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<manualpage metafile="new_features_2_2.xml.meta">
<title>Overview of new features in Apache 2.2</title>
<summary>
<p>This document describes some of the major changes between the
2.0 and 2.2 versions of the Apache HTTP Server. For new features since
document.</p>
</summary>
<section id="core">
<title>Core Enhancements</title>
<dl>
<dd>The bundled authentication and authorization modules have
been refactored. There is a new authentication backend provider
scheme which greatly eases the construction of new authentication
backends.</dd>
<dt>Caching</dt>
<dd><module>mod_cache</module>, <module>mod_disk_cache</module>, and
<module>mod_mem_cache</module> have undergone a lot of changes
are now considered production-quality. <program>htcacheclean</program>
has been introduced to cleanup <module>mod_disk_cache</module>
setups.</dd>
<dt>Graceful stop</dt>
<dd>The <module>prefork</module>, <module>worker</module> and
<module>event</module> MPMs now allow <program>httpd</program>
to be shutdown gracefully via the
signal. The <directive
module="mpm_common">GracefulShutdownTimeout</directive> directive
has been added to specify an optional timeout, after which
<program>httpd</program> will terminate regardless of the status
of any requests being served.</dd>
<dt>Proxying</dt>
<dd>The new <module>mod_proxy_balancer</module> module provides
load balancing services for <module>mod_proxy</module>.
The new <module>mod_proxy_ajp</module> module adds support for the
<code>Apache JServ Protocol version 1.3</code> used by
<dt>Regular Expression Library Updated</dt>
<dd>Version 5.0 of the
<a href="http://www.pcre.org/">Perl Compatible Regular Expression
Library</a> (PCRE) is now included.</dd>
<dt>Smart Filtering</dt>
<dd><module>mod_filter</module> introduces dynamic configuration
to the output filter chain. It enables filters to be conditionally
inserted, based on any Request or Response header or environment
variable, and dispenses with the more problematic dependencies and
ordering problems in the 2.0 architecture.</dd>
<dt>Large File Support</dt>
<dd>httpd is now built with support for files larger than 2Gb on
modern 32-bit Unix systems. Support for handling >2Gb request
bodies has also been added.</dd>
<dt>Event MPM</dt>
<dd>The <module>event</module> MPM uses a seperate thread to handle
Keep Alive requests and accepting connections. Keep Alive requests
have traditionally required httpd to dedicate a worker to handle it.
This dedicated worker could not be used again until the Keep Alive
timeout was reached.</dd>
<dt>SQL Database Support</dt>
<dd><module>mod_dbd</module>, together with the apr_dbd framework,
brings direct SQL support to modules that need it. Supports
connection pooling in threaded MPMs.</dd>
</dl>
</section>
<section id="module">
<title>Module Enhancements</title>
<dl>
<dt><module>mod_authnz_ldap</module></dt>
<dd>This module is a port of the 2.0
framework. New features include using LDAP attribute values and
complicated search filters in the
<directive module="core">Require</directive> directive.</dd>
<dt><module>mod_info</module></dt>
<dd>Added a new <code>?config</code> argument which will show
the configuration directives as parsed by Apache, including
their file name and line number. The module also
shows the order of all request hooks and additional
build information, similar to <code>httpd -V</code>.</dd>
<dt><module>mod_ssl</module></dt>
<!-- Need Info on SSLEngine Support? -->
<dd>Added a support for
allows connections to upgrade from clear text to TLS encryption.</dd>
</dl>
</section>
<section id="programs">
<title>Program Enhancements</title>
<dl>
<dt><program>httpd</program></dt>
<dd>A new command line option <code>-M</code> has been added that
lists all modules that are loaded based on the current
configuration. Unlike the <code>-l</code> option, this list
includes DSOs loaded via <module>mod_so</module>.</dd>
</dl>
</section>
<section id="developer">
<title>Module Developer Changes</title>
<dl>
<dt><glossary>APR</glossary> 1.0 API</dt>
<dd>Apache 2.2 uses the APR 1.0 API. All deprecated functions and
symbols have been removed from <code>APR</code> and
<code>APR-Util</code>. For details, see the
<dt>Connection Error Logging</dt>
<dd>A new function, <code>ap_log_cerror</code> has been added to log
errors that occure with the client's connection. When logged,
the message includes the client IP address.</dd>
<dt>Test Configuration Hook Added</dt>
<dd>A new hook, <code>test_config</code> has been added to aid
modules that want to execute special code only when the user passes
<code>-t</code> to <program>httpd</program>.</dd>
<dt>Set Threaded MPM's Stacksize</dt>
<dd>A new directive, <code>ThreadStackSize</code> has been added to
set the stack size on all threaded MPMs. This is required
for some third-party modules on platforms with small default
thread stack size.</dd>
<dt>Protocol handling for output filters</dt>
<dd>In the past, every filter has been responsible for ensuring
that it generates the correct response headers where it affects
them. Filters can now delegate common protocol management to
<module>mod_filter</module>, using the
<code>ap_register_output_filter_protocol</code> or
<code>ap_filter_protocol</code> calls.</dd>
<dt>Monitor hook added</dt>
in the parent (root) process.</dd>
</dl>
</section>
</manualpage>