Could Apache act as it's own config tool?

[John Wojtowicz <wo...@tcs-sec.com>]

All this talk of Apache config tools, made me wonder...

Has the apache team ever considered adding features to apache to 
help it act as its own config tool, via a web based interface?
(i.e. a new member of command_rec to convert current apache configuration
to directive text, maybe something like char *(*revfunc)(), and 
functions to allow apache to modify it's configuration on the fly, etc.) 

doing so would allow it (as a config tool) to know *ALL* the
directives of it and it's modules, the context in which they were
used (per directory, per server, etc.) by the server via the httpd.conf.

also could provide basis for remote configuration, and help with
high availability, etc.

just curious,

John


--
John Wojtowicz, Secure Systems Engr.  ph:    (703) 318-7134
Trusted Computer Solutions, Inc.      fax:   (703) 318-5041
13873 Park Center Rd. Suite 225       email: jwojtowicz@tcs-sec.com
Herndon, VA  20171                    http://www.tcs-sec.com/

Re: Could Apache act as it's own config tool?

[Graham Leggett <mi...@sharp.fm>]

"Kevin A. Burton" wrote:

> IMO the idea is good but doesn't work in real life.  I mean what if you
> totally broke your Apache config (humans still make mistakes that no
> computer can out-guess).  Then you couldn't ever configure Apache again!

This is a concern, but not impossible to work around.

At best, such a configuration editor would be a module compiled as part
of Apache so it would be available even if the config was missing. A
command line option would be all that was necessary to define an IP
address and port (defaulting to perhaps localhost:80) to listen on if
the config was missing. Obviously a mechanism for password protecting it
in some manner would be needed, but that wouldn't be too hard either.

It's doable.

Regards,
Graham
--
---------------------------------------
minfrin@sharp.fm		"There's a moon
					over Bourbon Street
						tonight...

Re: Could Apache act as it's own config tool?

[James Sutherland <ja...@cam.ac.uk>]

On Fri, 18 Feb 2000, Kevin A. Burton wrote:

> John Wojtowicz wrote:
> > 
> > All this talk of Apache config tools, made me wonder...
> > 
> > Has the apache team ever considered adding features to apache to
> > help it act as its own config tool, via a web based interface?
> > (i.e. a new member of command_rec to convert current apache configuration
> > to directive text, maybe something like char *(*revfunc)(), and
> > functions to allow apache to modify it's configuration on the fly, etc.)
> > 
> > doing so would allow it (as a config tool) to know *ALL* the
> > directives of it and it's modules, the context in which they were
> > used (per directory, per server, etc.) by the server via the httpd.conf.
> > 
> > also could provide basis for remote configuration, and help with
> > high availability, etc.
> > 
> 
> IMO the idea is good but doesn't work in real life.  I mean what if you
> totally broke your Apache config (humans still make mistakes that no
> computer can out-guess).  Then you couldn't ever configure Apache again!

Yes...

How about a "config_module"? After all, mod_perl already allows various
clever scripty things to be done in httpd.conf; presumably a combination
of an Apache::Registry CGI-type interface, and a Perl backend to store the
resulting configuration. This way, you could use "-f failsafe.conf" if you
screw everything up (so you can still edit the configuration through the
WWW interface, but with a minimal known-good configuration.)


James.

Re: Could Apache act as it's own config tool?

["Kevin A. Burton" <bu...@relativity.yi.org>]

John Wojtowicz wrote:
> 
> All this talk of Apache config tools, made me wonder...
> 
> Has the apache team ever considered adding features to apache to
> help it act as its own config tool, via a web based interface?
> (i.e. a new member of command_rec to convert current apache configuration
> to directive text, maybe something like char *(*revfunc)(), and
> functions to allow apache to modify it's configuration on the fly, etc.)
> 
> doing so would allow it (as a config tool) to know *ALL* the
> directives of it and it's modules, the context in which they were
> used (per directory, per server, etc.) by the server via the httpd.conf.
> 
> also could provide basis for remote configuration, and help with
> high availability, etc.
> 

IMO the idea is good but doesn't work in real life.  I mean what if you
totally broke your Apache config (humans still make mistakes that no
computer can out-guess).  Then you couldn't ever configure Apache again!

Kevin

-- 
Kevin A Burton
http://relativity.yi.org
Linux - The revolution will NOT be televised

Re: Could Apache act as it's own config tool?

[Greg Stein <gs...@lyra.org>]

On Fri, 18 Feb 2000, John Wojtowicz wrote:
> All this talk of Apache config tools, made me wonder...
> 
> Has the apache team ever considered adding features to apache to 
> help it act as its own config tool, via a web based interface?
> (i.e. a new member of command_rec to convert current apache configuration
> to directive text, maybe something like char *(*revfunc)(), and 
> functions to allow apache to modify it's configuration on the fly, etc.) 
> 
> doing so would allow it (as a config tool) to know *ALL* the
> directives of it and it's modules, the context in which they were
> used (per directory, per server, etc.) by the server via the httpd.conf.
> 
> also could provide basis for remote configuration, and help with
> high availability, etc.

Yup... we've talked about it. But talk is cheap :-)

Somebody simply needs to start coding something.

Cheers,
-g

-- 
Greg Stein, http://www.lyra.org/