ABOUT_APACHE.txt 13 KB

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  1. The Apache HTTP Server Project
  2. http://httpd.apache.org/
  3. The Apache HTTP Server Project is a collaborative software development effort
  4. aimed at creating a robust, commercial-grade, featureful, and freely-available
  5. source code implementation of an HTTP (Web) server. The project is jointly
  6. managed by a group of volunteers located around the world, using the Internet
  7. and the Web to communicate, plan, and develop the server and its related
  8. documentation. In addition, hundreds of users have contributed ideas, code,
  9. and documentation to the project.
  10. This file is intended to briefly describe the history of the Apache Group (as
  11. it was called in the early days), recognize the many contributors, and explain
  12. how you can join the fun too.
  13. In February of 1995, the most popular server software on the Web was the
  14. public domain HTTP daemon developed by Rob McCool at the National Center
  15. for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
  16. However, development of that httpd had stalled after Rob left NCSA in
  17. mid-1994, and many webmasters had developed their own extensions and bug
  18. fixes that were in need of a common distribution. A small group of these
  19. webmasters, contacted via private e-mail, gathered together for the purpose
  20. of coordinating their changes (in the form of "patches"). Brian Behlendorf
  21. and Cliff Skolnick put together a mailing list, shared information space,
  22. and logins for the core developers on a machine in the California Bay Area,
  23. with bandwidth and diskspace donated by HotWired and Organic Online.
  24. By the end of February, eight core contributors formed the foundation
  25. of the original Apache Group:
  26. Brian Behlendorf Roy T. Fielding Rob Hartill
  27. David Robinson Cliff Skolnick Randy Terbush
  28. Robert S. Thau Andrew Wilson
  29. with additional contributions from
  30. Eric Hagberg Frank Peters Nicolas Pioch
  31. Using NCSA httpd 1.3 as a base, we added all of the published bug fixes
  32. and worthwhile enhancements we could find, tested the result on our own
  33. servers, and made the first official public release (0.6.2) of the Apache
  34. server in April 1995. By coincidence, NCSA restarted their own development
  35. during the same period, and Brandon Long and Beth Frank of the NCSA Server
  36. Development Team joined the list in March as honorary members so that the
  37. two projects could share ideas and fixes.
  38. The early Apache server was a big hit, but we all knew that the codebase
  39. needed a general overhaul and redesign. During May-June 1995, while
  40. Rob Hartill and the rest of the group focused on implementing new features
  41. for 0.7.x (like pre-forked child processes) and supporting the rapidly growing
  42. Apache user community, Robert Thau designed a new server architecture
  43. (code-named Shambhala) which included a modular structure and API for better
  44. extensibility, pool-based memory allocation, and an adaptive pre-forking
  45. process model. The group switched to this new server base in July and added
  46. the features from 0.7.x, resulting in Apache 0.8.8 (and its brethren)
  47. in August.
  48. After extensive beta testing, many ports to obscure platforms, a new set
  49. of documentation (by David Robinson), and the addition of many features
  50. in the form of our standard modules, Apache 1.0 was released on
  51. December 1, 1995.
  52. Less than a year after the group was formed, the Apache server passed
  53. NCSA's httpd as the #1 server on the Internet.
  54. The survey by Netcraft (http://www.netcraft.com/survey/) shows that Apache
  55. is today more widely used than all other web servers combined.
  56. ============================================================================
  57. The current project management committe of the Apache HTTP Server
  58. project (as of March, 2011) is:
  59. Aaron Bannert André Malo Astrid Stolper
  60. Ben Laurie Bojan Smojver Brad Nicholes
  61. Brian Havard Brian McCallister Chris Darroch
  62. Chuck Murcko Colm MacCárthaigh Dan Poirier
  63. Dirk-Willem van Gulik Doug MacEachern
  64. Eric Covener Erik Abele Graham Dumpleton
  65. Graham Leggett Greg Ames Greg Stein
  66. Gregory Trubetskoy Guenter Knauf Issac Goldstand
  67. Jeff Trawick Jim Gallacher Jim Jagielski
  68. Joe Orton Joe Schaefer Joshua Slive
  69. Justin Erenkrantz Ken Coar Lars Eilebrecht
  70. Manoj Kasichainula Marc Slemko Mark J. Cox
  71. Martin Kraemer Maxime Petazzoni Nick Kew
  72. Nicolas Lehuen Noirin Shirley Paul Querna
  73. Philip M. Gollucci Ralf S. Engelschall Randy Kobes
  74. Rasmus Lerdorf Rich Bowen Roy T. Fielding
  75. Rüdiger Plüm Sander Striker Sander Temm
  76. Stefan Fritsch Tony Stevenson Victor J. Orlikowski
  77. Wilfredo Sanchez William A. Rowe Jr. Yoshiki Hayashi
  78. Other major contributors
  79. Howard Fear (mod_include), Florent Guillaume (language negotiation),
  80. Koen Holtman (rewrite of mod_negotiation),
  81. Kevin Hughes (creator of all those nifty icons),
  82. Brandon Long and Beth Frank (NCSA Server Development Team, post-1.3),
  83. Ambarish Malpani (Beginning of the NT port),
  84. Rob McCool (original author of the NCSA httpd 1.3),
  85. Paul Richards (convinced the group to use remote CVS after 1.0),
  86. Garey Smiley (OS/2 port), Henry Spencer (author of the regex library).
  87. Many 3rd-party modules, frequently used and recommended, are also
  88. freely-available and linked from the related projects page:
  89. <http://modules.apache.org/>, and their authors frequently
  90. contribute ideas, patches, and testing.
  91. Hundreds of people have made individual contributions to the Apache
  92. project. Patch contributors are listed in the CHANGES file.
  93. ============================================================================
  94. How to become involved in the Apache project
  95. There are several levels of contributing. If you just want to send
  96. in an occasional suggestion/fix, then you can just use the bug reporting
  97. form at <http://httpd.apache.org/bug_report.html>. You can also subscribe
  98. to the announcements mailing list (announce-subscribe@httpd.apache.org) which
  99. we use to broadcast information about new releases, bugfixes, and upcoming
  100. events. There's a lot of information about the development process (much of
  101. it in serious need of updating) to be found at <http://httpd.apache.org/dev/>.
  102. If you'd like to become an active contributor to the Apache project (the
  103. group of volunteers who vote on changes to the distributed server), then
  104. you need to start by subscribing to the dev@httpd.apache.org mailing list.
  105. One warning though: traffic is high, 1000 to 1500 messages/month.
  106. To subscribe to the list, send an email to dev-subscribe@httpd.apache.org.
  107. We recommend reading the list for a while before trying to jump in to
  108. development.
  109. NOTE: The developer mailing list (dev@httpd.apache.org) is not
  110. a user support forum; it is for people actively working on development
  111. of the server code and documentation, and for planning future
  112. directions. If you have user/configuration questions, send them
  113. to users list <http://httpd.apache.org/userslist> or to the USENET
  114. newsgroup "comp.infosystems.www.servers.unix".or for windows users,
  115. the newsgroup "comp.infosystems.www.servers.ms-windows".
  116. There is a core group of contributors (informally called the "core")
  117. which was formed from the project founders and is augmented from time
  118. to time when core members nominate outstanding contributors and the
  119. rest of the core members agree. The core group focus is more on
  120. "business" issues and limited-circulation things like security problems
  121. than on mainstream code development. The term "The Apache Group"
  122. technically refers to this core of project contributors.
  123. The Apache project is a meritocracy--the more work you have done, the more
  124. you are allowed to do. The group founders set the original rules, but
  125. they can be changed by vote of the active members. There is a group
  126. of people who have logins on our server (apache.org) and access to the
  127. svn repository. Everyone has access to the svn snapshots. Changes to
  128. the code are proposed on the mailing list and usually voted on by active
  129. members--three +1 (yes votes) and no -1 (no votes, or vetoes) are needed
  130. to commit a code change during a release cycle; docs are usually committed
  131. first and then changed as needed, with conflicts resolved by majority vote.
  132. Our primary method of communication is our mailing list. Approximately 40
  133. messages a day flow over the list, and are typically very conversational in
  134. tone. We discuss new features to add, bug fixes, user problems, developments
  135. in the web server community, release dates, etc. The actual code development
  136. takes place on the developers' local machines, with proposed changes
  137. communicated using a patch (output of a unified "diff -u oldfile newfile"
  138. command), and committed to the source repository by one of the core
  139. developers using remote svn. Anyone on the mailing list can vote on a
  140. particular issue, but we only count those made by active members or people
  141. who are known to be experts on that part of the server. Vetoes must be
  142. accompanied by a convincing explanation.
  143. New members of the Apache Group are added when a frequent contributor is
  144. nominated by one member and unanimously approved by the voting members.
  145. In most cases, this "new" member has been actively contributing to the
  146. group's work for over six months, so it's usually an easy decision.
  147. The above describes our past and current (as of July 2000) guidelines,
  148. which will probably change over time as the membership of the group
  149. changes and our development/coordination tools improve.
  150. ============================================================================
  151. The Apache Software Foundation (www.apache.org)
  152. The Apache Software Foundation exists to provide organizational, legal,
  153. and financial support for the Apache open-source software projects.
  154. Founded in June 1999 by the Apache Group, the Foundation has been
  155. incorporated as a membership-based, not-for-profit corporation in order
  156. to ensure that the Apache projects continue to exist beyond the participation
  157. of individual volunteers, to enable contributions of intellectual property
  158. and funds on a sound basis, and to provide a vehicle for limiting legal
  159. exposure while participating in open-source software projects.
  160. You are invited to participate in The Apache Software Foundation. We welcome
  161. contributions in many forms. Our membership consists of those individuals
  162. who have demonstrated a commitment to collaborative open-source software
  163. development through sustained participation and contributions within the
  164. Foundation's projects. Many people and companies have contributed towards
  165. the success of the Apache projects.
  166. ============================================================================
  167. Why The Apache HTTP Server Is Free
  168. Apache HTTP Server exists to provide a robust and commercial-grade reference
  169. implementation of the HTTP protocol. It must remain a platform upon which
  170. individuals and institutions can build reliable systems, both for
  171. experimental purposes and for mission-critical purposes. We believe the
  172. tools of online publishing should be in the hands of everyone, and
  173. software companies should make their money providing value-added services
  174. such as specialized modules and support, amongst other things. We realize
  175. that it is often seen as an economic advantage for one company to "own" a
  176. market - in the software industry that means to control tightly a
  177. particular conduit such that all others must pay. This is typically done
  178. by "owning" the protocols through which companies conduct business, at the
  179. expense of all those other companies. To the extent that the protocols of
  180. the World Wide Web remain "unowned" by a single company, the Web will
  181. remain a level playing field for companies large and small. Thus,
  182. "ownership" of the protocol must be prevented, and the existence of a
  183. robust reference implementation of the protocol, available absolutely for
  184. free to all companies, is a tremendously good thing.
  185. Furthermore, Apache httpd is an organic entity; those who benefit from it
  186. by using it often contribute back to it by providing feature enhancements,
  187. bug fixes, and support for others in public newsgroups. The amount of
  188. effort expended by any particular individual is usually fairly light, but
  189. the resulting product is made very strong. This kind of community can
  190. only happen with freeware--when someone pays for software, they usually
  191. aren't willing to fix its bugs. One can argue, then, that Apache's
  192. strength comes from the fact that it's free, and if it were made "not
  193. free" it would suffer tremendously, even if that money were spent on a
  194. real development team.
  195. We want to see Apache httpd used very widely--by large companies, small
  196. companies, research institutions, schools, individuals, in the intranet
  197. environment, everywhere--even though this may mean that companies who
  198. could afford commercial software, and would pay for it without blinking,
  199. might get a "free ride" by using Apache httpd. We would even be happy if
  200. some commercial software companies completely dropped their own HTTP server
  201. development plans and used Apache httpd as a base, with the proper attributions
  202. as described in the LICENSE file.
  203. Thanks for using Apache HTTP Server!