3 The Base Directory

Building all these packages can get messy. When one gets back to upgrading a module with Apache (or Apache itself), it would make sense to be able to find all the packages instantly, instead of trying to figure out which directory the modules were installed in.

I recommend to create a directory where all the packages/modules are to be downloaded to, untarred and built from. For example, on a Linux system, one may create the directory /usr/local/src/apache, or even /opt/apache. On a Sun Server, I usually create the directory /export/apache.

Now, it is under these directories where you should install all the packages/modules. Basically make a base directory that will be used to untar the packages needed to install Apache (mod_perl, mod_php, etc, etc). So a final look of the Apache build directories would look like (if one were to chose /usr/local/src/apache/ as the directory which will hold all the source files):

/usr/local/src/apache/apache_1.3.x
/usr/local/src/apache/mod_perl-1.2x
/usr/local/src/apache/mod_python-2.7.x
/usr/local/src/apache/php-4.3.x
/usr/local/src/apache/openssl-0.9.7d
...

Therefore, when it comes to upgrade time, one can simply find out what is installed by viewing the contents of the base directory that everything was originally installed under.

Note: throughout the document, I will refer to my base directory as /usr/local/apache. This can be different depending on what one chooses, for example, some choose to download the source files to /opt/apache/.

I also chose to install Apache itself, after the configuration and compiling, in /usr/local/apache. Now, this should not be confused with the source directories which were discussed above, as /usr/local/apache should hold just the Apache server software itself, after it has been installed.