httpd_server_app.conf vs httpd.conf - could someone please clarify?

Folks,

Mountain Lion Server has its own httpd_server_app.conf file as well as the traditional apache httpd.conf file.

httpd_server_app.conf file has many similarities to https.conf as well as some differences.

At first I did not know of the existence of httpd_server_app.conf at all so I only edited my httpd.conf file when setting up and updating apache and PHP.

The changes in httpd.conf worked so I was happy until I tried changing the setting for ServerTokens in httpd.conf which didn't work.

That was when I discovered, by accident and by taking a look in the.config folder, the existence of the httpd_server_app.conf file.

There is a read me text file that I found in the system which does say that httpd_server_app.conf is the primary configuration file read by apache.

Well okay, but does that mean that httpd_server_app.conf is used by apache first, followed by and overridden by httpd.conf or the other way around? Or do they kind of get merged together somehow?

Also, does that mean that we are "only" meant to use httpd_server_app.conf and should not modify httpd.conf at all? If so then why does httpd.conf still exist?

Given that the Server app directly writes in the httpd_server_app.conf file and maybe even overwrites it from time to time isn't it risky to modify httpd_server_app.conf even if including separate custom conf files?

I get the feeling that changes can be made in both httpd_server_app.conf and httpd.conf, in fact I'm inclined to make the same changes in both files but is that a valid approach?

I have modified httpd_server_app.conf and set ServerTokens to Prod and ServerSignature to Off and that works, and everything else still seems to work but I'm not sure if I have done things the right way or not.

This is confusing. Could someone please clarify, thanks.