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Topic: HOWTO: Building Apache and dependencies using CMake

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Topic: HOWTO: Building Apache and dependencies using CMake

[tangent]

You're keeping me busy...

If you check the LIBXML2 section, you'll see I already specify -DLIBXML2_WITH_ZLIB=ON; indeed this option has been present since I switched to building LIBXML2 using CMake (available since release 2.14.1).

Your other LIBXML2 recommendations are worthy, and I've added them.

Regarding the APR-UTIL version check, there's clearly more than one way to do this. I've always lamented the poor string handling in the Windows shell (having come from a UNIX background). Indeed, I have a DOS version of UNIX find in my Windows path (which therefore takes precedence over the Windows builtin find command), and equally findstr is a pain, partly because its regex handling is poor, but also because it's primarily a file filter. Moreover, in a batch file, for a simple string check do I really have to write something like:

[tanquang]

[tangent]

Build dependency updates in support of latest HTTPD 2.4.65 release:

CURL (8.16.0)
EXPAT (2.7.3)
LIBXML2 (2.15.0)
NGHTTP2 (1.67.1)
OPENSSL (3.5.4)
PCRE2 (10.46)

Other than release version changes, remove PCRE2 CMakeLists.txt patch (which is no longer needed), and similarly LIBXML2 CMake configure option LIBXML2_WITH_LZMA.

[tangent]

Build dependency updates in support of latest HTTPD (2.4.66) release:

BROTLI (1.2.0)
CURL (8.17.0)
HTTPD (2.4.66)
LIBXML2 (2.15.1)
NGHTTP2 (1.68.0)
OPENSSL (3.6.0)
PCRE2 (10.47)

There are a significant number of other refinements to the batch file logic in this release (4.1).

Firstly, support for MS Visual Studio 2026 has been added, with an MSVS-SERIES variable being used to choose between locally installed VS2022(17) or VS2026(18). The script currently defaults to VS2022.

Secondly, a CMAKE_DEFAULT_OPTS variable is now passed to all CMake builds. This includes a CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH to ensure we pick up our library builds over others that may be found in the system search path. This change means it's now possible to use later versions of Strawberry Perl, including creating 32-bit builds.

Thirdly, an option has been added to override the CMake minimum version policy; this is needed with VS2026 CMake for some packages (including HTTPD), which currently reference older versions of CMake, e.g. a CMakeLists.txt file entry saying "CMAKE_MINIMUM_REQUIRED(VERSION 2.8)". Note, this new minimum version option may equally cause a "Policy CMP0054" warning message in the log file, which for now is benign.

Similarly, in support of later versions of CMake, the HTTPD CMakeLists.txt file is patched to quote LHS variables in some equality tests. Going forward, a number of packages will evidently need their CMakeLists.txt files updating in future releases, to support later versions of CMake.

Next, PCRE2 CMake options have been added to disable support for BZ2 and READLINE libraries, which may be found (possibly from Strawberry Perl paths).

The CURL url.c file patch has also been reworked for release 8.17.0, and the document build CMakeLists.txt patch has now been lowered from 200 to 20 files per loop.

A patch to HTTPD server\main.c now adds a reference to OpenSSL include file applink.c - see https://docs.openssl.org/3.6/man3/OPENSSL_Applink

Finally, the batch file logic has been revised to exit the whole build process if a package source folder is missing. This wasn't previously the case, and some people may have missed building packages due to folder naming issues. For example, the LibXML2 package download may be named libxml2-v2.15.1.tar.gz (with a 'v') or libxml2-2.15.1.tar.gz (no 'v') depending where you choose to download it from.

I am heartened that Apache Lounge has decided to adopt a CMake approach to building HTTPD packages.

[tangent]

Update build script (release 4.2) to cope with multiple versions of CMake in the search path, as may be the case if later versions of Strawberry Perl are installed, and select the latest version to perform the builds. This should generally be the version bundled with Visual Studio, be that VS2022 or VS2026. Revise common CMake options accordingly.

Also add a patch to CMakeLists.txt files to potentially reposition the PROJECT statement (misplaced in some packages), and update the CMAKE_MINIMUM_REQUIRED version if set to 2.x. Combined, these changes should eliminate the various CMake warning messages that currently occur with some packages, when building with either VS2022 or VS2026.

[tangent]

There are a number of enhancements to the batch file logic in release 4.3, along with the following build dependency updates:

CURL (8.18.0)
JANSSON (2.15.0)

The build batch file now supports optional package builds, simply by commenting out the package version variable.

Also in the spirit of this HowTo, the APR-ICONV package build logic has been converted to using CMake. With the exception of OpenSSL, this means all HTTPD build dependencies can now be completed using CMake.

When building APR-ICONV, a variable (API_BUILD_CCS_CES) controls whether to create the additional Character Encoding Scheme (CES), and Coded Character Set (CCS) modules that used to reside in the bin\iconv folder. The default is OFF.

Where packages don't include one (e.g. APR-ICONV), the script now attempts to install a custom copy of a CMakeLists.txt file. These should be saved in the source (src) folder with names of the form "CMakeLists - PACKAGE.txt", where PACKAGE should match the corresponding package build variable with version detail, e.g. for APR-ICONV 1.2.2 the file should be named "CMakeLists - apr-iconv-1.2.2.txt". The build script looks for the appropriate file, and initially copies it into the package source folder as "CMakeLists.txt".

Minimal versions of the additional CMakeLists.txt file required to build APR-ICONV, and other modules listed in HOWTO: Building extra Apache modules using CMake https://www.apachelounge.com/viewtopic.php?p=43939, can be downloaded from https://pastebin.com/u/tangentia.

Apart from simplifying the build code, one other benefit of this APR-ICONV change is we no longer need to create the symbolic links to the various APR package folders, which in turn means you don't have to run the build with administrator privilege.

Elsewhere, the HTTPD build has been updated to support the ${SRVROOT} macro when creating the various HTTPD configuration files. This feature is missing from the bundled CMakeLists.txt file for HTTPD.

Finally, LUA 5.5.0 has recently been released, but since the ModSecurity package doesn't yet support this new LUA 5.5 series, it would be inappropriate to update the LUA version built for HTTPD at this time.

[tangent]

Predictably perhaps, one day posting a build script update, OpenSSL chose to release a security update:

OPENSSL (3.6.1)

Build script updated accordingly (4.4), with no other functional changes.

[Jan-E]

3.6.1 was pre-announced on Jan 20th
https://groups.google.com/a/openssl.org/g/openssl-project/c/iyH82FYXThk

[tangent]