ePerl(3pm)						User Contributed Perl Documentation						ePerl(3pm)

NAME

       Apache::ePerl - Fast emulated Embedded Perl (ePerl) facility

SYNOPSIS

	  #   Apache's httpd.conf file
	  #   mandatory: activation of Apache::ePerl
	  PerlModule Apache::ePerl
	  <Directory /root/of/webmaster/area>
	      <Files *.iphtml>
		  Options     +ExecCGI
		  SetHandler  perl-script
		  PerlHandler Apache::ePerl
	      </Files>
	  </Directory>
	  #   optional: configuration of Apache::ePerl
	  <Perl>
	  $Apache::ePerl::Config->{'BeginDelimiter'}  = '<?';
	  $Apache::ePerl::Config->{'EndDelimiter'}    = '!>';
	  $Apache::ePerl::Config->{'CaseDelimiters'}  = 0;
	  $Apache::ePerl::Config->{'ConvertEntities'} = 1;
	  </Perl>
	  #   optional: activation of Apache::Status for Apache::ePerl
	  <Location /perl-status>
	      Options	  +ExecCGI
	      SetHandler  perl-script
	      PerlHandler Apache::Status
	  </Location>

DESCRIPTION

       These packages provides a handler function for Apache/mod_perl which can be used to emulate the stand-alone Server-Side-Scripting-Language
       ePerl (see eperl(3) for more details) in a very fast way. This is not a real 100% replacement for nph-eperl because of reduced
       functionality under some special cases, principal runtime restrictions and speedup decisions. For instance this variant does not (and
       cannot) provide the SetUID feature of ePerl nor does it check for allowed filename extensions (speedup!), etc.  Instead it uses further
       features like object caching which ePerl does not use.

       But the accepted bristled source file format is exactly the same as with the regular ePerl facility, because Apache::ePerl uses the
       Parse::ePerl package which provides the original ePerl parser and translator. So, any valid ePerl which works under nph-eperl can also be
       used under Apache::ePerl.

       The intent is to use this special variant of ePerl for scripts which are directly under control of the webmaster. In this situation no real
       security problems exists for him, because all risk is at his own hands. For the average user you should not use Apache::ePerl. Instead
       additionally install the regular stand-alone ePerl facility (nph-eperl) for those users.

       So, the advantage of Apache::ePerl against the regular nph-eperl is better performance and nothing else. Actually scripts executed under
       Apache::ePerl are at least twice as fast as under nph-eperl. The reason its not that ePerl itself is faster. The reason is the runtime in-
       core environment of Apache/mod_perl which does not have any forking overhead.

   Installation and Configuration
       First you have to install Apache::ePerl so that Apache/mod_perl can find it.  This is usually done via configuring the ePerl distribution
       via the same Perl interpreter as was used when building Apache/mod_perl.

       Second, you have to add the following config snippet to Apache's httpd.conf file:

	  PerlModule Apache::ePerl
	  <Directory /root/of/webmaster/area>
	      <Files *.iphtml>
		  Options     +ExecCGI
		  SetHandler  perl-script
		  PerlHandler Apache::ePerl
	      </Files>
	  </Directory>

       This forces all files under the directory /root/of/webmaster/area/ with extension .iphtml to be processed by the Apache::ePerl::handler
       function which emulates the runtime behavior of the stand-alone "eperl" program (when run as a SSSL) up to 90%.

       If you're not paranoid about security (for instance driving a stand-alone webserver without user accounts) you can also just use

	  PerlModule Apache::ePerl
	  <Files *.iphtml>
	      SetHandler  perl-script
	      PerlHandler Apache::ePerl
	  </Files>

       which enables .iphtml files everywhere.

       Third, when you want to change the defaults of the ePerl parser, you also can add something like this to the end of the snippet above.

	  <Perl>
	  $Apache::ePerl::Config->{'BeginDelimiter'}  = '<?';
	  $Apache::ePerl::Config->{'EndDelimiter'}    = '!>';
	  $Apache::ePerl::Config->{'CaseDelimiters'}  = 0;
	  $Apache::ePerl::Config->{'ConvertEntities'} = 1;
	  </Perl>

       Fourth, you can additionally enable the mod_perl runtime status which then automatically enables an Apache::ePerl status handler:

	  <Location /perl-status>
	      Options	  +ExecCGI
	      SetHandler  perl-script
	      PerlHandler Apache::Status
	  </Location>

       This enables the URL "/perl-status" in general and the URL "/perl-status?ePerl" in special. Use it to see how much scripts where run and
       how much are still cached.

AUTHOR

	Ralf S. Engelschall
	rse@engelschall.com
	www.engelschall.com

HISTORY

       Apache::ePerl was first implemented by Mark Imbriaco <mark@itribe.net> in December 1996 as a plain Perl module after he has seen the
       original ePerl from Ralf S. Engelschall. It implemented the ePerl idea, but was not compatible to the original ePerl. In May 1997 Hanno
       Mueller <hmueller@kabel.de> has taken over the maintenance from Mark I. and enhanced Apache::ePerl by adding caching for P-Code, adding the
       missing "chdir" stuff, etc.

       Nearly at the same time Ralf S. Engelschall was unhappy of the old Apache::ePerl from Mark I. and already started to write this version
       (the one you are current reading its POD). He has rewritten the complete module from scratch, but incorporated the P-Code caching idea and
       the Apache::Status usage from Hanno M.'s version. The big difference between this one and Mark I.'s or Hanno M.'s versions are that this
       version makes use of the new Parse::ePerl module which itself incorporates the original ePerl parser.  So this version is more compliant to
       the original ePerl facility.

SEE ALSO

       Parse::ePerl(3)

       Web-References:

	 Perl:	   perl(1),	http://www.perl.com/
	 ePerl:    eperl(1),	http://www.engelschall.com/sw/eperl/
	 mod_perl: mod_perl(1), http://perl.apache.org/
	 Apache:   httpd(7),	http://www.apache.org/

perl v5.14.2							    2012-04-07								ePerl(3pm)