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<manualpage metafile="getting-started.xml.meta">

<title>Getting Started</title>

<summary>

<p>If you're completely new to the Apache HTTP Server, or even to running

a website at all, you might not know where to start, or what questions to

ask. This document walks you through the basics.</p>

</summary>

<section id="clientserver">

<title>Clients, Servers, and URLs</title>

<p>

Addresses on the Web are expressed with URLs - Uniform Resource Locators

- which specify a protocol (e.g. <code>http</code>), a servername (e.g.

<code>www.apache.org</code>), a URL-path (e.g.

<code>/docs/current/getting-started.html</code>), and possibly a query

string (e.g. <code>?arg=value</code>) used to pass additional

arguments to the server.

</p>

<p>A client (e.g., a web browser) connects to a server (e.g., your Apache HTTP Server),

with the specified protocol, and makes a <strong>request</strong> for a resource using the

URL-path.</p>

<p>The URL-path may represent any number of things on the server. It may

be a file (like <code>getting-started.html</code>) a handler (like <a

href="mod/mod_status.html">server-status</a>) or some kind of program

file (like <code>index.php</code>). We'll discuss this more below in

the <a href="#content">Web Site Content</a> section.</p>

<p>

The server will send a <strong>response</strong> consisting of a status

code and, optionally, a response body.

The status code indicates whether the request was successful, and, if not, what

kind of error condition there was. This tells the client what it should

do with the response. You can read about the possible response codes in

<a href="http://wiki.apache.org/httpd/CommonHTTPStatusCodes">HTTP Server

wiki</a>.</p>

<p>Details of the transaction, and any error conditions, are written to

log files. This is discussed in greater detail below in the <a

href="#logs">Logs Files and Troubleshooting</a> section.</p>

</section>

<section id="dns">

<title>Hostnames and DNS</title>

<p>In order to connect to a server, the client will first have to resolve

the servername to an IP address - the location on the Internet where the

server resides. Thus, in order for your web server to be reachable, it

is necessary that the servername be in DNS.</p>

<p>If you don't know how to do this, you'll need to contact your network

administrator, or Internet service provider, to perform this step for

you.</p>

<p>If you are testing a server that is not Internet-accessible, you

can put host names in your hosts file in order to do local resolution.

For example, you might want to put a record in your hosts file to map a

request for <code>www.example.com</code> to your local system, for

testing purposes. This entry would look like:</p>

<example>

127.0.0.1 www.example.com

</example>

<p>A hosts file will probably be located at <code>/etc/hosts</code> or

<code>C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts</code>.</p>

<p>You can read more about the hosts file at <a

href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file)">Wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file)</a>, and

more about DNS at <a

href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System">Wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System</a>.</p>

</section>

<section id="configuration">

<title>Configuration Files and Directives</title>

</section>

<section id="content">

<title>Web Site Content</title>

</section>

<section id="logs">

<title>Log Files and Troubleshooting</title>

</section>

<section id="other">

<title>What Else Do I Need To Know?</title>

</section>

</manualpage>