=head1 NAME

Getting Your Feet Wet with mod_perl

=head1 Description

This chapter gives you the bare minimum information to get you started
with mod_perl 2.0. For most people it's sufficient to get going.

=head1 Installation

If you are a Win32 user, please refer to the L<Win32 installation
document|docs::2.0::os::win32::install>.

First, L<download|download::index> the mod_perl 2.0 source.

Before installing mod_perl, you need to check that you have the
L<mod_perl 2.0
prerequisites|docs::2.0::user::install::install/Prerequisites> B<installed>.
Apache and the right Perl version have to be built and installed
B<before> you can proceed with building mod_perl.

In this chapter we assume that httpd and all helper files were
installed under I<$HOME/httpd/prefork>, if your distribution doesn't
install all the files under the same tree, please refer to L<the
complete installation
instructions|docs::2.0::user::install::install/Installing_mod_perl_from_Source>.

Now, configure mod_perl:

  % tar -xvzf mod_perl-2.x.xx.tar.gz
  % cd modperl-2.0
  % perl Makefile.PL MP_APXS=$HOME/httpd/prefork/bin/apxs

where C<MP_APXS> is the full path to the C<apxs> executable, normally
found in the same directory as the C<httpd> executable, but could be
put in a different path as well.

Finally, build, test and install mod_perl:

  % make && make test && make install

Become I<root> before doing C<make install> if installing system-wide.

If something goes wrong or you need to enable optional features please
refer to L<the complete installation
instructions|docs::2.0::user::install::install/Installing_mod_perl_from_Source>.



=head1 Configuration

If you are a Win32 user, please refer to the L<Win32 configuration
document|docs::2.0::os::win32::config>.

Enable mod_perl built as DSO, by adding to I<httpd.conf>:

  LoadModule perl_module modules/mod_perl.so

There are many other configuration options which you can find in the
L<configuration manual|docs::2.0::user::config::config>.

If you want to run mod_perl 1.0 code on mod_perl 2.0 server enable the
compatibility layer:

  PerlModule Apache2::compat

For more information see: L<Migrating from mod_perl 1.0 to mod_perl
2.0|docs::2.0::user::porting::compat>.



=head1 Server Launch and Shutdown

Apache is normally launched with C<apachectl>:

  % $HOME/httpd/prefork/bin/apachectl start

and shut down with:

  % $HOME/httpd/prefork/bin/apachectl stop

Check I<$HOME/httpd/prefork/logs/error_log> to see that the server has
started and it's a right one. It should say something similar to:

  [Fri Jul 22 09:39:55 2005] [notice] Apache/2.0.55-dev (Unix)
  mod_ssl/2.0.55-dev OpenSSL/0.9.7e DAV/2 mod_perl/2.0.2-dev
  Perl/v5.8.7 configured -- resuming normal operations





=head1 Registry Scripts

To enable registry scripts add the following to I<httpd.conf>:

  Alias /perl/ /home/httpd/httpd-2.0/perl/
  <Location /perl/>
      SetHandler perl-script
      PerlResponseHandler ModPerl::Registry
      PerlOptions +ParseHeaders
      Options +ExecCGI
      Order allow,deny
      Allow from all 
  </Location>

and now assuming that we have the following script:

  #!/usr/bin/perl
  print "Content-type: text/plain\n\n";
  print "mod_perl 2.0 rocks!\n";

saved in I</home/httpd/httpd-2.0/perl/rock.pl>. Make the script
executable and readable by everybody:

  % chmod a+rx /home/httpd/httpd-2.0/perl/rock.pl

Of course the path to the script should be readable by the server too.
In the real world you probably want to have a tighter permissions, but
for the purpose of testing that things are working this is just fine.

Now restart the server and issue a request to
I<http://localhost/perl/rock.pl> and you should get the response:

  mod_perl 2.0 rocks!

If that didn't work check the I<error_log> file.

For more information on the registry scripts refer to the
C<L<ModPerl::Registry|docs::2.0::api::ModPerl::Registry>>
manpage. (XXX: one day there will a tutorial on registry, should port
it from 1.0's docs).


=head1 Handler Modules

Finally check that you can run mod_perl handlers. Let's write a
response handler similar to the registry script from the previous
section:

  #file:MyApache2/Rocks.pm
  #----------------------
  package MyApache2::Rocks;
  
  use strict;
  use warnings;
  
  use Apache2::RequestRec ();
  use Apache2::RequestIO ();
  
  use Apache2::Const -compile => qw(OK);
  
  sub handler {
      my $r = shift;
  
      $r->content_type('text/plain');
      print "mod_perl 2.0 rocks!\n";
  
      return Apache2::Const::OK;
  }
  1;

Save the code in the file I<MyApache2/Rocks.pm>, somewhere where
mod_perl can find it. For example let's put it under
I</home/httpd/httpd-2.0/perl/MyApache2/Rocks.pm>, and we tell mod_perl
that I</home/httpd/httpd-2.0/perl/> is in C<@INC>, via a startup file
which includes just:

  use lib qw(/home/httpd/httpd-2.0/perl);
  1;

and loaded from I<httpd.conf>:

  PerlRequire /home/httpd/httpd-2.0/perl/startup.pl

Now we can configure our module in I<httpd.conf>:

  <Location /rocks>
      SetHandler perl-script
      PerlResponseHandler  MyApache2::Rocks
  </Location>

Now restart the server and issue a request to
I<http://localhost/rocks> and you should get the response:

  mod_perl 2.0 rocks!

If that didn't work check the I<error_log> file.





=head1 Troubleshooting

If after reading the complete
L<installation|docs::2.0::user::install::install> and L<configuration
chapters|docs::2.0::user::config::config> you are still having
problems, take a look at the L<troubleshooting
sections|docs::2.0::user::troubleshooting::troubleshooting>. If the problem
persist, please report them using the L<following
guidelines|docs::2.0::user::help::help/Reporting_Problems>.




=head1 Maintainers

Maintainer is the person(s) you should contact with updates,
corrections and patches.

=over

=item *

Stas Bekman [http://stason.org/]

=back


=head1 Authors

=over

=item *

Stas Bekman [http://stason.org/]

=back

Only the major authors are listed above. For contributors see the
Changes file.


=cut
