I haven't been able to find any reference documenting this behaviour, but I've never been able to force an internal redirect on Apache unless I omitted the Status: header (which redirect() adds by default) using...

print $q->redirect(
  -status => "",
  -uri    => "/cgi-bin/Auto.cgi"
);
[download]

print "Location: /cgi-bin/Auto.cgi\n\n";

Maybe you'll have better luck with one of these?

    --k.

Aha! I found the culprit! You were spot on, although slightly confused. Apache does notice the status header of an internal redirect. Here's the code:

        location = ap_table_get(r->headers_out, "Location"); 
 
        if (location && location[0] == '/' && r->status == 200) {
[download]

So if there's a status, it has to be "200". Any other status, and the code falls through to sending the header out to the client instead (an external redirect).

And there appears to be no-way to force a 200 status using CGI.pm's "redirect". {sigh}

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.

---

update: Ahh. I was wrong about CGI.pm. You can use

print redirect(-uri => "/foo", -status => 200);
[download]

Super, always pleased to learn new stuff.

So what is happening is that the CGI.pm is sending headers to Apache to send back to the client. However Apache notices that the status is 200 and that there is a Location header and decides to issue a new request through itself for this location. So until the new location's data is grabbed and is ready to go back nothing is sent to the client making this an internal, as opposed to external, redirect.

So without forcing a status of 200 CGI.pm redirect would send back a status of 302 (Moved Temporarily) which Apache would send on to the brower to deal with.

I believe I am clear an this now, thanks for the clarification.

One way to achieve a solution to the original question would be to have the CGI script request the page off the server and then pass it back to the browser verbatim, as if it were just a proxy.

I may be wrong...

Update: Typo (i before e except after c)

No, internal redirects existed long before mod_perl. Apache::Registry has to emulate them to make it appear as if it's mod_cgi, in fact.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.