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Users make requests to the web server via a client browser
using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). The client browser
can be any one of a variety of browsers, including those from Microsoft
and Netscape. The sole purpose of a web server is to translate the
client's request (URL) into either a filename, and then
send that file back over the network, or to translate a URL into
a program name, run that program, and then send its output back.
Once the HTTPD executable is started, Apache runs silently
in the background, waiting for a client's request to arrive
on a port to which it is listening. Apache listens on the port specified
in its configuration file.
When a request arrives, Apache hands the request to one of
its child processes to service and returns to listen again on the port.
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