NAME

INSTALL - Apache mod_perl installation instructions

DESCRIPTION

How to build, test, configure and install mod_perl

PREREQUSITES

Apache version 1.1.x or 1.2b9+

Perl version 5.003 or higher

If you do not have Perl version 5.003_01 or higher, fetch and install ExtUtils::Embed from CPAN <URL:http://www.perl.com/CPAN/modules/by-module/ExtUtils/ExtUtils-Embed-1.10.tar.gz>

Build and install mod_perl

In this current directory run:

perl Makefile.PL
make
make test (optional)	
make install

Makefile.PL will search for apache source trees to configure against, if no source trees are found, you will be prompted for a path to one.

When asked:

"Configure mod_perl with ../apache_xxx ?"

answering 'y' only means there is where we can find src/*.h

When asked:

"Shall I build httpd in $adir for you?"

answering 'y' will run ../apache_xxx/Configure and httpd will be built when running 'make'

You can avoid this prompt by starting with the following command:

perl Makefile.PL NO_HTTPD=1

You may wish see the instructions below on how to build by hand.

In any case, you need to 'make install' so the perl side of mod_perl will be installed.

By default, all callback hooks except for PerlHandler are turned off. You may edit src/modules/perl/Makefile, or enable when running Makfile.PL Possible arguments are:

PERL_INIT
PERL_TRANS
PERL_AUTHEN
PERL_AUTHZ
PERL_ACCESS
PERL_TYPE
PERL_FIXUP
PERL_LOG
PERL_CLEANUP

PERL_STACKED_HANDLERS
PERL_METHOD_HANDLERS
PERL_SECTIONS

Example to enable PerlAuthenHandler and PerlFixupHandler:

perl Makefile.PL PERL_AUTHEN=1 PERL_FIXUP=1

To enable all callback hooks:

perl Makefile.PL ALL_HOOKS=1 

To enable tracing set PERL_TRACE=1

 perl Makefile.PL PERL_TRACE=1

Testing mod_perl

Running 'make test' will start an httpd on port 8529 running under the uid and gid of the 'perl Makefile.PL' process, the httpd will be terminated when the tests are finshed.

To change the default port say:

perl Makefile.PL PORT=xxxx

To simply start the newly build httpd before 'make install' run:

make start_httpd

To shutdown this httpd run:

make kill_httpd

See t/README on how to run the mod_perl test suite by hand

NOTE to Ben-SSL users: httpsd does not seem to handle '/dev/null' as the location of certain files, you'll have to change these by hand. Tests are run with 'SSLDisable'

Building apache and mod_perl by hand

** Only if you did not let Makefile.PL take care of this already **

mod_perl source files

Copy the source files into the apache build directory: (For apache versions < 1.2 you'll need to mkdir src/modules/ first)

cp -r src/modules/perl  apache_xxx/src/modules/

Makefile.tmpl

apache_1.1.x users: copy src/Makefile.tmpl to apache_xxx/src/

apache 1.2 (b8+) users: no need to modify the Makefile.tmpl

Configuration

Edit apache_xxx/src/Configuration, and add:

Module perl_module	   modules/perl/libmodperl.a

We suggest you add this entry at the end of the Configuration file if you want your callback hooks to have precedence over core handlers.

Add the following to EXTRA_LIBS:

EXTRA_LIBS=`perl -MExtUtils::Embed -e ldopts`

Follow the apache install docs from there

Configuring and building with Stronghold

You must first build and install Stronghold without mod_perl, following Stronghold's install procedure.

Then, you may rebuild following the instructions above to:

Build and install mod_perl

 or

Building apache and mod_perl by hand

I you are configuring by hand, be sure to edit src/modules/perl/Makefile and uncomment #APACHE_SSL

For Solaris 2.5 users, there has been a report related to the REGEX that comes with Stronghold, after building Apache with mod_perl would produce core dumps. To get around this:

In STRONGHOLD/src/Configuration, Change:

Rule WANTHSREGEX=default

To:

Rule WANTHSREGEX=no

Installing on multiple machines

You may wish to build httpd once, then copy it to other machines. The Perl side of mod_perl needs the apache headers files to compile, to avoid dragging and build apache on all your other machines, there are a few Makefile targets to help you out:

'make tar_Apache'

This will tar all files mod_perl installs in your 'site_perl' directory, into a file called 'Apache.tar'. You can then unpack this under 'site_perl' on another machine.

'make offsite-tar'

This will copy all header files from the apache source directory you configured mod_perl against, then it will 'make dist' where you'll a mod_perl-x.xx.tar.gz created, ready to unpack on another machine to compile and install the Perl side of mod_perl.

Notes

BSDI users

Gary Shea <shea@xmission.com> discovered a nasty BSDI bug (seen in versions 2.1 and 3.0) related to dynamic loading and two workarounds:

Turns out they use argv[0] to determine where to find the link tables at run-time, so if a program either changes argv[0], or does a chdir() (like apache!), it can easily confuse the dynamic loader. The short-term solutions to the problem are pitifully simple. Either of the following will work:

1) Call httpd with a full path, e.g. /opt/www/bin/httpd

2) Put the httpd you wish to run in a directory in your PATH before any other directory containing a version of httpd, then call it as 'httpd' -- don't use a relative path!

Perl 5.003 users

This install includes the module Apache::Registry, which uses the standard module 'FileHandle'. There was a bug in the version of this module, that came with perl5.003, so if your perl is not younger than 5.003 we suggest you apply the patch 'FileHandle.patch' to fix the problem until it is fixed in the standard distribution of Perl. Although, it is a strange bug, you might not even see it without the patch...

Perl Static Extensions

If you wish to use a module that is normally linked static with your Perl, it must be listed in static_ext in Perl's Config.pm to be linked with httpd during the mod_perl build.

To list your static extensions, run this command:

perl -V:static_ext

If your module is not listed, add it to this line in Config.pm:

static_ext=' '

more info

Type 'perldoc mod_perl' for info on configuring, running and writing Apache/Perl scripts and modules.

Using PerlIO

See 'perldoc mod_perl' for an explaination See the Perl INSTALL document for more information.

Here's how to configure your perl with sfio:

% Configure -des -Duseperlio -Dusesfio 

With Perl version 5.003_93 or higher, there is no need to configure with sfio for using Perl's read() and print() functions, STDIN and STDOUT are tie'd to the client connection.

Support

For comments, questions, bug-reports, announcements, etc., send mail to majordomo@listproc.itribe.net with the string "subscribe modperl" in the body. (Thanks to Mark A. Imbriaco <mark@itribe.net>)

Thanks to James Cooper <pixel@tiger.coe.missouri.edu>, there is a hypermail archive for this list at:

http://www.coe.missouri.edu/~faq/lists/modperl/

IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS

Please send mail to modperl@listproc.itribe.net with the output of:

Output of perl -v; perl -V

version of the mod_perl package.

which script from the eg/ directory you are using. (please try a script from there first.)

your apache server version details and your server configuration.

the output of 'make test'

if you get a core dump, please send a backtrace if possible.

if you can compile but not run a mod_perl script, recompile with:

% make TRACE=-DPERL_TRACE

then send the output of the server startup and run

IF YOU DON'T HAVE PROBLEMS

Feel free to send a note to the list and let us know what you're doing with mod_perl!

cpanm Apache

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Apache