The Miscellaneous options page is just what it sounds like (Figure 7-5). It’s the global options that didn’t seem to fit anywhere else. As such, there aren’t very many fields on this page, but nonetheless there are a few items of interest.
Figure 7-5: Apache Miscellaneous page
This is the directory where Apache will send its core dump file, in the event of a crash. By default this will be the same directory as the Apache server’s root directory. However, the server process will not normally have write access to this directory, so in order to get a core dump on crashes, it is necessary to change it to a directory that is writable by the Apache process. Core dumps are often used for debugging purposes. This option affects the CoreDumpDirectory [http://www.apache.org/docs/mod/core.html#coredumpdirectory] directive.
This sets the location for Apache’s lock file to the file named. A lock file is the file that is used to notify a new instance of a process that one is already running. This prevents Apache from trying to start again, using the same configuration, if it is already running. Note that if you use a different configuration and a different lock file, it is possible to start multiple instances of Apache. This option corresponds to the LockFile [http://www.apache.org/docs/mod/core.html#lockfile] directive.
The PID file for Apache. Edits the PidFile [http://www.apache.org/docs/mod/core.html#pidfile] directive.
Some architectures require a file for the children and parent processes can communicate. For performance this can be placed on a RAM disk. This corresponds to the ScoreBoardFile [http://www.apache.org/docs/mod/core.html#scoreboardfile] directive.
This option allows you to set the data that will be contained within the HTTP header. This corresponds to the ServerTokens [http://www.apache.org/docs/mod/core.html#servertokens] directive.
Defines how the server will be started. Standalone indicates that it will run as a standalone daemon, while Run from inetd will cause it to run periodically, as called by the inetd daemon. It is strongly recommended to avoid the inetd option, as it does not always work as expected. This option edits the ServerType [http://www.apache.org/docs/mod/core.html#servertype] directive.