Basics of Setting up a WEBServer IN LINUX

REALLY Raw Basics of Setting up a WEBServer

NOTE : This document assumes you are using a fully installed version of LINUX. The author has tried to remain fairly generic, but some commands and functions refer to Fedora. You may also benefit from these server commands and this article on more advanced server configuration.

Getting Started - Raw Basics
How to Test if httpd (the web server process) is already installed.

1st: Check to see there IS a webserver installed! At the prompt type: locate apache |more
OR from a web browser try hitting your localhost with an http:// web call.

2nd: Now don't forget to verify that your web server is actually running! One simple way to do this is to check for the httpd process. At the command line type:
ps -e | grep httpd

This should tell you right away IF you have httpd process available. If you do not have this process (ie. if it is not listed) then you need to get help! Try our message boards or search. Otherwise, if you see an httpd process listed, you're in fine shape!

How to look at your pages: your LINUX installation should have Netscape installed. You can also launch the Konquerer browser if you are using KDE. But start a browser and start looking around your web server directories... most likely something like:
/var/www/html.
This all depends on what the locate command above showed you!

Network Configuration
Okay, so let's not forget that before Apache will work, or you can even think about serving WEB pages, it's key to do the network configuration! I won't try to explain the configuration of your personal network because it's really information I should write in a different document.

However, here are some of the basics you'll need to keep in mind:

* Use Network Configurator (usually under Administration in X) to assign IP addresses as needed.
* Use LinuxConf (usually under System in X) to assign proper rights to your account to allow setting up server etc.
* Check to make sure you have a hostname properly assigned by typing:
hostname

Let's assume your network is properly configured and move on!

Basic WEB Serving
It's important to note the directory that you will use extensively (maybe slightly different based on your version):

/var/www/html

This directory contains rather self-explanatory sub-directories such as where you should put the html files like index.html. In fact, you'll find that you spend most of the time in: /var/www/html, /var/www/cgi-bin. You might as well go ahead and open several Xterminal sessions looking at these dirs!

Don't waste time trying to do things right now without using Root login. You should be careful and make back-up copies of files you are about to edit by typing:
cp filename.ext filename.ext.old

Basic Information Resources
Documentation is all over, but the best place is the dummy index.html page on your web server system under /var/www/html.

We have some more helpful ideas under our Linux Help page.

Also, there is a well documented location of beginner web stuff than at http://www.bignosebird.com. This is probably a very good start for any new web engineer or web master.