apache recipe is targeted to the :web role, why?

[donovanbray]

it seems to me it should be targeted to the :app role, is setting it to :web a mistake or intentional?

[nesquena]

I wrote the majority of this gem about 3 years ago or so. So I don't really recall. Probably because I considered apache as the 'web' server and it was proxying to a mongrel cluster which was the 'app' role? I wouldn't be against switching it to :app, I think it was there to allow for the distinction between web request proxy and the actual application instances.

[donovanbray]

I really hate making the switch by just changing the recipe; I first modified it to follow the with_role pattern and making it selectable.

My concern in if we change the recipe, and someone who is using and following the gem upgrades and does a deploy they could get a nasty surprise if they were depending on that role, or worse used that role in ignorance just to make the recipe work.

I think what I would like to do is some kind of deprecation of the apache recipe, and add a new apache recipe, named something like apache2 (which wouldn't be innacurate as the recipe actually installs apache2 not apache1.x.) in such a way that if someone does a deploy it stops them and issues a warning, to set X preference and use apache2.