Can anybody explain the structure of the Apache server?

Question

How does the Apache web server work? Can someone explain it in detail?

Answer 1

It's magic. Don't even bother trying understand it.

Answer 2

It's perfectly clear.

http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/httpd/

Answer 3

Start with the Apache architecture overview to understand the basic components and data flows for Apache. Then, you probably want to go into the developer documentation, as the list module configuration options in the docs is not too helpful in understanding how does everything work.

Finally, comparing Apache to other popular open-source servers such as Lighttpd would show you what tasks are approached in a similar way by different programs, and where there are trade-offs (speed vs. features, for example) that differentiate between the servers.