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

I recently switched a web application (TWiki) from being webauth-based to CGI::Session based.

That's all good, except now the access_log never logs the authenticated user viewing a page.

I'm guessing I need to write a mod_perl handler that will retrieve the authenticated username from the CGI::Session and then somehow pass that to Apache to use when writing out the log entry?

Any guidance or pointers would be much appreciated. Here is the beginning of what I expect I'd need:

  sub handler {
    use CGI::Session;

    # check CGI session
    my $session = new CGI::Session();
    my $authuser = $session->param( 'AUTHUSER' );

    # pass authuser to Apache log handler
    $r->set_remote_user_or_something( $authuser );
  }

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Update: it appears that I want something like the following:

use CGI::Session;

sub handler {
    my ($r) = @_;

    # check CGI session
    my $session = new CGI::Session();
    my $authuser = $session->param( 'AUTHUSER' );

    # pass authuser to Apache log handler
    $r->user( $authuser ) if ( $authuser );

    # handle page
    # ...
}

[download]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: mod_perl, Apache access_log, and CGI::Session (Logging Authenticated Username)
by Errto (Vicar) on Nov 08, 2005 at 02:50 UTC

    It would appear that the user method in Apache2::RequestRec under mod_perl2 allows you to set, as well as retrieve, the user ID. See the docs.

    Actually, I'm glad you suggested that because it gives me an idea - I have a situation where I'd really love to use a PerlAuthzHandler but it doesn't work because the user ID is sent through a custom header field or cookie instead of an actual HTTP user.

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      Apparently I can do it with Apache 1 as well.. Running httpd -v gives me:
      Server version: Apache/1.3.27 (Unix)  (Red-Hat/Linux)
Server built:   Mar 15 2005 14:49:39

      [download]

      The final handler I used (not the one given for the thread question) was the following for handling CGI scripts:

      <Perl>
{
    package SessionLogAndHandle;
    use CGI::Session;
    use Apache::PerlRun;

    sub handler {
        my ( $r ) = @_;

        {
            my $s = CGI::Session->new();
            my $authuser = $s->param( 'AUTHUSER' );
            $r->user( $authuser ) if ( $authuser );
        } # I want $s to go out of scope

        return( Apache::PerlRun->handler( $r ) );
    }
}
</Perl>

<Directory "/var/www/myproject/bin">
        Options +ExecCGI
        SetHandler perl-script
        PerlHandler SessionLogAndHandle
        Allow from all
</Directory>

      [download]

      Update: removed superfluous session flush because I wasn't modifying the session.

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Re: mod_perl, Apache access_log, and CGI::Session (Logging Authenticated Username)
by EvanCarroll (Chaplain) on Nov 08, 2005 at 02:31 UTC
    You might want to check out Log::Log4perl and the Log4j docs, it is on my list of things to do. I have never had to accomplish this task; however, this would apear to be the tool to do it. Good luck, and please follow up with your solution, I'm curious to know what you decide on.


    Evan Carroll
    www.EvanCarroll.com
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Re: mod_perl, Apache access_log, and CGI::Session (Logging Authenticated Username)
by srdst13 (Pilgrim) on Nov 09, 2005 at 00:02 UTC
    For authentication and authorization under mod_perl (note this is NOT exactly what the OP was asking about), be sure to check out chapter 6 of the modperl book for some nice examples.

    Sean
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