September 6, 2004

12:52 PM

In the midst of setting up a new Apache webserver, I started investigating the purpose of the modules that come with the default installation, a process which led me to mod_cern_meta. It's odd -- it's a module that lets you embed web page meta information into separate files, and it's loaded by default, but it's not enabled for any sites or directories, nor have I ever seen it used. A few Google searches turned up no obvious web applications that use it, either. Is there something I'm missing here? Is there any reason I should keep the module loaded?
posted by delfuego to (7 comments total)

No.
posted by majick at 1:10 PM on September 6, 2004

Live-in sysadmin says that cern metadata is a backwards-compatibility module for the original CERN webserver, and you don't need it.
posted by annathea at 1:12 PM on September 6, 2004

You can disable it.
posted by cmonkey at 1:12 PM on September 6, 2004

So why is it included by default? It sounds pretty esoteric.
posted by reklaw at 1:40 PM on September 6, 2004

How many people could possibly be upgrading from the CERN webserver to a fresh copy of Apache? Is that who the module is intended for?
posted by mathowie at 1:50 PM on September 6, 2004

From the documentation:

Emulate the CERN HTTPD Meta file semantics. Meta files are HTTP headers that can be output in addition to the normal range of headers for each file accessed. They appear rather like the Apache .asis files, and are able to provide a crude way of influencing the Expires: header, as well as providing other curiosities. There are many ways to manage meta information, this one was chosen because there is already a large number of CERN users who can exploit this module.

So, it sounds to me like it's for people installing Apache who want to use CERN-style headers, rather than people who are upgrading.
posted by annathea at 2:00 PM on September 6, 2004

Of course, that documentation was probably written 5 years ago. Also, big projects are loathe to remove functionality that no one's complaining about.
posted by smackfu at 6:20 PM on September 7, 2004