Installing, Activating, And Configuring Modules - Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER 11 - ADMINISTRATION Administration Manual

27.4 Installing, Activating, and
Configuring Modules
The Apache software is built in a modular fashion: all functionality except some core
tasks is handled by modules. This has progressed so far that even HTTP is processed
by a module (http_core).
Apache modules can be compiled into the Apache binary at build time or dynamically
loaded at runtime. Refer to
for details of how to load modules dynamically.
Apache modules can be divided into four different categories:
Base Modules
Base modules are compiled into Apache by default. Apache in SUSE Linux has
only mod_so (needed to load other modules) and http_core compiled in. All others
are available as shared objects: rather than being included in the server binary itself,
they can be included at runtime.
Extension Modules
In general, modules labeled as extensions are included in the Apache software
package, but are usually not compiled into the server statically. In SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server, they are available as shared objects that can be loaded into
Apache at runtime.
External Modules
Modules labeled external are not included in the official Apache distribution. SUSE
Linux Enterprise Server provides several of them readily available for use.
Multiprocessing Modules
MPMs are responsible for accepting and handling requests to the Web server, rep-
resenting the core of the Web server software.
27.4.1 Module Installation
If you have followed the default way of installing Apache (described in
"Installation" (page 372)), it is installed with all base and extension modules, the multi-
processing module Prefork MPM, and the external modules mod_php5 and mod_python.
Section 27.4.2, "Activation and Deactivation" (page 392)
Section 27.1.2,
The Apache HTTP Server 391