[cobalt-users] [RaQ 4] Some (easy?) questions from a newbie

["Rüdiger Seemann" <r.seemann@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello all,

first let me say, that i'm new to Linux and Cobalt Servers,
so if you've got an answer to my questions (specially the
php question), could you please describe the solution
"a little more detailed" than normal.
To my questions:
1. How do i make a directory password protected?
    For example, i have a directory on www.mysite.tld/directory
    and i want this directory to be protected. This means, that
    the directory is online only reachable, when you first type
    in the siteadmin name and password.
2. How can i change the logrotation for a virtual site?
    The problem is, that i have a virtual site witch has a lot of traffic.
    When try to watch the statistics (with Webalizer 1.30), i get only
    a report of the last 24 hours (not exactly), because then a new
    logfile is created. Other virtual sites on the same server with not
    so much traffic don't have this problem and i could watch the stats
    over the last months. My supposition is, that the logfile of the
    "high-traffic-site" reaches its generic size limit (1 MB) very fast,
    so that a new one is created and the old one gets zipped. Do i
    have to modify the logrotate.conf  in /etc or has it nothing to do
    with my problem? If yes, do i have to restart the server?
3. How do i update/recompile php? (If the answer to this question
    will be too long, do you know any good/detailed How-To's for that,
    if possible, especially for the RaQ 4?)
    My problem is, that i need php with ftp functionality (not enabled
    by default) and thanks to Steve Werby and others here i know
    that i have to recompile php with --enable-ftp. That sounds easy
    first, but for a newbie like me some questions need to be answered
    before i could begin to recompile (i downloaded the new
    php-4.0.5.tar.gz-file):
    3a. Do i have to unistall the old php 4.0.1pl2 version before recom-
          piling and how do i do that?
    3b. How and in which directory do i have to gunzip/recompile the new
          php code?
    3c. What do i have to do to recompile php with the same options Cobalt
          used plus ftp support (and maybe other additional options)?
    3d. Do i have to manipulate some other .conf-files after recompiling or
          does php work properly together with apache and mysql directly
          after the installation?
4. Do you know any good books/websites, so that i could learn more about
    Linux/Cobalt quickly without posting such a bunch of questions here?

Ok, that's it. Thank you in advance,

Rüdiger Seemann
r.seemann@xxxxxxxxx