In this issue

Apache Site: www.apache.org
Release: 1.3.9 (Released 20^th August 1999) (local download sites)
Beta: None

Apache 1.3.9 is the current stable release. Users of Apache 1.3.6 and earlier on Unix systems should upgrade to this version. Users of Apache on Windows can now upgrade to Apache 1.3.9 avoiding the previous problems with Apache 1.3.6. Read the Guide to 1.3.9 for information about changes between 1.3.6 and 1.3.9.

Most bugs listed below include a link to the entry in the Apache bug database where the problem is being tracked. These entries are called "PR"s (Problem Reports). Some bugs do not correspond to problem reports if they are found by developers.

A large number of patches have been made to the 1.3.9 code over the last couple of weeks in preparation for a 1.3.10 release in the future. There is no release date set for 1.3.10 but it is unlikely to be released until the new year.

• mod_rewrite would incorrectly expand back-references. PR#4766, PR#5389.
• Authentication on a location configured as a pass-through proxy using ProxyPass would fail.
• Changes to EBCDIC support including fixing problems when using chunked encoding, and replacing occurrences in Apache of "\012\015" with a macro.
• Changes to the build process including automatically searching for a system dependant header, consistency cleanups to APXS, correctly detecting builds for the TPF platform, and adding a layout for the SuSE linux distribution (PR#5112)
• A new option to the log file format, "%q" has been added. This option returns information passwd in the query string. PR#5174
• A few fixes to the original digest module, mod_auth_digest to better check the Authorization header and fix a potential core dump.
• Fixes for DSO support on AIX including using native DSO support with AIX 4.3 and later. PR#5309

Patches for bugs in Apache 1.3.9 will be made available in the apply_to_1.3.9 subdirectory of the patches directory on the Apache site. Some new features and other unofficial patches are available in the 1.3 patches directory. For details of all previously reported bugs, see the Apache bug database and known bugs pages. Many common configuration questions are answered in the Apache FAQ.

A number of small feature additions have been made which will appear in Apache 1.3.10 when it is released.

• The HP MPE/iX port of Apache has been worked on and will include DSO support for the first time.
• Script handling through mod_actions has been updated so that it can deal with arbitrary methods and not just the well-known ones.
• Initial support for the IBM OS/390 operating system has been incorporated
• A new directive, AddCharset has been added. This directive is useful when content negotation is being used as the server can return a document based on the charset preference of the client.

The second official Apache conference, ApacheCon 2000, takes place March 8th-10th 2000 in Orlando, Florida. Apache Week is a sponsor of ApacheCon 2000 and will keep you updated on conference news between now and March.

You can now register on-line for ApacheCon 2000 using a credit card and a secure web browser. By registering for the conference early, ApacheCon are offering a discount of US$225 off the full conference price.

The Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithms project (ECC2K-108) is using a network of distributed volunteers to solve part of Certicom's ECC challenge. If ECDL wins the challenge, the prize is US$10000 with US$1000 each going to the volunteers finding the solution and US$8000 donated to The Apache Software Foundation. Information and client programs are available.

The Mars Polar Lander mission has featured in the news over the last couple of weeks as flight controllers failed to make contact with the lander. The web site needed to cope with the enormous number of hits expected and Apache was chosen for its flexibility and reliability. A technical white paper discusses how the site was configured and how they made use of accelerators and load-balancing techniques and the importance of cache control.

Network Computing Germany magazine issue 8th December 1999 examined the performance of Apache against Netscape and IIS in a "Real World Labs" article. The article is not yet available online.

This week in the news is Covalent, who received funding to expand their recently announced Apache support service, and Linuxcare who are expanding their existing support operation to cover Apache.

Commercial support for Apache has been available to organisations for almost as long as Apache has been developed. In 1996, UK Web in England had the first telephone and email support service for Apache. They were joined for a brief time by Cygnus Solutions who dropped their Apache support program shortly after launch. UK Web also switched, instead supporting a commercial Apache variant from C2Net. Over the last few years a number of other companies have offered support and other professional services for Apache.

Apache is also distributed with a number of operating systems. RedHat supports Apache as part of their Linux distribution, IBM support their verson of Apache and recently confirmed rumours show that Sun will be distributing Apache with Solaris 8.

The press have confused the funding for Covalent with Apache itself and this confusion is also evident in readers comments on Slashdot. The Apache Software Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation with no plans for commercial services or to go public.