORT

This defines the port on which httpd will listen. This port number is used when generating the configuration file httpd.conf. The default is 80.

--with-program-name

Define an alternative executable name. The default is httpd.

Optional packages

These options are used to define optional packages.

General syntax

Generally you can use the following syntax to define an optional package:

--with-PACKAGE[=ARG]

Use the package PACKAGE. The default value for ARG isyes.

--without-PACKAGE

Do not use the package PACKAGE. This is the same as --with-PACKAGE=no. This option is provided by autoconf but not very useful for the Apache HTTP Server.

For example, "--without-berkeley-db"

Specific packages

--with-apr=DIR|FILE

The Apache Portable Runtime (APR) is part of the httpd source distribution and will automatically be build together with the HTTP server. If you want to use an already installed APR instead you have to tell configure the path to the apr-config script. You may set the absolute path and name or the directory to the installed APR. apr-config must exists within this directory or the subdirectory bin.

--with-apr-util=DIR|FILE

The Apache Portable Runtime Utilities (APU) are part of the httpd source distribution and will automatically be build together with the HTTP server. If you want to use an already installed APU instead you have to tell configure the path to the apu-config script. You may set the absolute path and name or the directory to the installed APU. apu-config must exists within this directory or the subdirectory bin.

--with-ssl=DIR

If mod_ssl has been enabled configure searches for an installed OpenSSL. You can set the directory path to the SSL/TLS toolkit instead.

--with-z=DIR

configure searches automatically for an installed zlib library if your source configuration requires one (e.g., when mod_deflate is enabled). You can set the directory path to the compression library instead.

Several features of the Apache HTTP Server, including mod_authn_dbm and mod_rewrite's DBM RewriteMap use simple key/value databases for quick lookups of information. SDBM is included in the APU, so this database is always available. If you would like to use other database types, use the following options to enable them:

--with-gdbm[=path]

If no path is specified, configure will search for the include files and libraries of a GNU DBM installation in the usual search paths. An explicit path will cause configure to look in path/lib and path/include for the relevant files. Finally, the path may specify specific include and library paths separated by a colon.

--with-ndbm[=path]

Like --with-gdbm, bur searches for a New DBM installation.

--with-berkeley-db[=path]

Like --with-gdbm, but searches for a Berkeley DB installation.

Note

The DBM options are provided by the APU and passed through to its configuration script. They are useless when using an already installed APU defined by --with-apr-util.

You may use more then one DBM implementation together with your HTTP server. The appropriated DBM type will be configured within the runtime configuration at each time.

Options for support programs

--enable-static-support

Build a statically linked version of the support binaries. This means, a stand-alone executable will be built with all the necessary libraries integrated. Otherwise the support binaries are linked dynamically by default.

--enable-suexec

Use this option to enable suexec, which allows you to set uid and gid for spawned processes. Do not use this option unless you understand all the security implications of running a suid binary on your server. Further options to configure suexec are described below.

It is possible to create a statically linked binary of a single support program by using the following options:

--enable-static-ab

Build a statically linked version of ab.

--enable-static-checkgid

Build a statically linked version of checkgid.

--enable-static-htdbm

Build a statically linked version of htdbm.

--enable-static-htdigest

Build a statically linked version of htdigest.

--enable-static-htpasswd

Build a statically linked version of htpasswd.

--enable-static-logresolve

Build a statically linked version of logresolve.

--enable-static-rotatelogs

Build a statically linked version of rotatelogs.

suexec configuration options

The following options are used to fine tune the behavior of suexec. See Configuring and installing suEXEC for further information.

--with-suexec-bin

This defines the path to suexec binary. Default is --sbindir (see Fine tuning of installation directories).

--with-suexec-caller

This defines the user allowed to call suexec. It should be the same as the user under which httpd normally runs.

--with-suexec-docroot

This defines the directory tree under which suexec access is allowed for executables. Default value is --datadir/htdocs.

--with-suexec-gidmin

Define this as the lowest GID allowed to be a target user for suexec. The default value is 100.

--with-suexec-logfile

This defines the filename of the suexec logfile. By default the logfile is named suexec_log and located in --logfiledir.

--with-suexec-safepath

Define the value of the environment variable PATH to be set for processes started by suexec. Default value is /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin.

--with-suexec-userdir

This defines the subdirectory under the user's directory that contains all executables for which suexec access is allowed. This setting is necessary when you want to use suexec together with user-specific directories (as provided by mod_userdir). The default is public_html.

--with-suexec-uidmin

Define this as the lowest UID allowed to be a target user for suexec. The default value is 100.

--with-suexec-umask

Set umask for processes started by suexec. It defaults to your system settings.

Environment variables

There are some useful environment variables to override the choices made by configure or to help it to find libraries and programs with nonstandard names or locations.

CC

Define the C compiler command to be used for compilation.

CFLAGS

Set C compiler flags you want to use for compilation.

CPP

Define the C preprocessor command to be used.

CPPFLAGS

Set C/C++ preprocessor flags, e.g. -Iincludedir if you have headers in a nonstandard directory includedir.

LDFLAGS

Set linker flags, e.g. -Llibdir if you have libraries in a nonstandard directory libdir.

configure - Configure the source tree

Overview

See also

Synopsis

Options

Configuration options

Installation directories

Define a directory layout

Fine tuning of the installation directories

System types

Optional Features

General syntax

Note

Modules enabled by default

Modules, disabled by default

Modules for developers

MPMs and third-party modules

Cumulative and other options

Optional packages

General syntax

Specific packages

Note

Options for support programs

suexec configuration options

Environment variables