If you build your own tailored Apache httpd and PHP, you should take a full backup when you're done, and also fully document which options you selected and modules you included in the build.

You SHOULD do so, of course ... but it's something that you can overlook all too easily. If you find yourself looking at your own system (or perhaps one you have taken over) and wondering "and what is built into THIS?" there are ways to find out.

The file config.nice is saved by the ./configure that you'll run prior to building Apache httpd, and it contains a log of the options you selected:

#! /bin/sh
#
# Created by configure
 
"./configure" \
"--enable-so" \
"--enable-proxy" \
"--enable-proxy-http" \
"--enable-proxy-balancer" \
"--enable-rewrite" \
"--enable-proxy-ajp" \
"--prefix=/usr/local/apache2.2" \
"$@"

If you have an already installed web server (without access to those development directories) the httpd daemon itself can be called up with the -l option, to give you a list of compiled-in modules. This is the same example as the build above, and has been tuned to allow me to install PHP (the so module) and to allow for a variety of rewriting or URLs and proxying on to application servers - further httpds, Tomcats running Java, etc ...

[trainee@crocus ~]$ cd /usr/local/apache2.2
[trainee@crocus apache2.2]$ ./bin/httpd -l
Compiled in modules:
core.c
mod_authn_file.c
mod_authn_default.c
mod_authz_host.c
mod_authz_groupfile.c
mod_authz_user.c
mod_authz_default.c
mod_auth_basic.c
mod_include.c
mod_filter.c
mod_log_config.c
mod_env.c
mod_setenvif.c
mod_proxy.c
mod_proxy_connect.c
mod_proxy_ftp.c
mod_proxy_http.c
mod_proxy_ajp.c
mod_proxy_balancer.c
prefork.c
http_core.c
mod_mime.c
mod_status.c
mod_autoindex.c
mod_asis.c
mod_cgi.c
mod_negotiation.c
mod_dir.c
mod_actions.c
mod_userdir.c
mod_alias.c
mod_rewrite.c
mod_so.c
[trainee@crocus apache2.2]$

So you now know what you've installed in your httpd web server, and you can learn more by looking at the httpd.conf file, and any other files it includes. But what about your PHP?

You should find that PHP is configured in via lines in the httpd.conf file:
LoadModule php5_module modules/libphp5.so
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .phtml
and that the library really is in the modules subdirectory.

For details of the build, use PHP to tell you via a test page that reads as follows:
<?php phpinfo() ?>
(Yes - just that one line) which when you browse to it will give you a long web page report.

You can also run "phpinfo" from PHP on the command line:

bash-3.2$ php -r 'phpinfo();'
PHP Version => 5.2.x
 
Build Date => Jul 17 2008 07:00:56
Configure Command => './configure' '--with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apxs'
'--with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql' '--with-gd' '--with-png-dir=/usr'
'--with-jpeg-dir=/usr'
Server API => Command Line Interface
Virtual Directory Support => disabled
Configuration File (php.ini) Path => /usr/local/lib
And so on ...

(Note - this is a much trimmed example!)
(written 2008-08-23, updated 2008-08-24)

 A602 - Web Application Deployment - Apache httpd - Sourcing, Installation, Testing
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H114 - Sourcing, installing and configuring PHP
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  [481] PHP upgrade - traps to watch - (2005-10-31)
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  [192] Current MySQL and PHP paths and upgrades - (2005-01-28)

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