On Unix systems with POSIX threads support, Apache can
now run in a hybrid multiprocess, multithreaded mode. This
improves scalability for many, but not all configurations.
New Build System
The build system has been rewritten from scratch to be
based on autoconf and libtool. This makes Apache's
configuration system more similar to that of other
packages.
Multiprotocol Support
Apache now has some of the infrastructure in place to
support serving multiple protocols. mod_echo has been written
as an example.
Better support for non-Unix
platforms
Apache 2.0 is faster and more stable on non-Unix
platforms such as BeOS, OS/2, and Windows. With the
introduction of platform-specific multi-processing modules (MPMs) and the
Apache Portable Runtime (APR), these platforms are now
implemented in their native API, avoiding the often buggy and
poorly performing POSIX-emulation layers.
New Apache API
The API for modules has changed significantly for 2.0.
Many of the module-ordering/-priority problems from 1.3 should
be gone. 2.0 does much of this automatically, and module ordering
is now done per-hook to allow more flexibility. Also, new calls
have been added that provide additional module capabilities
without patching the core Apache server.
IPv6 Support
On systems where IPv6 is supported by the underlying
Apache Portable Runtime library, Apache gets IPv6 listening
sockets by default. Additionally, the Listen, NameVirtualHost, and VirtualHost directives support
IPv6 numeric address strings (e.g., "Listen
[fe80::1]:8080").
Filtering
Apache modules may now be written as filters which act on
the stream of content as it is delivered to or from the
server. This allows, for example, the output of CGI scripts to
be parsed for Server Side Include directives using the INCLUDES
filter in mod_include. The module
mod_ext_filter allows external programs to act
as filters in much the same way that CGI programs can act as
handlers.
Multilanguage Error Responses
Error response messages to the browser are now provided in
several languages, using SSI documents. They may be customized
by the administrator to achieve a consistent look and feel.
Simplified configuration
Many confusing directives have been simplified. The often
confusing Port and BindAddress directives are gone; only the
Listen directive is
used for IP address binding; the ServerName directive specifies the
server name and port number only for redirection and vhost
recognition.
Native Windows NT Unicode Support
Apache 2.0 on Windows NT now uses utf-8 for all filename
encodings. These directly translate to the underlying Unicode
file system, providing multilanguage support for all Windows
NT-based installations, including Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
This support does not extend to Windows 95, 98 or ME, which
continue to use the machine's local codepage for filesystem
access.
New module in Apache 2.0. This module implements the HTTP
Distributed Authoring and Versioning (DAV) specification for
posting and maintaining web content.
New module in Apache 2.0.41. This module allows an LDAP
database to be used to store credentials for HTTP Basic
Authentication. A companion module, mod_ldap
provides connection pooling and results caching.
Includes additional support for session caching across
proHTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Mon, 07 Jul 2025 06:16:03 GMT
Server: Apache/2.0.42 (Win32) PHP/5.2.10
Content-Location: new_features_2_0.html.en
Vary: negotiate,accept-language,accept-charset
TCN: choice
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 12018
Keep-Alive: timeout=15, max=100
Connection: Keep-Alive
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Language: en
Overview of new features in Apache 2.0 - Apache HTTP Server
On Unix systems with POSIX threads support, Apache can
now run in a hybrid multiprocess, multithreaded mode. This
improves scalability for many, but not all configurations.
New Build System
The build system has been rewritten from scratch to be
based on autoconf and libtool. This makes Apache's
configuration system more similar to that of other
packages.
Multiprotocol Support
Apache now has some of the infrastructure in place to
support serving multiple protocols. mod_echo has been written
as an example.
Better support for non-Unix
platforms
Apache 2.0 is faster and more stable on non-Unix
platforms such as BeOS, OS/2, and Windows. With the
introduction of platform-specific multi-processing modules (MPMs) and the
Apache Portable Runtime (APR), these platforms are now
implemented in
