How do I configure Apache 2 to run Perl CGI scripts?

I would like to configure Apache 2 running on Kubuntu to execute Perl CGI scripts. I've tried some steps that I came across by googling, but nothing seems to work.

What is the right way of achieving this?

Solution 1:

This post is intended to rescue the people who are suffering from *not being able to properly setup Apache2 for Perl on Ubuntu. (The system configurations specific to your Linux machine will be mentioned within square brackets, like [this]).

Possible outcome of an improperly setup Apache 2:

Browser trying to download the .pl file instead of executing and giving out the result.
Forbidden.
Internal server error.

If one follows the steps described below with a reasonable intelligence, he/she can get through the errors mentioned above.

Before starting the steps. Go to /etc/hosts file and add IP address / domain-name` for example:

127.0.0.1 www.BECK.com

Step 1: Install apache2 Step 2: Install mod_perl Step 3: Configure apache2

open sites-available/default and add the following,

<Files ~ "\.(pl|cgi)$">
    SetHandler perl-script
    PerlResponseHandler ModPerl::PerlRun
    Options +ExecCGI
    PerlSendHeader On
</Files>

<Directory />
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
</Directory>
<Directory [path-to-store-your-website-files-like-.html-(perl-scripts-should-be-stored-in-cgi-bin] >
####(The Perl/CGI scripts can be stored out of the cgi-bin directory, but that's a story for another day. Let's concentrate on washing out the issue at hand)
####
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
    AllowOverride None
    Order allow,deny
    allow from all
</Directory>

ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ [path-where-you-want-your-.pl-and-.cgi-files]

<Directory [path-where-you-want-your-.pl-and-.cgi-files]>
    AllowOverride None
    Options ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
    AddHandler cgi-script .pl
    Order allow,deny
    allow from all
</Directory>
<Files ~ "\.(pl|cgi)$">
    SetHandler perl-script
    PerlResponseHandler ModPerl::PerlRun
    Options +ExecCGI
    PerlSendHeader On
</Files>

<Directory />
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
</Directory>
<Directory [path-to-store-your-website-files-like-.html-(perl-scripts-should-be-stored-in-cgi-bin] >
####(The Perl/CGI scripts can be stored out of the cgi-bin directory, but that's a story for another day. Let's concentrate on washing out the issue at hand)
####
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
    AllowOverride None
    Order allow,deny
    allow from all
</Directory>

ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ [path-where-you-want-your-.pl-and-.cgi-files]

<Directory [path-where-you-want-your-.pl-and-.cgi-files]>
    AllowOverride None
    Options ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
    AddHandler cgi-script .pl
    Order allow,deny
    allow from all
</Directory>

Step 4:

Add the following lines to your /etc/apache2/apache2.conf file.

AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .pl
<Files ~ "\.pl$">
Options +ExecCGI
</Files>
<Files ~ "\.cgi$">
Options +ExecCGI
</Files>

<IfModule mod_perl.c>
<IfModule mod_alias.c>
Alias /perl/ /home/sly/host/perl/
</IfModule>
<Location /perl>
SetHandler perl-script
PerlHandler Apache::Registry
Options +ExecCGI
</Location>
</IfModule>

<Files ~ "\.pl$">
Options +ExecCGI
</Files>

Step 5:

Very important, or at least I guess so, only after doing this step, I got it to work.

AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .pl

<Files ~ "\.pl$">
Options +ExecCGI
</Files>
<Files ~ "\.cgi$">
Options +ExecCGI
</Files>

<IfModule mod_perl.c>
<IfModule mod_alias.c>
Alias /perl/ /home/sly/host/perl/
</IfModule>
<Location /perl>
SetHandler perl-script
PerlHandler Apache::Registry
Options +ExecCGI
</Location>
</IfModule>

<Files ~ "\.pl$">
Options +ExecCGI
</Files>

Step 6

Very important, or at least I guess so, only after doing this step, I got it to work.

Add the following to you /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default file

<Files ~ "\.(pl|cgi)$">
SetHandler perl-script
PerlResponseHandler ModPerl::PerlRun
Options +ExecCGI
PerlSendHeader On
</Files>

Step 7:

Now add, your Perl script as test.pl in the place where you mentioned before in step 3 as [path-where-you-want-your-.pl-and-.cgi-files].

Give permissions to the .pl file using chmod and then, type the webaddress/cgi-bin/test.pl in the address bar of the browser, there you go, you got it.

(Now, many of the things would have been redundant in this post. Kindly ignore it.)

Solution 2:

You'll need to take a look at your Apache error log to see what the "internal server error" is. The four most likely cases, in my experience would be:

The CGI program is in a directory which does not have CGI execution enabled. Solution: Add the ExecCGI option to that directory via either httpd.conf or a .htaccess file.
Apache is only configured to run CGIs from a dedicated cgi-bin directory. Solution: Move the CGI program there or add an AddHandler cgi-script .cgi statement to httpd.conf.
The CGI program is not set as executable. Solution (assuming a *nix-type operating system): chmod +x my_prog.cgi
The CGI program is exiting without sending headers. Solution: Run the program from the command line and verify that a) it actually runs rather than dying with a compile-time error and b) it generates the correct output, which should include, at the very minimum, a Content-Type header and a blank line following the last of its headers.

Solution 3:

(Google search brought me to this question even though I did not ask for perl)

I had a problem with running scripts (albeit bash not perl). Apache had a config of ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/ however Apache error log showed File does not exist: /var/www/cgi-bin/test.html.

Tried putting the script in both /usr/lib/cgi-bin/ and /var/www/cgi-bin/ but neither were working.

After a prolonged googling session what cracked it for me was sudo a2enmod cgi and everything fell into place using /usr/lib/cgi-bin/.