mod_perl, PerlSetEnv, and PERL5LIB

geektron has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

this should be easy. i've created a subclass of Apache::AuthCookie, and now i'm trying to enable it.

this is a virtual-hosting setup, with each VH having a conf. file. in order to enable Apache::AuthCookieDBI (which is also running on this machine) correctly, i also have a specific modperl include for that domain. i created another one like it for the new, Apache::AuthCookie authentication.

it's really basic:

PerlSetVar PERL5LIB /home/httpd/website.com/libs

PerlModule RemoteAuthentication
  PerlSetVar ProImagePath /
  PerlSetVar ProImageLoginScript /apps/login.pl
[download]

attempting to use the script kicks out a 500 error, and the error log says RemoteAuthentication can't be found ... even though, via an Include, this PERL5LIB is being set in the main httpd.conf ...

is there that much of a difference between a strictly Perl-based use lib and setting PERL5LIB in mod_perl?

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Re: mod_perl, PerlSetEnv, and PERL5LIB by Joost (Canon) on Jul 27, 2004 at 18:57 UTC
is there that much of a difference between a strictly Perl-based use lib and setting PERL5LIB in mod_perl? Mostly, that perl only reads $ENV{PERL5LIB} when it's started: `use lib '/some/dir'; use Module;` [download] will work as expected, while `BEGIN { $ENV{PERL5LIB} = "/some/dir:$ENV{PERL5LIB}"; } use Module;` [download] will not, if Module.pm is in /some/dir. Either `use lib` or `BEGIN { unshift @INC }`, but you have to do both from perl; you can't use PERL5LIB, as perl is already running before apache starts reading the config files. "What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: mod_perl, PerlSetEnv, and PERL5LIB by tinita (Parson) on Jul 28, 2004 at 08:29 UTC
`PerlSetVar PERL5LIB /home/httpd/website.com/libs` uhm, i think this is the wrong way to set an environment variable. as the docs say, variables set by `PerlSetVar` are only available to the apache API: mod_perl so just use `PerlSetEnv`, as you did in the title of this node...	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: mod_perl, PerlSetEnv, and PERL5LIB by geektron (Curate) on Jul 28, 2004 at 15:31 UTC
well, i changed the modperl.site.conf (that's loaded by the main httpd.conf via `Include` this morning to read as such: `PerlSetEnv PERL5LIB /home/httpd/website.com/libs PerlModule RemoteAuthentication PerlSetVar websitePath /testMemberArea/ PerlSetVar websiteLoginScript /apps/login.pl PerlSetVar websiteDomain .website.com PerlSetVar websiteExpires +1h` [download] and the VH.conf to read: `## These documents require user to be logged in. <Directory /home/httpd/website.com/html/testMemberArea> AuthType RemoteAuthentication AuthName website PerlAuthenHandler RemoteAuthentication->authenticate PerlAuthzHandler RemoteAuthentication->authorize require valid-user </Directory>` [download] and that looks right to me, but i still get: sudo /usr/sbin/apachectl configtest Syntax error on line 7 of /etc/httpd/conf/VH/modperl.website.com: Can't locate RemoteAuthentication.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/lib/ +perl5/5.8.0/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.0 /usr/lib/per +l5/site_perl/5.8.0/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5 +.8.0 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.0/i386-l +inux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.0 /usr/lib/perl5/ven +dor_perl /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.0/i386-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/ +5.8.0 . /usr/ /usr/lib/perl) at (eval 7) line 3. [download] i've tried things like: `PerlSetEnv PERL5LIB PERL5LIB:/home/httpd/website.com/libs` [download] to no avail ...	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: mod_perl, PerlSetEnv, and PERL5LIB by tinita (Parson) on Jul 28, 2004 at 15:55 UTC
hmm, sorry, i thought it would work... (googling for it also suggests it should). anyway, i'd go for the startup.pl alternative, that's a common thing to do with mod_perl.	[reply]
Re^4: mod_perl, PerlSetEnv, and PERL5LIB by geektron (Curate) on Jul 28, 2004 at 16:03 UTC
Re: mod_perl, PerlSetEnv, and PERL5LIB by johnnywang (Priest) on Jul 27, 2004 at 19:50 UTC
I usually use a startup script for mod_perl where I do "use lib". i.e., put something like the following in httpd.conf: `PerlRequire "/var/www/cgi-bin/mod_perl_startup.pl"` [download] Then in mod_perl_startup.pl, I add: `use lib qw(/path_to_your_lib); use Apache::Log(); use Apache::DBI(); # and any other module you want to load` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: mod_perl, PerlSetEnv, and PERL5LIB by geektron (Curate) on Jul 27, 2004 at 19:52 UTC
well, i got the auth module loading, but now apache is ignoring the `ProImagePath` directive. i've looked at the cookie on a successful login, and the Path is set to `/apps` (the aliased dir for login.pl), and not to `/` (or any of the other variants i've tried. grrr ..	[reply] [d/l] [select]