Running apache as an unpreviledged user

Question

I've heard that one could run the apache2 web-service as just a user without having root access privileges. How could I do this?

I'm not asking if I could set up Apache to run as a user (say for security reasons), but rather as a user how can I run Apache.

Answer 1

You configure Apache to bind to a high port (above 1024), such as 8080. Unless the admins have gone to unusual lengths to prohibit the practise, non-root users can bind to high ports with any program they wish to. The problem is that with a non-standard port, you need to explicitly point your browser to the port:

http://www.example.com:8080