[Recipes] working on issue COOKBOOK-I1.1

Hi all,

I've been tackling the first issue of the cookbook, i.e.,
verifying the minimal required overrides in the Apache
configuration. To sum up, I can confirm that both "FileInfo"
and "Options" are required overrides, and to the best of my
knowledge, no additional overrides are required.

Additional details follow: my setup is a Debian Sid box
with Apache 2.0.55 (the WD uses 2.0.46), and a fresh set
of Apache configuration files (as provided by Debian).
I carefully examined these files to confirm that no other
"AllowOverride" directive was in scope. I implemented the
five "main" recipes of the document, and also recipe 1A.
I excluded recipes 2A-5A because, as far as I know, they
don't have any requirement that isn't covered by the other
ones. Then, I run the unit tests[1] to check this "vanilla"
configuration and some variants:

* Removing the "Options" override makes the whole directory
containing .htaccess inaccesible (HTTP 500 Internal Server
Error). Any attempt to access a file under that directory
will generate a message like "[...] .htaccess: Options not
allowed here" in the Apache error log. This message refers
to the "Options -MultiViews" line required for Recipes 2, 3,
4 and 5. Note that Recipe 1 doesn't require this line, so
it can be successfully implemented even without the "Options"
override. For more information on why "Options -MultiViews" is
required for some recipes, refer to [2] and [3].

* Removing the "FileInfo" override has the same effect as
before. In this case, Apache prints the message "[...]
.htaccess: AddType not allowed here" in the error log. However,
if you have privileges to edit the main configuration file for
Apache, you may follow the advice in the "Apache configuration"
section of the WD, and append the "AddType" line to that file.
In this case, the "AddType" line has no use in the .htaccess
file, and can be safely removed (also tested). However,
the "FileInfo" override cannot be removed because it is also
required by the RewriteEngine.

Regards,

[1] http://idi.fundacionctic.org/rdfbestprac/
[2]
http://www.gerd-riesselmann.net/archives/2005/04/beware-of-apaches-multiviews
[3] http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/content-negotiation.html

--
Diego Berrueta
R&D Department  -  CTIC Foundation
E-mail: diego.berrueta@fundacionctic.org
Phone: +34 984 29 12 12
Parque Científico Tecnológico Gijón-Asturias-Spain
www.fundacionctic.org