Apache/mod_perl2 : "failed to resolve handler"

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

Monks, I'm humbled to come to you with a typical Friday afternoon/Monday morning problem. I'm trying to move into mod_perl and was looking at modperl's docs/user/config/config.pod, which gave me the following example:

This is almost certainly a stupid configuration issue. In httpd.conf I have
....
PerlSwitches -wT
PerlSwitches -I/usr/local/apache2 -I/usr/local/apache2/pl

and later:

PerlModule pl::Hello
<Location /hello>
SetHandler modperl
PerlResponseHandler pl::Hello
</Location>

in /usr/local/apace2/pl I have Hello.pm.

So when I issue a request for http://localhost/hello I get a blank page and the error log says:
failed to resolve handler pl::Hello

I've tried changing the PerlModule and PerlResponseHandler lines to Hello (same result, even when moving Hello.pm to site_perl) and pl/Hello (different error entirely).

I have a traditional cgi that does a foreach my $i (@INC) {print $i} and /usr/local/apache2 and /usr/local/apache2/pl are not present. On the other hand, when I changed the PerlModule and PerlResponseHandler lines to refer to Hello.pm, apache barfs with this error:
error Can't locate pl::Hellopm in @INC (@INC contains:
/usr/local/apache2 /usr/local/apache2/pl /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.6/i486-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.6 ...(truncated)

So what is incorrect with the above syntax? Is that not how I specify my own handlers? Am I missing some directives?
What is the difference between the modperl and perl-script SetHandler options?
Thanks for your patience.

--
jpg

Comment on Apache/mod_perl2 : "failed to resolve handler"

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Apache/mod_perl2 : "failed to resolve handler" by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jun 20, 2005 at 15:40 UTC
This is not the appropriate place for mod_perl support. Check mod_perl's Getting Help. I do have a quick comment and possible solution: I don't think "traditional CGI" pays any attention to `PerlSwitches`, so it's no surprise it doesn't know about the new paths. What's the `package` used in Hello.pm? It should be `package pl::Hello`.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Apache/mod_perl2 : "failed to resolve handler" by mpeters (Chaplain) on Jun 20, 2005 at 16:22 UTC
In addition to the above, try loading your module before using it as a handler. This will cause Apache to not even start if there are problems with it and thus catch your problem (with a better error message) earlier. `PerlModule pl::Hello` [download] or in a startup.pl `use pl::Hello;` [download] -- More people are killed every year by pigs than by sharks, which shows you how good we are at evaluating risk. -- Bruce Schneier	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Apache/mod_perl2 : "failed to resolve handler" by jpeg (Chaplain) on Jun 20, 2005 at 16:24 UTC
Changing the package line in Hello.pm from Hello to pl::Hello fixed it. Thanks. For the record, I listed the differences between the CGI script's @INC path and modperl's @INC path to demonstrate that the PerlSwitches directive worked; e.g., that this was not a problem with @INC not seeing /usr/local/apache2/pl. That wasn't my question; sorry if that was unclear. Update: ikegami, can you clarify your post? Was there some specific mod_perl related link you wanted me to see? You posted a search result for 'getting help'. I don't get what you're trying to tell me. -- jpg	[reply]
Re^3: Apache/mod_perl2 : "failed to resolve handler" by kaif (Friar) on Jun 21, 2005 at 06:31 UTC
ikegami, can you clarify your post? Was there some specific mod_perl related link you wanted me to see? You posted a search result for 'getting help'. I don't get what you're trying to tell me. Here's the link to mod_perl's Getting Help that ikegami meant.	[reply]