Reload all files in mod_perl testing environment

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

Hi all,

Getting my feet wet with mod_perl 2 and I'm having trouble reliably testing programs
due to the fact that files/modules seem to be reloading only when Apache deems suitable.

What I'm looking for is a way of having Apache completely reload every component of a particular
program when a change is written to disk. Not just the modules - also the program files calling the modules.
A sort of "refresh all" if you will, without having to restart the web server for every simple change.
For example in this simple set-up:
index.pl -> program called on from web
testmod.pm -> module loaded by index.pl containing various subroutines and some configuration variables which have been exported to index.pl

If I write a change to testmod.pm it's seemingly ignored for an undeterminable period.
Using Apache2::Reload however, testmod.pm will be reloaded. Unfortunately, the configuration variables already exported to index.pl are not updated, probably because Apache sees index.pl as being unchanged.

When updating non-mod_perl systems I'm used to making arbitrary changes and seeing the results immediately, and it would make development a lot simpler to have this comfort of "what you see is the current state of the program",
instead of some half in-memory/on disk version when making these incidental changes.

Any suggestions?

Comment on Reload all files in mod_perl testing environment

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Re: Reload all files in mod_perl testing environment by jau (Hermit) on Sep 10, 2010 at 12:07 UTC
Set `MaxRequestsPerChild` to `1` in your httpd.conf.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Reload all files in mod_perl testing environment by Anonymous Monk on Sep 10, 2010 at 12:58 UTC
Thanks, but that defeats the purpose of using mod_perl. It will always reload!	[reply]
Re^3: Reload all files in mod_perl testing environment by afoken (Chancellor) on Sep 10, 2010 at 13:09 UTC
That's one of the reasons why I prefer FastCGI over mod_perl. Additional reasons: FastCGI works with other servers, not just Apache. A broken application can't crash the entire webserver, "only" its FastCGI process. Applications can run under different user accounts. Applications can be managed by daemontools. FastCGI applications can be debugged as simple, single-shot CGIs Alexander -- Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-)	[reply]
Re^3: Reload all files in mod_perl testing environment by jau (Hermit) on Sep 10, 2010 at 13:06 UTC
Yes, but we were talking about a testing environment, right?	[reply]
Re: Reload all files in mod_perl testing environment by Khen1950fx (Canon) on Sep 10, 2010 at 13:23 UTC
If you're having problems with reloading, make sure that you `use strict;` and `use warnings;`. Under mod_perl, make sure that 'PerlWarn On' is in your httpd.conf. As for modules that can help you, I've used Module::Reload::Selective. Its helped me.	[reply] [d/l] [select]