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Contributing to the Apache HTTP Server Documentation

We'd love your help improving the Apache HTTP Server documentation. You don't need to be a programmer — if you can spot a confusing sentence, fix a typo, or explain something more clearly, you're already making a difference. Your work will be read by millions of httpd users worldwide.

This page is about contributing to the docs, not about configuring httpd. For configuration help, see the Users mailing list.

Before You Start

Ways to Contribute

There's something for every skill level:

Quick Wins (no SVN needed)

Fast Path for Small Fixes

You don't need SVN to report a problem or suggest a fix. For typos or small corrections, just describe the fix in an email to docs@httpd.apache.org, or open a Bugzilla ticket with the corrected text. A committer will apply it for you.

For anything more than a sentence or two, the SVN patch workflow (described below) is preferred — it gives reviewers the full context of your change.

Fix and Improve (SVN patch workflow)

For these, you'll check out the docs from SVN, make your changes, and send us a patch. See our SVN workflow guide for step-by-step instructions — it's straightforward even if you haven't used SVN before.

Larger Contributions

For anything substantial, we recommend introducing yourself on the mailing list first. That way you can get feedback on your approach before investing a lot of time.

Getting Set Up

  1. Subscribe to the mailing list — Send email to docs-subscribe@httpd.apache.org.
  2. Check out the source — Follow our SVN instructions.
  3. Learn the format — Read about the documentation XML format and the style guide.
  4. Set up your tools — See Tools for Contributors for editor and workflow recommendations.

Submitting Your Work

The standard workflow is:

  1. Make your changes in your SVN checkout.
  2. Run svn diff > my-changes.patch to create a patch file.
  3. Send the patch to docs@httpd.apache.org, or attach it to a Bugzilla ticket.
  4. Include a brief description of what you changed and why.

Don't worry about getting everything perfect on the first try. We review all contributions and are happy to help you iterate.

Communication Channels

The XML Format

The documentation is written in a custom XML format, transformed to HTML via XSLT. If you're not familiar with XML, don't let that stop you — it's quite readable, and the community will help you with markup questions. See the documentation format page for details, and the style guide for markup conventions.

Translation Projects

If you'd like to translate the documentation into another language, see the translations page for how to get started.