apache-http-server/docs/STATUS

Apache HTTP Server Trunk Documentation Status File.
Last modified: $Date$

For more information on how to contribute to the Apache Documentation
Project, please see http://httpd.apache.org/docs-project/ and
http://httpd.apache.org/docs-project/docsformat.html

              ------------------------------

ApacheCon 2010 Hackathon To Do List
===================================

- mod_lua documentation with examples. (PQuerna has tentatively agreed
  to give us an informal session on mod_lua in order to flesh out the
  docs and put some force behind the notion that mod_lua can replace
  mod_rewrite

- FAQ - Decide what to do with the FAQ - both the 1.3 FAQ and the
  current FAQ, if in fact we still need one.

- Scour the httpd.apache.org website for stale, inaccurate, or
  misleading information which seems to have accumulated over the years.

- Make the docs-project website more useful and actually welcoming of
  new contributors.

To Do List
=======================

- The dns-caveats document is largely rubbish, and needs to be
  completely rewritten. Many of the points stopped being true over a
  decade ago.

- The 1.3 docs need to have links from each directive forward to the
  /docs/current/ version of that directive, or a note that it's not
  avaialble in this century. See core.html for examples of how this
  might be done. This is a large undertaking, and involves a lot of
  grunt work, but will be greatly appreciated by the folks that make it
  to the wrong doc via Google. (Update: This is clearly going to take
  many months of effort, due to the volume of work and the mind-numbing
  tediousness.)

- Adding to the discussion of conditional logging, which I think
  could be turned into more of a howto than the one paragraph it's
  got now.

- Update the http://httpd.apache.org/docs-project/docsformat.html
  document to be useful. In particular:
    - Document the various macros that can be used in documents.
    - Document the translation process.
    - Generally update it to make it reflect the current reality of how
      we work.
    -  Improving the documentation of the documentations' build system
       itself (requirements, procedures)

- Identify which documents are grossly out of date, and fix.

- The FAQ never amounted to much. Review the current FAQ, which is
  1.3-era, and bring it into this century. (RBowen - I've copied the FAQ
  into the wiki at http://wiki.apache.org/httpd/FAQ and am editing it
  there. Consensus seems to be that this should be its new home.)

- Security docs are unhelpful, and assume that the reader knows nothing.
  Need something a little more advanced, which either discusses
  application-level security, or links to something that does. I'm not
  even sure what to say needs done. Can we get someone to elaborate on
  what, exactly, needs written? Ivan Ristic has said maybe he would be
  willing to contribute.
  - More content and better organisation
  - mod_dav resources are owned by the httpd. Perhaps write up the
    two-httpd dav setup covered in Rich Bowen's DAV Apachecon
    presentation.

- Performance doc is way too low-level. Several people have said that
  they might help out here, but it's a significant undertaking, and more
  than a little daunting.
 
- Windows platform docs are in desperate need of rewrites/updates for 2.x.
    - Bill Rowe and Bill Stoddard are good contacts for tech questions.
    - "using apache" has been done, "compiling apache" is still open
    - hints on uninstalling apache (exit monitor, close directories,
      registry entries etc) (PR 10154)
    - FAQ: UTF-8 config and URL encoding for non-ascii characters.

- New Auth system
    - Much clean-up and enhancement of aaa howto
    - Independent note on how to upgrade to new auth system
    - Discussion of DBD auth, and, in particular, examples of how to set
      up auth using each of the supported databases.

- modules docs
    - the follwing modules added since 2.2 lack documentation
        - mod_serf
        - mod_watchdog
        - mod_heartbeat
        - mod_heartmonitor
        - mod_lbmethod_bybusyness
        - mod_lbmethod_byrequests
        - mod_lbmethod_bytraffic
        - mod_lbmethod_heartbeat
        - mod_socache_dbm
        - mod_socache_memcache
        - mod_socache_shmcb
        - mpm_simple
      the list may be incomplete
      maybe some of the modules will not be included in 2.4
    - The following modules have new docs added since 2.2, but are
      grossly lacking in details and examples.
        - mod_dialup
    - mod_suexec: very little documentation
    - mod_rewrite: explain, when which variables are actually available
      (PR 16402)
    
- MPM documentation
     - explain what the following command line options do
       (perhaps in the developer/debugging docs):
        -D DEBUG
        -D ONE_PROCESS
              one-process-mode == no threads, i.e. only one
              process handling the requests in a single loop?

- Individual docs will need some cleanup. 
     - platform/ebcdic.xml - needs major rework for 2.0
     - dso.xml - Reads as though this is a nifty new thing we just came
       up with recently.

- API documentation
    - Ben Laurie has written some hooks documentation
    - authn provider API documentation could be useful

- SSL docs need serious update and enhancement
    - compat docs are wrong
    - no basic how to setup ssl doc
    mads said he was working on this, but...

- How does <Proxy> fit into sections.html?

- Missing documentation for the support program checkgid

- New user docs: Directory Handling (mod_dir/mod_autoindex/etc)
  (draft available in wiki)

- Enhancements to the DTD/XSL:
  - New index: directives by context, including listing which directives
    are available for each AllowOverride setting.
  - New index: backout modules by type (aaa, mappers, loggers etc.)
    probably by introducing a <category> element in modulesynopsis
  - Use a tag like <var> in place of <em> for things like the 
    <syntax> listing.
    - in progress
  - add letter links to glossary and quickreference, 
    perhaps also a term overview (sidebar)
  - remove <pre> elements. Use <br /> and <indent> elements to get
    a similar effect.

- Provide example solutions for the mapping of encodings, especially
  for .gz etc. (also in regard to our default configuration)

- How-To style documents for more of the daily tasks
    - Logging, log rotation, and log reporting
    - Secure mod_dav configuration

- Writing modules - Can we provide a basic intro to writing modules,
  perhaps based around mod_example, or one of the other simple example
  modules?

- http://httpd.apache.org/docs/trunk/developer/ is a graveyard, and a
  profound embarrassment.
    - Purge all the dead links
    - API docs are generated via 'make dox'. Find somewhere that we can
      do this on a schedule, and link to that from the documentation.
    - Introductory module authoring doc
    - Verify links to external resources at least every year

- Update the list of translations at
  http://httpd.apache.org/docs-project/translations.html  Some of those
  are accurate, and others are way outdated.

- I'd like to expand the discussion of conditional logging, and add a
  few more useful exmaples.
  That would be a good place to document logging of cache hit/miss:
  https://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=48241#c2

- Is it worth having a doc that discusses recommended (what does this
  mean?) third-party modules like mod_security, mod_php, and so on - the
  things that we all assume everyone uses, but some folks might not know
  about.

LaTeX Todo list
==================

- Dozens of other little problems with presentation, cross-referencing,
  etc.

- Cleanup xsl to make it more readable.  Almost everything
  that is currently in latex.xsl should probably be moved to common.xsl.
  There may be a license problem with the atbeginend.sty file, since
  latex style files rarely have explict licenses.  At worst, we can
  drop this and manually adjust the relevant spacing.

- Reduce the size of the pdf (both bytes and pages) in any way possible.

- Translations.