The Slowest Web Server In Town

I am the proud owner of the slowest web server in town. I’ve managed to get Apache running — including home directories — on my emulated VAXen.

This didn’t take a lot of work so start with. Mostly following the instructions. Absolutely and entirely. However there’s a number of points that are useful to mention.

Apache 2.4 syntax isn’t enabled by default.

If you’re used to the newer syntax of Require rather than Allow / Deny / Order then you’ll find the module enabling this: authz_core_module disabled in httpd.conf.

User Directories need a number of steps

Firstly, userdir_module needs uncommenting.

Secondly, you’ll need to set a default location in UserDir¹.

Thirdly, the APACHE$WWW user ID needs to have access to the UserDir directory of each user. The instructions for this are in the release notes but the mistake I made was not following this exactly: set the ACLs as noted. It’s not an ideal solution as they will need to be set per user directory.

And next … even slower!

I haven’t set up HTTPS. Yet. My goodness, how that’s going to be slow. Stay tuned.