Netscape ENTERPRISE SERVER 6.1, Manual

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Dynamic Reconfiguration
22 Netscape Enterprise Server NSAPI Programmer’s Guide • April 2002 (Draft)
Dynamic Reconfiguration
You do not have to restart the server for changes to
obj.conf
,
mime.types
,
server.xml
, and virtual-server-specific ACL files to take effect. All you need to do
is apply the changes by clicking the Apply link and then clicking the Load
Configuration Files button on the Apply Changes screen. If there are errors in
installing the new configuration, the previous configuration is restored.
When you edit
obj.conf
and apply the changes, a new configuration is loaded
into memory that contains all the information from the dynamically configurable
files.
Every new connection references the newest configuration. Once the last session
referencing a configuration ends, the now unused old configuration is deleted.
How the Server Handles Requests from Clients
is a web server that accepts and responds to HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
requests. Browsers like Netscape Communicator communicate using several
protocols including HTTP, FTP, and gopher. The handles HTTP specifically.
For more information about the HTTP protocol refer to Appendix E, “HyperText
Transfer Protocol” and also the latest HTTP specification.
HTTP Basics
As a quick summary, the HTTP/1.1 protocol works as follows:
• the client (usually a browser) opens a connection to the server and sends a
request
• the server processes the request, generates a response, and closes the
connection if it finds a
Connection: Close
header.
The request consists of a line indicating a method such as
GET
or
POST
, a Universal
Resource Identifier (URI) indicating which resource is being requested, and an
HTTP protocol version separated by spaces.
This is normally followed by a number of headers, a blank line indicating the end
of the headers, and sometimes body data. Headers may provide various
information about the request or the client Body data. Headers are typically only
sent for POST and PUT methods.