How do I configure Apache 2 to run Perl CGI scripts

Question

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

User · Answer

If you have successfully installed Apache web server and Perl please follow the following steps to run cgi script using perl on ubuntu systems.

Before starting with CGI scripting it is necessary to configure apache server in such a way that it recognizes the CGI directory (where the cgi programs are saved) and allow for the execution of programs within that directory.

In Ubuntu cgi-bin directory usually resides in path /usr/lib , if not present create the cgi-bin directory using the following command.cgi-bin should be in this path itself.
```
 mkdir /usr/lib/cgi-bin
```
Issue the following command to check the permission status of the directory.
```
 ls -l /usr/lib | less
```

Check whether the permission looks as “drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2011-11-23 09:08 cgi- bin” if yes go to step 3.

If not issue the following command to ensure the appropriate permission for our cgi-bin directory.

     sudo chmod 755 /usr/lib/cgi-bin
     sudo chmod root.root /usr/lib/cgi-bin

Give execution permission to cgi-bin directory
```
 sudo chmod 755 /usr/lib/cgi-bin
```

Thus your cgi-bin directory is ready to go. This is where you put all your cgi scripts for execution. Our next step is configure apache to recognize cgi-bin directory and allow execution of all programs in it as cgi scripts.

Configuring Apache to run CGI script using perl

A directive need to be added in the configuration file of apache server so it knows the presence of CGI and the location of its directories. Initially go to location of configuration file of apache and open it with your favorite text editor
```
cd /etc/apache2/sites-available/ 
sudo gedit 000-default.conf
```

Copy the below content to the file 000-default.conf between the line of codes “DocumentRoot /var/www/html/” and “ErrorLog $ {APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log”

ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
<Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin">
AllowOverride None
Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
Require all granted

Restart apache server with the following code
```
sudo service apache2 restart
```
Now we need to enable cgi module which is present in newer versions of ubuntu by default
```
sudo a2enmod cgi.load
sudo a2enmod cgid.load
```
At this point we can reload the apache webserver so that it reads the configuration files again.
```
sudo service apache2 reload
```

The configuration part of apache is over now let us check it with a sample cgi perl program.

Testing it out

Go to the cgi-bin directory and create a cgi file with extension .pl
```
cd /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
sudo gedit test.pl
```

Copy the following code on test.pl and save it.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
print “Content-type: text/html\r\n\r\n”;
print “CGI working perfectly!! \n”;

Now give the test.pl execution permission.
```
sudo chmod 755 test.pl
```
Now open that file in your web browser http://Localhost/cgi-bin/test.pl
If you see the output “CGI working perfectly” you are ready to go.Now dump all your programs into the cgi-bin directory and start using them.

NB: Don't forget to give your new programs in cgi-bin, chmod 755 permissions so as to run it successfully without any internal server errors.

User · Answer

For those like me who have been groping your way through much-more-than-you-need-to-know-right-now tutorials and Docs  and just want to see the thing working for starters  I found the only thing I had to do was add   AddHandler cgi-script  pl  cgi  To my configuration file   http   httpd apache org docs 2 2 mod mod mime html addhandler  For my situation this works best as I can put my perl script anywhere I want  and just add the  pl or  cgi extension   Dave Sherohman s answer mentions the AddHandler solution also    Of course you still must make sure the permissions ownership on your script are set correctly  especially that the script will be executable   Take note of who the  user  is when run from an http request - eg  www or www-data

User · Answer

As of Ubuntu 12 04  Precise Pangolin   and perhaps a release or two before  simply installing apache2 and mod-perl via Synaptic and placing your CGI scripts in  usr lib cgi-bin is really all you need to do

User · Answer

I m guessing you ve taken a look at mod perl   Have you tried the following tutorial   EDIT  In relation to your posting - perhaps you could include a sample of the code inside your  cgi file  Perhaps even the first few lines

User · Answer

There are two ways to handle CGI scripts  SetHandler and AddHandler   SetHandler cgi-script   applies to all files in a given context  no matter how they are named  even index html or style css   AddHandler cgi-script  pl   is similar  but applies to files ending in  pl  in a given context  You may choose another extension or several  if you like   Additionally  the CGI module must be loaded and Options  ExecCGI configured  To activate the module  issue  a2enmod cgi   and restart or reload Apache  Finally  the Perl CGI script must be executable  So the execute bits must be set  chmod a x script pl   and it should start with      usr bin perl   as its first line     When you use SetHandler or AddHandler  and Options  ExecCGI  outside of any directive  it is applied globally to all files  But you may restrict the context to a subset by enclosing these directives inside  e g  Directory   lt Directory  path to some cgi-dir gt      SetHandler cgi-script     Options  ExecCGI  lt  Directory gt    Now SetHandler applies only to the files inside  path to some cgi-dir instead of all files of the web site  Same is with AddHandler inside a Directory or Location directive  of course  It then applies to the files inside  path to some cgi-dir  ending in  pl

User · Answer

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    lt Files       pl cgi    gt      SetHandler perl-script     PerlResponseHandler ModPerl  PerlRun     Options  ExecCGI     PerlSendHeader On  lt  Files gt    lt Directory   gt      Options FollowSymLinks     AllowOverride None  lt  Directory gt   lt Directory  path-to-store-your-website-files-like- html- perl-scripts-should-be-stored-in-cgi-bin   gt       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  lt  Directory gt   ScriptAlias  cgi-bin   path-where-you-want-your- pl-and- cgi-files    lt Directory  path-where-you-want-your- pl-and- cgi-files  gt      AllowOverride None     Options ExecCGI -MultiViews  SymLinksIfOwnerMatch     AddHandler cgi-script  pl     Order allow deny     allow from all  lt  Directory gt   lt Files       pl cgi    gt      SetHandler perl-script     PerlResponseHandler ModPerl  PerlRun     Options  ExecCGI     PerlSendHeader On  lt  Files gt    lt Directory   gt      Options FollowSymLinks     AllowOverride None  lt  Directory gt   lt Directory  path-to-store-your-website-files-like- html- perl-scripts-should-be-stored-in-cgi-bin   gt       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  lt  Directory gt   ScriptAlias  cgi-bin   path-where-you-want-your- pl-and- cgi-files    lt Directory  path-where-you-want-your- pl-and- cgi-files  gt      AllowOverride None     Options ExecCGI -MultiViews  SymLinksIfOwnerMatch     AddHandler cgi-script  pl     Order allow deny     allow from all  lt  Directory gt    Step 4   Add the following lines to your  etc apache2 apache2 conf file   AddHandler cgi-script  cgi  pl  lt Files      pl   gt  Options  ExecCGI  lt  Files gt   lt Files      cgi   gt  Options  ExecCGI  lt  Files gt    lt IfModule mod perl c gt   lt IfModule mod alias c gt  Alias  perl   home sly host perl   lt  IfModule gt   lt Location  perl gt  SetHandler perl-script PerlHandler Apache  Registry Options  ExecCGI  lt  Location gt   lt  IfModule gt    lt Files      pl   gt  Options  ExecCGI  lt  Files gt    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   lt Files      pl   gt  Options  ExecCGI  lt  Files gt   lt Files      cgi   gt  Options  ExecCGI  lt  Files gt    lt IfModule mod perl c gt   lt IfModule mod alias c gt  Alias  perl   home sly host perl   lt  IfModule gt   lt Location  perl gt  SetHandler perl-script PerlHandler Apache  Registry Options  ExecCGI  lt  Location gt   lt  IfModule gt    lt Files      pl   gt  Options  ExecCGI  lt  Files gt    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   lt Files       pl cgi    gt  SetHandler perl-script PerlResponseHandler ModPerl  PerlRun Options  ExecCGI PerlSendHeader On  lt  Files gt    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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

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

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