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Is it safe to assume, that nothing gets broken after enabling an apache module? For example, I want to enable mod_headers on production server, but I'm afraid it can break something, perhaps because it can interact with other modules or because of any other reason?

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    Not if you have a dev/staging environment!
    – ceejayoz
    Jul 27, 2016 at 13:47
  • @ceejayoz Thanks for a reply. In what cases enabling a new module might break something? I imagine the modules being 'standalone' pieces, am I wrong?
    – Alex Lomia
    Jul 27, 2016 at 13:52
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    Agree, not much use specifying something as production if there is no staging. That said, a little more info would be helpful, why this module? caches and timeouts? if so thats most likely where there will be more issues. Enabling the module rarely has serious problems in my experience its when you start to configure something unfamiliar is when it will break things.
    – cormpadre
    Jul 27, 2016 at 13:53
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    As an example: enabling something like mod_security might break a web application with the default rules. Your config may have existing but currently-ignored <IfModule> calls for the new module that result in a bad config. Enabling mod_php's PHP7 might break your site if it was written for PHP5. etc. etc. etc.
    – ceejayoz
    Jul 27, 2016 at 13:53
  • Ultimately, if your app can't weather a few minutes of downtime while you frantically undo what you enabled in the config, it needs a staging server.
    – ceejayoz
    Jul 27, 2016 at 13:55

1 Answer 1

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Your assumption that loading Apache modules will not break anything is wrong. A simple counterexample would be:

<IfModule module_safe>
  # Break things for fun and profit.
</IfModule>

Assuming that module_safe is perfectly fine, your configuration can still change on Loading that module.

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