The Apache/Perl integration project brings together the full power of the Perl programming language and the Apache HTTP server. This is achieved by linking the Perl runtime library into the server and providing an object oriented Perl interface to the server's C language API. These pieces are seamlessly glued together by the `mod_perl' server plugin, making it is possible to write Apache modules entirely in Perl. In addition, the persistent interpreter embedded in the server avoids the overhead of starting an external interpreter program and the additional Perl start-up (compile) time. Without question, the most popular Apache/Perl module is Apache::Registry module. This module emulates the CGI environment, allowing programmers to write scripts that run under CGI or mod_perl without change. Existing CGI scripts may require some changes, simply because a CGI script has a very short lifetime of one HTTP request, allowing you to get away with "quick and dirty" scripting. Using mod_perl and Apache::Registry requires you to be more careful, but it also gives new meaning to the work "quick"! Apache::Registry maintains a cache of compiled scripts, which happens the first time a script is accessed by a child server or once again if the file is updated on disk. Although it may be all you need, a speedy CGI replacement is only a small part of this project. Callback hooks are in place for each stage of a request. Apache-Perl modules may step in during the handler, header parser, uri translate, authentication, authorization, access, type check, fixup, logger and cleanup stages of a request. Apache/Perl modules include: Apache::Registry - Run unaltered CGI scripts Apache::Status - Embedded interpreter runtime status Apache::Embperl - Embed Perl code in HTML documents Apache::SSI - Implement server-side includes in Perl Apache::DBI - Maintain persistent DBI connections Apache::DCELogin - Obtain a DCE Login context Apache::AuthenDBI - Authenticate via Perl DBI/DBD::* Apache::AuthzAge - Authorize based on age Apache::AccessLimitNum - Limit user access by number of requests Apache::Constants - Constants defined in httpd.h Apache::MsqlProxy - Translate URI's into mSQL database queries There's plenty more Apache/Perl software you might be interested in. The Apache/Perl module list keeps track of modules inside and outside the distribution, along with idea placeholders. It is also possible to use Perl to configure your server (in *.conf files) with sections. This eases often complicated and cumbersome configuration of vitrual host and various resources. Since any Perl code can be used in these sections, configuration info could be pulled in from an RDBMS with DBI or your favorite database package. While the output of mod_perl scripts can be included with Server Side Includes just as CGI scripts can, mod_perl's integration with mod_include gives an extra speed boost and allows Perl code to be directly inside SSI files. For comments, questions, bug-reports, etc., join the Apache/Perl mailing list by sending mail to modperl-request@apache.org with the string "subscribe modperl" in the body. "subscribe modperl-announce" will subscribe you to the very low-traffic announcements list. There is an Epigone archive for this list available from: http://forum.swarthmore.edu/epigone/modperl The mod_perl FAQ is available from: http://perl.apache.org/faq/ For more general information see the Apache/Perl homepage: http://perl.apache.org/ or http://apache.perl.org/ Enjoy, -Doug MacEachern (dougm@perl.apache.org)