config/861: NCSA Compatibility with VirtualHost

[Morgan Davis <md...@cts.com>]

>Number:         861
>Category:       config
>Synopsis:       NCSA Compatibility with VirtualHost
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    apache (Apache HTTP Project)
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   apache
>Arrival-Date:   Sun Jul 13 14:20:01 1997
>Originator:     mdavis@cts.com
>Organization:
apache
>Release:        1.2.1
>Environment:
Any OS, any version
>Description:
NCSA's <VirtualHost> directive allows for a feature I suggested to Brandon Long
a few years ago where one can specify the severity of a failure in parsing
the <VirtualHost> section.  This is the optional "Optional" designator:

<VirtualHost address Optional>

If provided, any error during parsing is totally ignored and the server
starts up normally.  If Optional is omitted, any error causes the server to
fail startup and doesn't run at all.

>How-To-Repeat:

>Fix:
This feature gives the admin the ability to control startup errors on
a host-by-host basis.  Since we run our servers with vhosts all configured
as Optional (and that behavior is Apache's default) we could omit the
Optional designator from our configs.  But if a site needs control over
both behaviors they're out of luck
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: