Sooner or later, you'll want to reset your log files (access_log and error_log) because they are too big, or full of old information you don't need.

access.log typically grows by 1Mb for each 10,000 requests.

Most people's first attempt at replacing the logfile is to just move the logfile or remove the logfile. This doesn't work.

Apache will continue writing to the logfile at the same offset as before the logfile moved. This results in a new logfile being created which is just as big as the old one, but it now contains thousands (or millions) of null characters.

The correct procedure is to move the logfile, then signal Apache to tell it to reopen the logfiles.

Apache is signaled using the SIGHUP (-1) signal. e.g.

mv access_log access_log.old
kill -1 `cat httpd.pid`

Note: httpd.pid is a file containing the process id of the Apache httpd daemon, Apache saves this in the same directory as the log files.

Many people use this method to replace (and backup) their logfiles on a nightly or weekly basis.

 There are two chief ways to redirect all requests for an entire server to a single location: one which requires the use of mod_rewrite, and another which uses a CGI script.

First: if all you need to do is migrate a server from one name to another, simply use the Redirect directive, as supplied by mod_alias:

  Redirect / http://www.apache.org/

Since Redirect will forward along the complete path, however, it may not be appropriate - for example, when the directory structure has changed after the move, and you simply want to direct people to the home page.

The best option is to use the standard Apache module mod_rewrite. If that module is compiled in, the following lines

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule /.* http://www.apache.org/ [R]

will send an HTTP 302 Redirect back to the client, and no matter what they gave in the original URL, they'll be sent to "http://www.apache.org/".

The second option is to set up a ScriptAlias pointing to a CGI script which outputs a 301 or 302 status and the location of the other server.

By using a CGI script you can intercept various requests and treat them specially, e.g., you might want to intercept POST requests, so that the client isn't redirected to a script on the other server which expects POST information (a redirect will lose the POST information.) You might also want to use a CGI script if you don't want to compile mod_rewrite into your server.

Here's how to redirect all requests to a script... In the server configuration file,

ScriptAlias / /usr/local/httpd/cgi-bin/redirect_script/

and here's a simple perl script to redirect requests:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

print "Status: 302 Moved Temporarily\r\n" .
      "Location: http://www.some.where.else.com/\r\n" .
      "\r\n";

 

 Use the chkconfig command to configure Apache to start at boot:

[root]# chkconfig httpd on

Use the httpd init script in the /etc/init.d directory to start,stop, and restart Apache after booting:

[root]# /etc/init.d/httpd start
[root]# /etc/init.d/httpd stop
[root]# /etc/init.d/httpd restart

[root]# pgrep httpd