The instructions on that site you link to refer to compiling apache from source.
Your question was about the Apache web server provided by Fedora. This is an rpm.
[root@bridge html]# rpm -qf /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
httpd-2.2.9-1.fc8
[root@bridge html]# rpm -qi httpd-2.2.9-1.fc8
Name : httpd Relocations: (not relocatable)
Version : 2.2.9 Vendor: Fedora Project
Release : 1.fc8 Build Date: Mon 14 Jul 2008 12:31:28 PM PDT
Install Date: Sun 12 Oct 2008 01:03:29 PM PDT Build Host: xenbuilder4.fedora.phx.red
hat.com
Group : System Environment/Daemons Source RPM: httpd-2.2.9-1.fc8.src.rpm
Size : 2606064 License: ASL 2.0
Signature : DSA/SHA1, Thu 28 Aug 2008 09:38:45 PM PDT, Key ID 62aec3dc6df2196f
Packager : Fedora Project
URL :
http://httpd.apache.org/Summary : Apache HTTP Server
Description :
The Apache HTTP Server is a powerful, efficient, and extensible
web server.
[root@bridge html]#
You can install rpms using "yum".
If you want the mod_ssl rpm for use with the apache rpm provided by fedora, use
yum install mod_ssl
That will install this rpm:
[root@bridge html]# rpm -q mod_ssl
mod_ssl-2.2.9-1.fc8
[root@bridge html]#
If on the other hand, you want to build apache from source then yes you will need to run the configure script which comes with the source code and is used as part of the build process.
As the link you posted mentions:
"The first step in order to install Apache with SSL/TLS support is to configure and install the Apache 2 web server,"
It then shows the options you pass to the "configure" script.
Such as:
--enable-ssl
It's been a while since I've done this. There was a time when the mod ssl was a separate download / src bundle. You had to download the source and then point the configure script at the location of your mod ssl src bundle.
It appears from the link you posted that this may no longer be necessary, so that at the time you run ./configure you only specify the --enable-ssl option.
Note that when I'm talking about compiling apache from source, "configure" refers to the configure script which is run prior to running "make" and "make install".
Typically you run this sequence when building from source:
./configure
make
make install
The configure script can be passed options.
But back to the original question about "the default apache web server provided by Fedora Linux", I would go with the rpm option. If you choose to build from scratch, you should probably uninstall (or at the very least disable) the "default apache web server provided by Fedora Linux" and then rebuild from scratch using whatever method or tutorial you find. Perhaps the one you linked to. Follow the instructions and use the sources pointed to by that tutorial (not an rpm packaged for a specific linux distro, unless the tutorial calls for that.)
I would go with the rpm option (installed through yum) since that's going to be a lot easier, the rpms already contain the binaries built specifically for your distro.
If for whatever reason those do not meet your requirements, only then would I consider removing them and building apache from source.
