#!usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
require Apache::DBI;
require DBI;
require CGI;
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PerlModule Apache::DBI DBI CGI
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PerlLoadModule Apache::DBI DBI CGI
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If you are trying to move out the use statements from the code into the Apache config, I don't think it makes much sense. A goal of mod_perl is to load the required modules at Apache startup, which will improve performance and memory use. The subsequent use at the actual Perl script costs very little -- it only imports the module's functions into the script's namespace.

Besides, if you want to erase those use statements from the actual scripts, it will be a maintenance nightmare should any of the scripts ever have to be moved.

I agree about the maintenance issue. In this case the application being developed is strictly tied up with the system and its own peculiar configuration.

This is really not what PerlModule is for, but depending on how your script is structured, it should be doable.

Find your modules directory - something like:

/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.14.2 (or whatever Perl version you're using)

And then create a file called ApacheAutoload.pm. In that file, include:

package main;  # this is important
use DBI;
use CGI qw(:cgi -compile -utf8);
# ... and so on
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Then in your Apache config file, do this:

PerlModule ApacheAutoload
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package main;  # this is important
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important to add to any Registry scripts as well :) otherwise __PACKAGE__ is ModPerl::ROOT::ModPerl::Registry::_path_to_file

In your opinion is it more cleaner to use this method or the PerlPostConfigRequire directive?

I'd be wanting to take a long, hot shower after either method.

perl -E'sub Monkey::do{say$_,for@_,do{($monkey=[caller(0)]->[3])=~s{::}{ }and$monkey}}"Monkey say"->Monkey::do'

I am not able to find out if there is a way to pass to PerlModule directive the functions and/or parameters

PerlModule site:perl.apache.org -> http://perl.apache.org/docs/2.0/user/config/config.html#C_PerlModule_

  PerlModule Foo::Bar
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is equivalent to Perl's:

  require Foo::Bar;
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PerlModule is used to load modules using their package names.

See also: PerlRequire.

http://perl.apache.org/docs/2.0/user/config/config.html#C_PerlRequire_

PerlRequire does the same thing as PerlPostConfigRequire, but you have almost no control of when this code is going to be executed. Therefore you should be using either PerlConfigRequire (executes immediately) or PerlPostConfigRequire (executes just before the end of the server startup) instead. Most of the time you want to use the latter.

http://perl.apache.org/docs/2.0/user/config/config.html#C_PerlPostConfigRequire_

  PerlPostConfigRequire /home/httpd/perl/lib/startup.pl
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is equivalent to Perl's:

  require "/home/httpd/perl/lib/startup.pl";
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Looking at my current apache2/mod_perl2 config, I see I'm using

PerlRequire "...startup.pl"
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Use  PerlRequire   "...startup.pl" for Apache1/mod_perl-1

Use  PerlPostConfigRequire "...startup.pl" for Apache2/mod_perl-2

I was just thinking about to use the PerlPostConfigRequire directive, I actually just switched to it in my apache.conf and everything is working fine:

PerlPostConfigRequire /etc/apache2/startup.pl
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It is not yet clear to me the behavior with exported functions, I mean, I put in startup.pl

use CGI qw(-compile -utf8);
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and avoided to import CGI in my test script, but I can still call Vars() function directly, which from CGI documentation should not be visible:

#!/usr/bin/perl
$ENV{PATH}='';
local our $o;
$o->{authenticated}=0;
local our $cookie;
local our $duration=600;
local our $r=new CGI;
local our $p=Vars;
...
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What's going on?

and avoided to import CGI in my test script, but I can still call Vars() function directly, which from CGI documentation should not be visible:

What's going on?

You're imagining things :)

Even if you used  use CGI qw(-compile -utf8 Vars ); there is no way Vars would be available to your script , unless you're using something ( its not ModPerl::Registry ) to make it available