Introduction to mod_perl (part 2): mod_perl Quickstart - Configuring and Starting mod_perl Server (
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First thing first we want to make sure our Apache was built correctly and that
we can serve plain HTML files with it. Why do that? To minimize the number of
possible trouble makers, if we find out that mod_perl doesn't work. After you
know that Apache can serve HTML files, you don't have to worry about it anymore.
And if something goes wrong with mod_perl, you have eliminated the possibility
that the httpd binary or basic configurations are broken, you know you are
allowed to bind to the port you have configured your server to listen to, and
that the browser you're testing with is just fine. Again, you should follow
these guidelines when installing mod_perl for the first time.
Configure
Apache as you always do. Set Port, User, Group, ErrorLog and other directives in
the httpd.conf file (remember I've asked you to remember the location of this
file at the end of the previous section?). Use the defaults as suggested,
customize only when you have to. Values that you need to customize are
ServerName, Port, User, Group, ServerAdmin, DocumentRoot and a few others. You
will find helpful hints preceding each directive. Follow them if in
doubt.
When you have edited the configuration file, it's time to start
the server. One of the ways to start and stop the server is to use the apachectl
utility. You start the server with:
% /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl start
And stop it with:
% /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl stop
Note that you have to be root when starting the server if the server is
going to listen on port 80 or another privileged port (1024).
After you
start the server, check in the error_log file (/usr/local/apache/logs/error_log
is the file's default location) that the server has indeed started. Don't rely
on the status apachectl reports. You should see something like the following:
[Thu Jun 22 17:14:07 2000] [notice] Apache/1.3.20 (Unix)
mod_perl/1.26 configured -- resuming normal operations
Now point your browser to http://localhost/ or http://your.server.name/ as
configured with the ServerName directive. If you have set a Port directive with
a value different from 80, apply this port number at the end of the server name.
If you have used port 8080, test the server with http://localhost:8080/ or
http://your.server.name:8080/ . You should see the infamous "It worked" page,
which is an index.html file that make install in the Apache source tree installs
for you. If you don't see this page, something went wrong and you should check
the contents of the error_log file. You will find the path of the error log file
by looking it up in the ErrorLog directive in httpd.conf.
If everything
works as expected, shut the server down, open httpd.conf in your favorite
editor, and scroll to the end of the file where we will add the mod_perl
configuration directives (of course you can place them anywhere in the
file).
Assuming that you put all scripts that should be executed by the
mod_perl enabled server in the /home/httpd/perl/ directory, add the following
configuration directives:
Alias /perl/ /home/httpd/perl/
PerlModule Apache::Registry
<Location /perl>
SetHandler perl-script
PerlHandler Apache::Registry
Options ExecCGI
PerlSendHeader On
allow from all
</Location>
Save the modified file.
This configuration causes every URI
starting with /perl to be handled by the Apache mod_perl module. It will use the
handler from the Perl module Apache::Registry. {mospagebreak title=Preparing the
Scripts Directory} Now create a /home/httpd/perl/ directory if it doesn't yet
exist. In order for you and Apache to be able to read, write and execute files
we have to set correct permissions. You could get away by simply doing:
% chmod 0777 /home/httpd/perl
This is very very insecure and you should not follow this approach on the
production machine. This is good enough when you just want to try things out and
want to have as few obstacles as possible. Once you understand how things work,
you should tighten the permissions of files served by Apache. In future articles
we will talk about setting proper file permissions.
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