Why are some apache "base" modules in conf.modules.d/00-base.conf and some not?

Posted on

I'm trying to set up a new RHEL 7 server with apache 2.4 and migrate an existing RHEL6/apache2.2 web server to it. I'm trying to figure out what modules I need to load, what modules I need to surpress, and what modules are already loaded and I don't have to. When I list the 2.2 loaded modules in my old server, the first couple in alphabetical order are
mod_actions.c
mod_alias.c
mod_asis.c
mod_auth_basic.c
Those four are all documented as being "Status" of "Base" in the apache documentation, which is defined thusly:
"A module labeled as having "Base" status is compiled and loaded into the server by default, and is therefore normally available unless you have taken steps to remove the module from your configuration."

I have installed apache on my new server, and there is the directory conf.modules.d/ which contains some files that are included at the top of the httpd.conf. The top of that file looks like this:

$ cat /etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/00-base.conf
#
# This file loads most of the modules included with the Apache HTTP
# Server itself.
#

LoadModule access_compat_module modules/mod_access_compat.so
LoadModule actions_module modules/mod_actions.so
LoadModule alias_module modules/mod_alias.so
LoadModule allowmethods_module modules/mod_allowmethods.so
LoadModule auth_basic_module modules/mod_auth_basic.so

Ok, access_compat is an Extension, and allowmethods is Experimental, actions, alias and auth_basic are all Base. I am totally confused as to the purpose here... If actions, alias and auth_basic are already in the base build, why are they being loaded here? If Base things are not in the executable unless you explicitly load them in one of these conf files, why isn't asis being loaded here, too? And, finally, why are we loading Extension and Experimental modules in a script called "00-base.conf" ?

I'm trying to decide if I should add

      LoadModule asis_module modules/mod_asis.so

in the 00-base.conf file. I'm totally perplexed as to what the rules are here...

e2

Responses