Pro Apache is the latest revision of Peter Wainwright's bestselling book on Apache configuration and administration. It is a thoroughly comprehensive and large volume covering a good number of topics including much detail about installation, configuration, maintenance and deployment for both v1.3 and v2.0 of the Apache HTTP Web Server.

The book starts out with interesting background information about HTTP and the operation of Apache and then several pages on the underlying TCP/IP concepts. The latter I feel should probably be left out from what is already a big book. It then continues to provide detail about all of the configuration capabilities along with many useful examples.

Following this are chapters on options for supporting dynamic content (via SSI, CGI, PHP, Tomcat/Java), implementing User Authentication, improving performance and enhancing security. All of which are extremely pertinent issues for an aspiring web master. As a newbie I was successful in getting my Solaris 9 Apache package configured and up-and-running along with PHP in no time.

Peter talks authoritatively about his subject and I am filled with confidence about the advice that he is giving. Unfortunately two small aspects let the book down a little.

Firstly, I found the formatting of the Sections and Sub-Sections titles difficult to differentiate which caused some confusion about where I was, despite the book following a common publishing style. Otherwise it is perfectly well formatted and provides information clearly and concisely Secondly I found a small number of errors in the examples and the table of contents.

I am left thinking that this book was rushed to print without enough care and attention given to the final copy and despite being published in January 2004 I was unable to find an errata or source code download on the Apress website. Overall this is a book with great technical content but some publishing glitches.