NAME
Apache2::PAR - Perl extension for including Perl ARchive files in a mod_perl (1.x or 2.x) environment.
SYNOPSIS
Inside Apache configuration:
PerlSetVar PARInclude /path/to/par/archive/directory
...
PerlAddVar PARInclude /path/to/a/par/file.par
...
PerlModule Apache2::PAR
In Apache/mod_perl 1.x environments on Win32 platforms, the following
should be used instead:
PerlSetVar PARInclude /path/to/par/archive/directory
...
PerlSetVar PARInclude /path/to/a/par/file.par
...
<PERL>
use Apache2::PAR;
</PERL>
Alternative configuration, inside a startup.pl script or PERL section:
use Apache2::PAR qw(
/path/to/par/archive/directory
/path/to/a/par/file.par
);
Inside a web.conf file:
Alias /myapp/static/ ##PARFILE##/
<Location /myapp/static>
SetHandler perl-script
PerlHandler Apache2::PAR::Static
PerlSetVar PARStaticDirectoryIndex index.htm
PerlAddVar PARStaticDirectoryIndex index.html
PerlSetVar PARStaticDefaultMIME text/html
</Location>
Alias /myapp/cgi-perl/ ##PARFILE##/
<Location /myapp/cgi-perl>
Options +ExecCGI
SetHandler perl-script
PerlHandler Apache2::PAR::Registry
</Location>
Alias /myapp/cgi-run/ ##PARFILE##/
<Location /myapp/cgi-run>
Options +ExecCGI
SetHandler perl-script
PerlHandler Apache2::PAR::PerlRun
</Location>
PerlModule MyApp::TestMod
Alias /myapp/mod/ ##PARFILE##/
<Location /myapp/mod>
SetHandler perl-script
PerlHandler TestMod
</Location>
Using ##UNPACKDIR## to unpack archive
Alias /myapp/static/ ##UNPACKDIR##/htdocs/
Alias /myapp/cgi-perl/ ##UNPACKDIR##/scripts/
<Location /myapp/cgi-perl>
Options +ExecCGI
SetHandler perl-script
PerlHandler Apache2::Registry
</Location>
Alias /myapp/cgi-run/ ##UNPACKDIR##/scripts/
<Location /myapp/cgi-run>
Options +ExecCGI
SetHandler perl-script
PerlHandler Apache2::PerlRun
</Location>
PerlModule MyApp::TestMod
Alias /myapp/mod/ ##PARFILE##/
<Location /myapp/mod>
SetHandler perl-script
PerlSetEnv TestModTemplateDir ##UNPACKDIR##/template
PerlHandler TestMod
</Location>
Using PerlInitHandler to reload changed modules:
PerlModule Apache2::PAR
PerlInitHandler Apache2::PAR
DESCRIPTION
Apache2::PAR is a framework for including Perl ARchive files in a mod_perl (1.x or 2.x) environment. It allows an author to package up a web application, including configuration, static files, Perl modules, and Registry and PerlRun scripts to include in a single file. This archive can then be moved to other locations on the same system or distributed, and loaded with a single set of configuration options in the Apache configuration.
These modules are based on PAR.pm by Autrijus Tang and Archive::Zip by Ned Konz, as well as the mod_perl modules. They extend the concept of PAR files to mod_perl, similar to how WAR archives work for Java. An archive (which is really a zip file), contains one or more elements which can be served to clients making requests to an Apache web server. Scripts, modules, and static content should then be able to be served from within the .par archive without modifications.
Apache2::PAR itself performs the work of specifying the location of PAR archives and allowing the loading of modules from these archives. The files and paths can be specified at load time. Once an archive has been located, an optional web.conf (filename configurable) is then loaded and included into the main web configuration. Once Apache2::PAR has been loaded, Perl Apache modules within these .par files can then be loaded.
The following steps are performed on any .par files which are found within a PARInclude:
If the PARInclude is a directory, all PAR files within that directory are loaded
Any .par files defined are loaded with PAR.pm, making any modules defined within it visible to Apache
Apache2::PAR checks for the existence of a web.conf file within each .par archive and, if found, includes that configuration into the main Apache configuration.
If a web.conf file contains the keyword
##UNPACKDIR##, the contents of the archive will be unpacked during Apache startup. The location which this is unpacked to is controlled with the PARTempDir directive.If PerlInitHandler Apache2::PAR is specified, and the contents of a PAR file change, the archive will be reloaded (modules and content.)
Some things to note:
PerlSetVar/AddVar configuration for PARInclude and PARTempDir MUST be before the PerlModule Apache2::PAR (or use Apache2::PAR;) line in the Apache configuration. Any PARInclude variables (or PARDir and PARFile) after the PerlModule line will be ignored.
PARDir and PARFile directives may be used to specify the location of PAR archives, however their use is deprecated. For new configurations, use PARInclude instead. PARInclude works both as PARDir and PARFile by first expanding directories to include any PAR archives found within.
The arguments for PARInclude can be either an absolute path, or a relative path from Apache's server_root. For example, if your Apache's server_root is /usr/local/apache, and you would like to load .par files from a parfiles/ subdirectory, use: PerlSetVar PARInclude parfiles/
This will then look for .par files in the /usr/local/apache/parfiles directory.
The name of the configuration file which is loaded is configurable via PARConf (default is 'web.conf'.) For example, to set the include filename to 'include.conf' for all .par files: PerlSetVar PARConf include.conf
The extensions used when searching for .par archives in any directories set via PARInclude is set using the PARExt variable in the Apache configuration (the default is 'par'). For example, to set the par extension to 'zip': PerlSetVar PARExt zip
There is currently no way to limit which .par archive a module is loaded out of. To ensure that the correct module is being loaded, I suggest the following convention: begin module names with the name of the archive. For instance, a MailForm module within the MyApp.par archive should be named MyApp::MailForm
Currently, which directory inside a .par archive modules are loaded out of is not configurable, and is the same as defined in PAR.pm:
- 1. /
- 2. /lib/
- 3. /arch/
- 4. /i386-freebsd/ # i.e. $Config{archname}
- 5. /5.8.0/ # i.e. $Config{version}
- 6. /5.8.0/i386-freebsd/ # both of the above
By default, if a web.conf file contains a ##UNPACKDIR## directive, the archive will be unpacked to a subdirectory under PARTempDir during Apache startup. The default for PARTempDir is the platform specific temp directory (e.g. c:\temp for win32, /tmp for *nix.) Archive unpacking may be disabled by specifying PerlSetVar PARTempDir NONE in the Apache configuration, however this will prevent the loading of any PAR files which require unpacking to operate.
Changed content in PAR files is not reloaded util the next restart of Apache unless the directive PerlInitHandler Apache2::PAR is used. Currently, some functionality will not change or reload when a PAR file is removed, however. This may change in a future release.
PLATFORM SPECIFIC
In general, Apache2::PAR should function on most platforms without changes, as it is (currently) a perl only module. Below are notes for any known exceptions. If you have any problems with Apache2::PAR on your platform, please contact me through one of the methods in the CONTACT section.
Windows 32 bit
Some testing has been performed on Apache2::PAR using WIN32 platforms, with both mod_perl 1.x and 2.x. Apache2::PAR should function as normal on these platforms, however, an alternate configuration method is required due to differences in the Apache/mod_perl startup sequence on that platform.
inside a PERL section or startup.pl:
use Apache2::PAR qw(
/path/to/par/archive/directory
/path/to/a/par/file.par
...
);Additionally, you can still use PerlSetVar PARInclude, etc lines in Win32 - the Apache2::PAR include must be via a use however (not a PerlModule directive):
inside httpd.conf (example for mod_perl 1.x, for 2.x use <PERL > instead):
PerlSetVar PerlInclude /path/to/par/archive/directory
PerlAddVar PerlInclude /path/to/a/par/file.par
...
<PERL>
use Apache2::PAR;
</PERL>EXPORT
None by default.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Autrijus Tang <autrijus@autrijus.org> for providing assistance on numerous occasions during the development of Apache2::PAR.
Maurice Aubrey <maurice@lovelyfilth.com> for adding the ability to unpack content from PAR archives.
CONTACT
For questions regarding the installation or use of Apache2::PAR, either post a message on the PAR list <par@perl.org>, on the sourceforge project page at http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/apache-par or send an email to the author directly at <nathan@byrd.net>.
AUTHOR
Nathan Byrd, <nathan@byrd.net>
Adapted for Apache2 by Autrijus Tang, <autrijus@autrijus.org>
SEE ALSO
perl.
PAR.
Apache2::PAR::Registry, Apache2::PAR::PerlRun, and Apache2::PAR::Static.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2002, 2003 by Nathan Byrd, <nathan@byrd.net>.
Copyright 2005 by Autrijus Tang, <autrijus@autrijus.org>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.