Install mod_perl on Apache 2.2 on Windows 7
To continue on with developing on Windows using Apache/MySQL/PHP I wanted to add mod_perl to the mix. For this post I chose to make it work on Apache 2.2 but it could possibly work on Apache 2.4 as well, but I have not tested they portion yet.
First piece of the puzzle is to download a version of Perl that supports the Module on Apache. In the past I have gone with ActiveState’s ActivePerl but lately I have been using Strawberry Perl due to changes in retrieving older releases.I settled on Perl 5.10 release.
Download Strawberry Perl 5.10.5 from http://strawberryperl.com/releases.html and click on strawberry-perl-5.10.1.5.msi under the Strawberry Perl May 2011 section.
Once downloaded just double-click to install it, you can change the default installation path or change it to your preference. Once the installation is completed then, open a command prompt to set the perl environment and reboot the system.
c:\> cd C:\strawberry
Run the command
c:\strawberry> perl\bin\perl.exe update_env.pl.bat
Next download and compile the mod_perl using ppm (Perl Package Manager)
ppm install http://cpan.uwinnipeg.ca/PPMPackages/10xx/mod_perl.ppd
The installation process will start. Once it compiles the module it will ask where to put it. This will be your Apache modules directory (ex:c:/Apache2/modules)
Close the command prompt and edit c:\Apache2\conf\httpd.conf
We must tell Apache to load the module and tell it where the perl Dll lives. You can add this to the bottom of the file.
LoadModule perl_module modules/mod_perl.so LoadFile "C:/strawberry/perl/bin/perl510.dll"
Find the mime section and modify this
AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .plx .plex .pl
Now we need to enable and add a few items to allow perl to execute.
Look for the alias_module section and make sure the cgi-bin line is pointed to the correct location.
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "c:/Apache2/cgi-bin/"
Next you will need to add ExecCGI in the Option section.
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks ExecCGI
Save the changes and restart Apache service. We are now ready to test to see if it displays a simple Perl Hello script.
You can copy the code and save it as test.pl in c:\apache2\htdocs or anther directory of your preference.
#!c:\strawberry\perl\bin\perl.exe
# ^^^ this must be the first line of the script! ^^^
# start code
use strict;
use CGI;
my $q = new CGI;
# print header and start the markup output
print $q->header( "text/html" ),$q->start_html( "hello from perl cgi!" );
print $q->h2("Hello Mark...");
print $q->end_html;
# end code
I hope this helps get Perl working in your Windows Apache install.
update_env.pl.bat doesn’t exist, and the ppm install http://cpan.uwinnipeg.ca/PPMPackages/10xx/mod_perl.ppd doesn’t work too..
how to fix this?
C:\strawberry\perl\bin>ppm install http://cpan.uwinnipeg.ca/PPMPackages/10xx/mod
_perl.ppd
Installing package ‘http://cpan.uwinnipeg.ca/PPMPackages/10xx/mod_perl.ppd’…
Error installing package ‘http://cpan.uwinnipeg.ca/PPMPackages/10xx/mod_perl.ppd
‘: Could not locate a PPD file for package http://cpan.uwinnipeg.ca/PPMPackages/
10xx/mod_perl.ppd
Clark,
If you browse to http://cpan.uwinnipeg.ca/PPMPackages/10xx/ the files are listed but clicking on the hyperlink returns a 503 error from their web server. If you browse to the page there is mention of two other locations that you can try.
A set of repositories, suitable for adding to the ppm utility of ActivePerl 10xx, is given below – make sure to add only those repositories corresponding to your Perl version, as reported by C:\>perl -v.
http://www.bribes.org/perl/ppm, for the http://www.bribes.org Perl 5.10 repository
http://trouchelle.com/ppm10/, for the trouchelle Perl 5.10 repository
http://cpan.uwinnipeg.ca/PPMPackages/10xx/, for the uwinnipeg Perl 5.10 repository
Try ppm install http://www.bribes.org/perl/ppm/mod_perl.ppd or ppm install http://trouchelle.com/ppm10/mod_perl.ppd
I just HAVE to thank you newlife007, I spent my entire weekend trying to get this to run. I was extremely frustrated. I thought it would never work. Even the official documentations were completely unclear to me but this.. completely did the trick. You are my hero, have a great day.
Glad I could help out!
Hey it’s me again,
Last night I got an issue with my Windows 8 so I went back to W7. And re-did my entire Apache installation and used this article again as reference for my perl installation.
I get stuck on the “ppm install [link to ppm]” command.
Upon execution, it runs fine, package downloads but it doesn’t ask me where I want to install it to. Instead I get the message “Installing files in blib/lib into architecture dependent library tree”.
I for the life of me, have no idea where that is.
It should work like it did yesterday, it’s the exact same strawberry perl version. Any idea?
Thanks!
Aly
I should’ve tried a little harder. I found the solution.
It placed the file in the ppm folder in the strawberry directory, which I invoked from CMD. I was then prompted to download the perl module, it also asked me where I wanted to place it. Thanks again newlife and goodluck to others!