Installing Apache 2.4.3 on OSX 10.6.8

Thanks for hanging in there with me.

I thought about whether the shebang line was incorrect, and I tried several different ones, including these two:

/usr/bin$ which -a perl

/Users/7stud/perl5/perlbrew/perls/perl-5.16.0/bin/perl

/usr/bin/perl

>Sorry, but there isn't anything about Apache that is simple.<

While I agree, I'm not new to Apache and cgi scripting. I was setting up Apache, php, mysql from source on Windows back in 2002, and I was always able to get things working.

>How are you referring to it in your web browser?<

I posted the url I was using in my original cgi post:

http://localhost:8080/cgi-bin/printenv

Hurray, I got cgi to work.

The ScriptAlias line, which is supposed to enable cgi scripts to execute, is inside a pair of <IfModule> tags:

<IfModule alias_module>

…

…

ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/usr/local/apache2/cgi-bin/"

</IfModule>

So I searched the apache docs for info on what an <IfModule> tag does:

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/core.html#ifmodule

The docs say the lines inside the tag are only executed if the test is true, which in this case means that alias_module exists. What the heck is an alias module, and how do I know if it exists? So, I searched my httpd.conf for 'alias_module', and I found this line:

LoadModule alias_module modules/mod_alias.so

As a result, I concluded that apache loads alias_module, and therefore the stuff inside the <IfModule alias_module> tag does in fact execute.

So how come the ScriptAlias line isn't allowing my cgi scripts to execute? Next, I hit up the apache docs for 'ScriptAlias':

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_alias.html#scriptalias

The ScriptAlias directive has the same behavior as the Alias directive, except that in addition it marks the target directory as containing CGI scripts that will be processed by mod_cgi's cgi-script handler.

Hmmm…something called a mod_cgi. Let's search httpd.conf for 'mod_cgi':

#LoadModule cgid_module modules/mod_cgid.so

Hmmm...not an exact match. I wonder what will happen if I uncomment that line? So I uncommented that line. (By the way to change httpd.conf, I had to use:

$ sudo mvim httpd.conf (I'm using the macvim version of vim for text editing.)

Otherwise, I got a 'read only error'. )

Then I restarted apache,

$ sudo /usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl -k stop

$ sudo /usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl -k start

and voila! the results of the printenv test script were displayed in my browser. I decided to check into what mod_cgid is, and I found this:

Summary

Except for the optimizations and the additional

ScriptSock

directive noted below,

mod_cgid

behaves similarly to

mod_cgi

. See the

mod_cgi

summary for additional details about Apache and CGI.

On certain unix operating systems, forking a process from a multi-threaded server is a very expensive operation because the new process will replicate all the threads of the parent process. In order to avoid incurring this expense on each CGI invocation,

mod_cgid

creates an external daemon that is responsible for forking child processes to run CGI scripts. The main server communicates with this daemon using a unix domain socket.

This module is used by default instead of

mod_cgi

whenever a multi-threaded MPM is selected during the compilation process. At the user level, this module is identical in configuration and operation to

mod_cgi

. The only exception is the additional directive

ScriptSock

which gives the name of the socket to use for communication with the cgi daemon.

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_cgid.html

I was able to use the shebang:

#!/usr/bin/env perl

And if you want the html in a test script to be rendered as html, use the line:

print "Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\n\n";

rather than 'text/plain'.

Example httpd.conf for Mac OSX 10.6.8:

#

# This is the main Apache HTTP server configuration file. It contains the

# configuration directives that give the server its instructions.

# See <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/> for detailed information.

# In particular, see

# <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/directives.html>

# for a discussion of each configuration directive.

#

# Do NOT simply read the instructions in here without understanding

# what they do. They're here only as hints or reminders. If you are unsure

# consult the online docs. You have been warned.

#

# Configuration and logfile names: If the filenames you specify for many

# of the server's control files begin with "/" (or "drive:/" for Win32), the

# server will use that explicit path. If the filenames do *not* begin

# with "/", the value of ServerRoot is prepended -- so "logs/access_log"

# with ServerRoot set to "/usr/local/apache2" will be interpreted by the

# server as "/usr/local/apache2/logs/access_log", whereas "/logs/access_log"

# will be interpreted as '/logs/access_log'.

#

# ServerRoot: The top of the directory tree under which the server's

# configuration, error, and log files are kept.

#

# Do not add a slash at the end of the directory path. If you point

# ServerRoot at a non-local disk, be sure to specify a local disk on the

# Mutex directive, if file-based mutexes are used. If you wish to share the

# same ServerRoot for multiple httpd daemons, you will need to change at

# least PidFile.

#

ServerRoot "/usr/local/apache2"

#

# Mutex: Allows you to set the mutex mechanism and mutex file directory

# for individual mutexes, or change the global defaults

#

# Uncomment and change the directory if mutexes are file-based and the default

# mutex file directory is not on a local disk or is not appropriate for some

# other reason.

#

# Mutex default:logs

#

# Listen: Allows you to bind Apache to specific IP addresses and/or

# ports, instead of the default. See also the <VirtualHost>

# directive.

#

# Change this to Listen on specific IP addresses as shown below to

# prevent Apache from glomming onto all bound IP addresses.

#

#Listen 12.34.56.78:80

Listen 8080

#

# Dynamic Shared Object (DSO) Support

#

# To be able to use the functionality of a module which was built as a DSO you

# have to place corresponding `LoadModule' lines at this location so the

# directives contained in it are actually available _before_ they are used.

# Statically compiled modules (those listed by `httpd -l') do not need

# to be loaded here.

#

# Example:

# LoadModule foo_module modules/mod_foo.so

#

LoadModule authn_file_module modules/mod_authn_file.so

#LoadModule authn_dbm_module modules/mod_authn_dbm.so

#LoadModule authn_anon_module modules/mod_authn_anon.so

#LoadModule authn_dbd_module modules/mod_authn_dbd.so

#LoadModule authn_socache_module modules/mod_authn_socache.so

LoadModule authn_core_module modules/mod_authn_core.so

LoadModule authz_host_module modules/mod_authz_host.so

LoadModule authz_groupfile_module modules/mod_authz_groupfile.so

LoadModule authz_user_module modules/mod_authz_user.so

#LoadModule authz_dbm_module modules/mod_authz_dbm.so

#LoadModule authz_owner_module modules/mod_authz_owner.so

#LoadModule authz_dbd_module modules/mod_authz_dbd.so

LoadModule authz_core_module modules/mod_authz_core.so

LoadModule access_compat_module modules/mod_access_compat.so

LoadModule auth_basic_module modules/mod_auth_basic.so

#LoadModule auth_form_module modules/mod_auth_form.so

#LoadModule auth_digest_module modules/mod_auth_digest.so

#LoadModule allowmethods_module modules/mod_allowmethods.so

#LoadModule file_cache_module modules/mod_file_cache.so

#LoadModule cache_module modules/mod_cache.so

#LoadModule cache_disk_module modules/mod_cache_disk.so

#LoadModule socache_shmcb_module modules/mod_socache_shmcb.so

#LoadModule socache_dbm_module modules/mod_socache_dbm.so

#LoadModule socache_memcache_module modules/mod_socache_memcache.so

#LoadModule dbd_module modules/mod_dbd.so

#LoadModule dumpio_module modules/mod_dumpio.so

#LoadModule buffer_module modules/mod_buffer.so

#LoadModule ratelimit_module modules/mod_ratelimit.so

LoadModule reqtimeout_module modules/mod_reqtimeout.so

#LoadModule ext_filter_module modules/mod_ext_filter.so

#LoadModule request_module modules/mod_request.so

#LoadModule include_module modules/mod_include.so

LoadModule filter_module modules/mod_filter.so

#LoadModule substitute_module modules/mod_substitute.so

#LoadModule sed_module modules/mod_sed.so

#LoadModule deflate_module modules/mod_deflate.so

LoadModule mime_module modules/mod_mime.so

LoadModule log_config_module modules/mod_log_config.so

#LoadModule log_debug_module modules/mod_log_debug.so

#LoadModule logio_module modules/mod_logio.so

LoadModule env_module modules/mod_env.so

#LoadModule expires_module modules/mod_expires.so

LoadModule headers_module modules/mod_headers.so

#LoadModule unique_id_module modules/mod_unique_id.so

LoadModule setenvif_module modules/mod_setenvif.so

LoadModule version_module modules/mod_version.so

#LoadModule remoteip_module modules/mod_remoteip.so

#LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so

#LoadModule proxy_connect_module modules/mod_proxy_connect.so

#LoadModule proxy_ftp_module modules/mod_proxy_ftp.so

#LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so

#LoadModule proxy_fcgi_module modules/mod_proxy_fcgi.so

#LoadModule proxy_scgi_module modules/mod_proxy_scgi.so

#LoadModule proxy_ajp_module modules/mod_proxy_ajp.so

#LoadModule proxy_balancer_module modules/mod_proxy_balancer.so

#LoadModule proxy_express_module modules/mod_proxy_express.so

#LoadModule session_module modules/mod_session.so

#LoadModule session_cookie_module modules/mod_session_cookie.so

#LoadModule session_dbd_module modules/mod_session_dbd.so

#LoadModule slotmem_shm_module modules/mod_slotmem_shm.so

#LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so

#LoadModule lbmethod_byrequests_module modules/mod_lbmethod_byrequests.so

#LoadModule lbmethod_bytraffic_module modules/mod_lbmethod_bytraffic.so

#LoadModule lbmethod_bybusyness_module modules/mod_lbmethod_bybusyness.so

#LoadModule lbmethod_heartbeat_module modules/mod_lbmethod_heartbeat.so

LoadModule unixd_module modules/mod_unixd.so

#LoadModule dav_module modules/mod_dav.so

LoadModule status_module modules/mod_status.so

LoadModule autoindex_module modules/mod_autoindex.so

#LoadModule info_module modules/mod_info.so

LoadModule cgid_module modules/mod_cgid.so

#LoadModule dav_fs_module modules/mod_dav_fs.so

#LoadModule vhost_alias_module modules/mod_vhost_alias.so

#LoadModule negotiation_module modules/mod_negotiation.so

LoadModule dir_module modules/mod_dir.so

#LoadModule actions_module modules/mod_actions.so

#LoadModule speling_module modules/mod_speling.so

#LoadModule userdir_module modules/mod_userdir.so

LoadModule alias_module modules/mod_alias.so

#LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

<IfModule unixd_module>

#

# If you wish httpd to run as a different user or group, you must run

# httpd as root initially and it will switch.

#

# User/Group: The name (or #number) of the user/group to run httpd as.

# It is usually good practice to create a dedicated user and group for

# running httpd, as with most system services.

#

User daemon

Group daemon

</IfModule>

# 'Main' server configuration

#

# The directives in this section set up the values used by the 'main'

# server, which responds to any requests that aren't handled by a

# <VirtualHost> definition. These values also provide defaults for

# any <VirtualHost> containers you may define later in the file.

#

# All of these directives may appear inside <VirtualHost> containers,

# in which case these default settings will be overridden for the

# virtual host being defined.

#

#

# ServerAdmin: Your address, where problems with the server should be

# e-mailed. This address appears on some server-generated pages, such

# as error documents. e.g. admin@your-domain.com

#

ServerAdmin you@example.com

#

# ServerName gives the name and port that the server uses to identify itself.

# This can often be determined automatically, but we recommend you specify

# it explicitly to prevent problems during startup.

#

# If your host doesn't have a registered DNS name, enter its IP address here.

#

ServerName 7stud.com

#

# Deny access to the entirety of your server's filesystem. You must

# explicitly permit access to web content directories in other

# <Directory> blocks below.

#

<Directory />

AllowOverride none

Require all denied

</Directory>

#

# Note that from this point forward you must specifically allow

# particular features to be enabled - so if something's not working as

# you might expect, make sure that you have specifically enabled it

# below.

#

#

# DocumentRoot: The directory out of which you will serve your

# documents. By default, all requests are taken from this directory, but

# symbolic links and aliases may be used to point to other locations.

#

DocumentRoot "/usr/local/apache2/htdocs"

<Directory "/usr/local/apache2/htdocs">

#

# Possible values for the Options directive are "None", "All",

# or any combination of:

# Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks SymLinksifOwnerMatch ExecCGI MultiViews

#

# Note that "MultiViews" must be named *explicitly* --- "Options All"

# doesn't give it to you.

#

# The Options directive is both complicated and important. Please see

# http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/core.html#options

# for more information.

#

Options Indexes FollowSymLinks

#

# AllowOverride controls what directives may be placed in .htaccess files.

# It can be "All", "None", or any combination of the keywords:

# Options FileInfo AuthConfig Limit

#

AllowOverride None

#

# Controls who can get stuff from this server.

#

Require all granted

</Directory>

#

# DirectoryIndex: sets the file that Apache will serve if a directory

# is requested.

#

<IfModule dir_module>

DirectoryIndex index.html

</IfModule>

#

# The following lines prevent .htaccess and .htpasswd files from being

# viewed by Web clients.

#

<Files ".ht*">

Require all denied

</Files>

#

# ErrorLog: The location of the error log file.

# If you do not specify an ErrorLog directive within a <VirtualHost>

# container, error messages relating to that virtual host will be

# logged here. If you *do* define an error logfile for a <VirtualHost>

# container, that host's errors will be logged there and not here.

#

ErrorLog "logs/error_log"

#

# LogLevel: Control the number of messages logged to the error_log.

# Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,

# alert, emerg.

#

LogLevel warn

<IfModule log_config_module>

#

# The following directives define some format nicknames for use with

# a CustomLog directive (see below).

#

LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined

LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b" common

<IfModule logio_module>

# You need to enable mod_logio.c to use %I and %O

LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\" %I %O" combinedio

</IfModule>

#

# The location and format of the access logfile (Common Logfile Format).

# If you do not define any access logfiles within a <VirtualHost>

# container, they will be logged here. Contrariwise, if you *do*

# define per-<VirtualHost> access logfiles, transactions will be

# logged therein and *not* in this file.

#

CustomLog "logs/access_log" common

#

# If you prefer a logfile with access, agent, and referer information

# (Combined Logfile Format) you can use the following directive.

#

#CustomLog "logs/access_log" combined

</IfModule>

<IfModule alias_module>

#

# Redirect: Allows you to tell clients about documents that used to

# exist in your server's namespace, but do not anymore. The client

# will make a new request for the document at its new location.

# Example:

# Redirect permanent /foo http://www.example.com/bar

#

# Alias: Maps web paths into filesystem paths and is used to

# access content that does not live under the DocumentRoot.

# Example:

# Alias /webpath /full/filesystem/path

#

# If you include a trailing / on /webpath then the server will

# require it to be present in the URL. You will also likely

# need to provide a <Directory> section to allow access to

# the filesystem path.

#

# ScriptAlias: This controls which directories contain server scripts.

# ScriptAliases are essentially the same as Aliases, except that

# documents in the target directory are treated as applications and

# run by the server when requested rather than as documents sent to the

# client. The same rules about trailing "/" apply to ScriptAlias

# directives as to Alias.

#

ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/usr/local/apache2/cgi-bin/"

</IfModule>

<IfModule cgid_module>

#

# ScriptSock: On threaded servers, designate the path to the UNIX

# socket used to communicate with the CGI daemon of mod_cgid.

#

#Scriptsock cgisock

</IfModule>

#

# "/usr/local/apache2/cgi-bin" should be changed to whatever your ScriptAliased

# CGI directory exists, if you have that configured.

#

<Directory "/usr/local/apache2/cgi-bin">

AllowOverride None

Options None

Require all granted

</Directory>

<IfModule mime_module>

#

# TypesConfig points to the file containing the list of mappings from

# filename extension to MIME-type.

#

TypesConfig conf/mime.types

#

# AddType allows you to add to or override the MIME configuration

# file specified in TypesConfig for specific file types.

#

#AddType application/x-gzip .tgz

#

# AddEncoding allows you to have certain browsers uncompress

# information on the fly. Note: Not all browsers support this.

#

#AddEncoding x-compress .Z

#AddEncoding x-gzip .gz .tgz

#

# If the AddEncoding directives above are commented-out, then you

# probably should define those extensions to indicate media types:

#

AddType application/x-compress .Z

AddType application/x-gzip .gz .tgz

#

# AddHandler allows you to map certain file extensions to "handlers":

# actions unrelated to filetype. These can be either built into the server

# or added with the Action directive (see below)

#

# To use CGI scripts outside of ScriptAliased directories:

# (You will also need to add "ExecCGI" to the "Options" directive.)

#

#AddHandler cgi-script .cgi

# For type maps (negotiated resources):

#AddHandler type-map var

#

# Filters allow you to process content before it is sent to the client.

#

# To parse .shtml files for server-side includes (SSI):

# (You will also need to add "Includes" to the "Options" directive.)

#

#AddType text/html .shtml

#AddOutputFilter INCLUDES .shtml

</IfModule>

#

# The mod_mime_magic module allows the server to use various hints from the

# contents of the file itself to determine its type. The MIMEMagicFile

# directive tells the module where the hint definitions are located.

#

#MIMEMagicFile conf/magic

#

# Customizable error responses come in three flavors:

# 1) plain text 2) local redirects 3) external redirects

#

# Some examples:

#ErrorDocument 500 "The server made a boo boo."

#ErrorDocument 404 /missing.html

#ErrorDocument 404 "/cgi-bin/missing_handler.pl"

#ErrorDocument 402 http://www.example.com/subscription_info.html

#

#

# MaxRanges: Maximum number of Ranges in a request before

# returning the entire resource, or one of the special

# values 'default', 'none' or 'unlimited'.

# Default setting is to accept 200 Ranges.

#MaxRanges unlimited

#

# EnableMMAP and EnableSendfile: On systems that support it,

# memory-mapping or the sendfile syscall may be used to deliver

# files. This usually improves server performance, but must

# be turned off when serving from networked-mounted

# filesystems or if support for these functions is otherwise

# broken on your system.

# Defaults: EnableMMAP On, EnableSendfile Off

#

#EnableMMAP off

#EnableSendfile on

# Supplemental configuration

#

# The configuration files in the conf/extra/ directory can be

# included to add extra features or to modify the default configuration of

# the server, or you may simply copy their contents here and change as

# necessary.

# Server-pool management (MPM specific)

#Include conf/extra/httpd-mpm.conf

# Multi-language error messages

#Include conf/extra/httpd-multilang-errordoc.conf

# Fancy directory listings

#Include conf/extra/httpd-autoindex.conf

# Language settings

#Include conf/extra/httpd-languages.conf

# User home directories

#Include conf/extra/httpd-userdir.conf

# Real-time info on requests and configuration

#Include conf/extra/httpd-info.conf

# Virtual hosts

#Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

# Local access to the Apache HTTP Server Manual

#Include conf/extra/httpd-manual.conf

# Distributed authoring and versioning (WebDAV)

#Include conf/extra/httpd-dav.conf

# Various default settings

#Include conf/extra/httpd-default.conf

# Configure mod_proxy_html to understand HTML4/XHTML1

<IfModule proxy_html_module>

Include conf/extra/proxy-html.conf

</IfModule>

# Secure (SSL/TLS) connections

#Include conf/extra/httpd-ssl.conf

#

# Note: The following must must be present to support

# starting without SSL on platforms with no /dev/random equivalent

# but a statically compiled-in mod_ssl.

#

<IfModule ssl_module>

SSLRandomSeed startup builtin

SSLRandomSeed connect builtin

</IfModule>

# Deal with user agents that deliberately violate open standards

#

<IfModule setenvif_module>

BrowserMatch "MSIE 10.0;" bad_DNT

</IfModule>

<IfModule headers_module>

RequestHeader unset DNT env=bad_DNT

</IfModule>

Now, you guys are assuring me that there is no security risk by turning Sharing on if I want to use php, etc. in the future?

I decided to try and install php from source--just to see if I could do it. After messing around with vagrant unsuccessfully, I decided vagrant was way too complicated, and I installed php from source myself. In case anyone else is interested in how I installed php, I followed the php install instructions here (which are the Unix install instructions, which the Mac Install Instructions said to use):

http://www.php.net/manual/en/install.unix.apache2.php

Here are some clarifications of some of the steps:

3) I ignored step 3 (because I had already installed apache):

Build and install Apache. Consult the Apache install documentation for more details on building Apache.

cd httpd-2_x_NN

./configure --enable-so

make

make install

Apparently the apache install does the --enable-so by default.

5) I had previously installed mysql, and the --with-mysql flag, succeeded in allowing me to access my databases from a php script.

6) Make sure you do step 6:

cp php.ini-development /usr/local/lib/php.ini

I guess by default php reads the php.ini file located at /usr/local/lib/ and there isn't one there until you copy it.

7) The php install took care of adding the specified line to apache's http.conf.

8) I added the following to http.conf:

<FilesMatch \.php$>

SetHandler application/x-httpd-php

</FilesMatch>

9) To test your php install, start apache then create a file called my_test.php containing the following:

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<body>

<?php

echo "My first PHP script!";

phpinfo();

?>

</body>

</html>

Put that file in the directory /usr/local/apache2/htdocs. Then use the following url in your browser:

http//localhost:8080/my_test.php

(Note that in apache's httpd.conf file, I have this line:

Listen 8080

which makes apache listen on port 8080, which means I have to include the port in the url.)

If you scroll down the resulting page, you can see lots of php/mysql/apache configuration info.