# [SOLVED] Apache 2.4 for production server?

## litan

Hi,

I need bigger Diffie-Hellman parameters for TLS, but as apache 2.2 only supports 1024 bit,

I would like to switch to 2.4, which is not stable at the moment.

As I'm still fairly new to Gentoo I don't fully understand what it means when a package is 'unstable'

in the portage tree. I used unstable Gentoo packages before, but never experienced problems,

so I think the underlying policy is quite rigorous?

If there would be a known security problem the package would be hard masked, right?

Is it already 'safe enough' to use Apache 2.4 on a production server?

Did anyone experience trouble?

And for my further understanding of the portage tree:

Is there a particular reason why apache is not slotted?

Apache 2.4 was released in 2012, why is it still not stable?

Thanks for your time!Last edited by litan on Tue Sep 02, 2014 11:57 am; edited 1 time in total

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## blu3bird

Please have a lock at the tracker bug for apache-2.4 stabilization which summarizes the reasons apache 2.4 is not marked stable, yet. There are a few blockers, for instance mod_perl doesn't build against apache-2.4, but if you are not affected by any of these blockers it's perfectly fine to use it.

Packages are only slotted if you need two version at the same time, for instance python 3.2 is horribly incompatible with python 2.7, therefore you need both of them installed but since apache 2.4 can do everything apache 2.2 can(or is supposed to) there is no need to have separate versions installed.

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## xaviermiller

Hello,

"unstable at Gentoo" mainly means "not fully tested, or there exist some bugs that prevent it to stabilize".

Nevertheless, regarding Apache, the version 2.4 is "Recommended Current", so I guess it means "ready for production": http://projects.apache.org/projects/http_server.html

So you can safely unmask it and run it.

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## litan

blu3bird, XavierMiller,

thank you very much for your answers!

As it turns out the blocking bugs don't apply to my setup. (thanks, I was looking for a link like that)

Apache 2.4 is now up and running after just a few configuration changes.

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