To create an Apache that can use the DSO mechanism as a specific shared object, the compile process has to create a detached chunk of executable code — the shared object. This will be a file like (in our layout) /usr/src/apache/apache_1.3.26/src/modules/standard/mod_alias.so.
If all the modules are defined to be DSOs, Apache ends up with only
two compiled-in modules: core and
mod_so. The first is the real Apache; the
second handles DSO loading and running.
You can, of course, mix the two methods and have the standard modules compiled in with DSO for things like Tomcat.