adding Perl to WAMP server
Monday, November 2nd, 2009 6 Comments
As a bit of a distraction from studying (I know, I know, just do the study) I decided to play with Perl a little; hence, I needed to install it to my localhost server. I’m running WAMP, and doing everything in PHP at present, which is great but Perl required a bit of reconfiguration. Just thought I’d share the steps, as they are pretty simple if you know them but otherwise can be a bit daunting.
Step1:
First, download WampServer from www.wampserver.com and install WampServer. The default installation directory is ‘C:\wamp” and I find this to be the best too.
WampServer 2.0i [07/11/09] includes :
– Apache 2.2.11
– MySQL 5.1.36
– PHP 5.3.0
The links above will download it directly for you from the site.
Step2:
Now you have to download ActivePerl (currently 5.10.0) from www.activestate.com and install it. The default installation directory is “C:\Perl”, but I throw this in a new folder called “perl” inside “C:\wamp\bin”. So just create this folder and point to it during the installation. Now we need to configure the Apache web server to execute Perl and CGI script.
Step3:
We need to edit the Apache configuration file. You can either go to “C:\wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.2.11\conf” directory and open “httpd.conf” file; or run WampServer and left click the taskbar icon, hover over “Apache” and then click “httpd.conf” to open it in your text editor. Edit the httpd.conf file as below.
Note: It is best to save a backup copy of your httpd.conf file before editing; that way, if you do “break” it, you have an original to go back to without major damage issues.
1. Inside httpd.conf, look for the line that says “<Directory “c:/wamp/www/”>“, just a few lines below this you’ll find the line that says “Options Indexes FollowSymLinks”. Add “Includes ExecCGI” in the line just next to FollowSymLinks, thus it look like this”
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes ExecCGI
This will enable CGI script inside your www folder.
2. Now look for the line “AddHandler cgi-script .cgi“, this line is commented out. You need to enable this by un-comment this line, to do that remove the # character at the beginning of this line. This will add handler for files with .cgi extension. If you want to use .pl file extension in your server add “AddHandler cgi-script .pl” just below the above line. Now you will be able to execute CGI and Perl script with .cgi and .pl, extension.
AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
AddHandler cgi-script .pl
3. To add directory index file, look for the line “DirectoryIndex index.php index.php3 index.html index.htm“. Addindex.cgi and index.pl in this line.
DirectoryIndex index.php index.php3 index.html index.htm index.cgi index.pl
Step4:
Your server is now configured and ready to run perl and cgi script. Next thing you might need to do is to configure perl to use mysql database. You need to download and install mysql driver to enable database connection through your perl script. You have to grab the driver from the ActivePerl package repository. However, mysql driver module is not available in the default ActivePerl Package Repository. So, you need to add additional repository and install from that repository. Follow the steps below:
1. Open command prompt [type cmd in run], then type “ppm repo add uwinnipeg” and press enter.
2. After the “uwinnipeg” repository is added successfully, you can install DBD-mysql by typing this command “ppm install DBD-mysql” and hit enter.
Note: The ActivePerl default package repository contains DBD-mysqlPP module. If you install that one, you will get an error in your SQL SELECT query and especially when you use the WHERE clause. Your localhost will hang if you run this kind of query with the WHERE clause, so to get it work you need to install the package that I mentioned above only.
So, there you go. Hopefully that’s simplified your day a little. I’ll be throwing up some Perl tutorials in a week or two, once exams are over and I’ve had a decent play around.
About Cameron
whileloop 
I followed all the steps as showing above but I’m still not able to run perl scripts through WAMP..
I’m getting internal server error while executing Perl script.
I’ve placed folder, containing perl scripts, under ‘www’ folder (residing in WAMP).
Please advise a possible fix to the issue. Let me know, if any further info needs to be furnished.
rgds
Anuj
I would check through your WAMP settings. All this tutorial has shown you is how to add Perl to your WAMP installation. An internal server error indicates some configuration is wrong with the server.
What does your
httpd.conffile look like? Did the changes there get retained?please find below http.conf, for your reference:
#
# This is the main Apache HTTP server configuration file. It contains the
# configuration directives that give the server its instructions.
# See for detailed information.
# In particular, see
#
# for a discussion of each configuration directive.
#
# Do NOT simply read the instructions in here without understanding
# what they do. They’re here only as hints or reminders. If you are unsure
# consult the online docs. You have been warned.
#
# Configuration and logfile names: If the filenames you specify for many
# of the server’s control files begin with “/” (or “drive:/” for Win32), the
# server will use that explicit path. If the filenames do *not* begin
# with “/”, the value of ServerRoot is prepended — so “logs/foo.log”
# with ServerRoot set to “C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2” will be interpreted by the
# server as “C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/logs/foo.log”.
#
# NOTE: Where filenames are specified, you must use forward slashes
# instead of backslashes (e.g., “c:/apache” instead of “c:\apache”).
# If a drive letter is omitted, the drive on which Apache.exe is located
# will be used by default. It is recommended that you always supply
# an explicit drive letter in absolute paths to avoid confusion.
#
# ServerRoot: The top of the directory tree under which the server’s
# configuration, error, and log files are kept.
#
# Do not add a slash at the end of the directory path. If you point
# ServerRoot at a non-local disk, be sure to point the LockFile directive
# at a local disk. If you wish to share the same ServerRoot for multiple
# httpd daemons, you will need to change at least LockFile and PidFile.
#
ServerRoot “c:/wamp/bin/apache/apache2.2.17”
#
# Listen: Allows you to bind Apache to specific IP addresses and/or
# ports, instead of the default. See also the
# directive.
#
# Change this to Listen on specific IP addresses as shown below to
# prevent Apache from glomming onto all bound IP addresses.
#
#Listen 12.34.56.78:80
Listen 80
#
# Dynamic Shared Object (DSO) Support
#
# To be able to use the functionality of a module which was built as a DSO you
# have to place corresponding `LoadModule’ lines at this location so the
# directives contained in it are actually available _before_ they are used.
# Statically compiled modules (those listed by `httpd -l’) do not need
# to be loaded here.
#
# Example:
# LoadModule foo_module modules/mod_foo.so
#
LoadModule actions_module modules/mod_actions.so
LoadModule alias_module modules/mod_alias.so
LoadModule asis_module modules/mod_asis.so
LoadModule auth_basic_module modules/mod_auth_basic.so
#LoadModule auth_digest_module modules/mod_auth_digest.so
#LoadModule authn_alias_module modules/mod_authn_alias.so
#LoadModule authn_anon_module modules/mod_authn_anon.so
#LoadModule authn_dbd_module modules/mod_authn_dbd.so
#LoadModule authn_dbm_module modules/mod_authn_dbm.so
LoadModule authn_default_module modules/mod_authn_default.so
LoadModule authn_file_module modules/mod_authn_file.so
#LoadModule authnz_ldap_module modules/mod_authnz_ldap.so
#LoadModule authz_dbm_module modules/mod_authz_dbm.so
LoadModule authz_default_module modules/mod_authz_default.so
LoadModule authz_groupfile_module modules/mod_authz_groupfile.so
LoadModule authz_host_module modules/mod_authz_host.so
#LoadModule authz_owner_module modules/mod_authz_owner.so
LoadModule authz_user_module modules/mod_authz_user.so
LoadModule autoindex_module modules/mod_autoindex.so
#LoadModule cache_module modules/mod_cache.so
#LoadModule cern_meta_module modules/mod_cern_meta.so
LoadModule cgi_module modules/mod_cgi.so
#LoadModule charset_lite_module modules/mod_charset_lite.so
#LoadModule dav_module modules/mod_dav.so
#LoadModule dav_fs_module modules/mod_dav_fs.so
#LoadModule dav_lock_module modules/mod_dav_lock.so
#LoadModule dbd_module modules/mod_dbd.so
#LoadModule deflate_module modules/mod_deflate.so
LoadModule dir_module modules/mod_dir.so
#LoadModule disk_cache_module modules/mod_disk_cache.so
#LoadModule dumpio_module modules/mod_dumpio.so
LoadModule env_module modules/mod_env.so
#LoadModule expires_module modules/mod_expires.so
#LoadModule ext_filter_module modules/mod_ext_filter.so
#LoadModule file_cache_module modules/mod_file_cache.so
#LoadModule filter_module modules/mod_filter.so
#LoadModule headers_module modules/mod_headers.so
#LoadModule ident_module modules/mod_ident.so
#LoadModule imagemap_module modules/mod_imagemap.so
LoadModule include_module modules/mod_include.so
#LoadModule info_module modules/mod_info.so
LoadModule isapi_module modules/mod_isapi.so
#LoadModule ldap_module modules/mod_ldap.so
#LoadModule logio_module modules/mod_logio.so
LoadModule log_config_module modules/mod_log_config.so
#LoadModule log_forensic_module modules/mod_log_forensic.so
#LoadModule mem_cache_module modules/mod_mem_cache.so
LoadModule mime_module modules/mod_mime.so
#LoadModule mime_magic_module modules/mod_mime_magic.so
LoadModule negotiation_module modules/mod_negotiation.so
#LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
#LoadModule proxy_ajp_module modules/mod_proxy_ajp.so
#LoadModule proxy_balancer_module modules/mod_proxy_balancer.so
#LoadModule proxy_connect_module modules/mod_proxy_connect.so
#LoadModule proxy_ftp_module modules/mod_proxy_ftp.so
#LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so
LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
LoadModule setenvif_module modules/mod_setenvif.so
#LoadModule speling_module modules/mod_speling.so
#LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so
#LoadModule status_module modules/mod_status.so
#LoadModule substitute_module modules/mod_substitute.so
#LoadModule unique_id_module modules/mod_unique_id.so
#LoadModule userdir_module modules/mod_userdir.so
#LoadModule usertrack_module modules/mod_usertrack.so
#LoadModule version_module modules/mod_version.so
#LoadModule vhost_alias_module modules/mod_vhost_alias.so
LoadModule php5_module “c:/wamp/bin/php/php5.3.5/php5apache2_2.dll”
#
# If you wish httpd to run as a different user or group, you must run
# httpd as root initially and it will switch.
#
# User/Group: The name (or #number) of the user/group to run httpd as.
# It is usually good practice to create a dedicated user and group for
# running httpd, as with most system services.
#
User daemon
Group daemon
# ‘Main’ server configuration
#
# The directives in this section set up the values used by the ‘main’
# server, which responds to any requests that aren’t handled by a
# definition. These values also provide defaults for
# any containers you may define later in the file.
#
# All of these directives may appear inside containers,
# in which case these default settings will be overridden for the
# virtual host being defined.
#
#
# ServerAdmin: Your address, where problems with the server should be
# e-mailed. This address appears on some server-generated pages, such
# as error documents. e.g. admin@your-domain.com
#
ServerAdmin admin@localhost
#
# ServerName gives the name and port that the server uses to identify itself.
# This can often be determined automatically, but we recommend you specify
# it explicitly to prevent problems during startup.
#
# If your host doesn’t have a registered DNS name, enter its IP address here.
#
ServerName localhost:80
#
# DocumentRoot: The directory out of which you will serve your
# documents. By default, all requests are taken from this directory, but
# symbolic links and aliases may be used to point to other locations.
#
DocumentRoot “c:/wamp/www/”
#
# Each directory to which Apache has access can be configured with respect
# to which services and features are allowed and/or disabled in that
# directory (and its subdirectories).
#
# First, we configure the “default” to be a very restrictive set of
# features.
#
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
#
# Note that from this point forward you must specifically allow
# particular features to be enabled – so if something’s not working as
# you might expect, make sure that you have specifically enabled it
# below.
#
#
# This should be changed to whatever you set DocumentRoot to.
#
#
# Possible values for the Options directive are “None”, “All”,
# or any combination of:
# Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks SymLinksifOwnerMatch ExecCGI MultiViews
#
# Note that “MultiViews” must be named *explicitly* — “Options All”
# doesn’t give it to you.
#
# The Options directive is both complicated and important. Please see
# http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/core.html#options
# for more information.
#
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes ExecCGI
#
# AllowOverride controls what directives may be placed in .htaccess files.
# It can be “All”, “None”, or any combination of the keywords:
# Options FileInfo AuthConfig Limit
#
AllowOverride all
#
# Controls who can get stuff from this server.
#
# onlineoffline tag – don’t remove
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from all
#
# DirectoryIndex: sets the file that Apache will serve if a directory
# is requested.
#
DirectoryIndex index.php index.php3 index.html index.htm index.cgi index.pl
#
# The following lines prevent .htaccess and .htpasswd files from being
# viewed by Web clients.
#
Order allow,deny
Deny from all
Satisfy All
#
# ErrorLog: The location of the error log file.
# If you do not specify an ErrorLog directive within a
# container, error messages relating to that virtual host will be
# logged here. If you *do* define an error logfile for a
# container, that host’s errors will be logged there and not here.
#
ErrorLog “c:/wamp/logs/apache_error.log”
#
# LogLevel: Control the number of messages logged to the error_log.
# Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
# alert, emerg.
#
LogLevel warn
#
# The following directives define some format nicknames for use with
# a CustomLog directive (see below).
#
LogFormat “%h %l %u %t \”%r\” %>s %b \”%{Referer}i\” \”%{User-Agent}i\”” combined
LogFormat “%h %l %u %t \”%r\” %>s %b” common
# You need to enable mod_logio.c to use %I and %O
LogFormat “%h %l %u %t \”%r\” %>s %b \”%{Referer}i\” \”%{User-Agent}i\” %I %O” combinedio
#
# The location and format of the access logfile (Common Logfile Format).
# If you do not define any access logfiles within a
# container, they will be logged here. Contrariwise, if you *do*
# define per- access logfiles, transactions will be
# logged therein and *not* in this file.
#
CustomLog “c:/wamp/logs/access.log” common
#
# If you prefer a logfile with access, agent, and referer information
# (Combined Logfile Format) you can use the following directive.
#
#CustomLog “logs/access.log” combined
#
# Redirect: Allows you to tell clients about documents that used to
# exist in your server’s namespace, but do not anymore. The client
# will make a new request for the document at its new location.
# Example:
# Redirect permanent /foo http://localhost/bar
#
# Alias: Maps web paths into filesystem paths and is used to
# access content that does not live under the DocumentRoot.
# Example:
# Alias /webpath /full/filesystem/path
#
# If you include a trailing / on /webpath then the server will
# require it to be present in the URL. You will also likely
# need to provide a section to allow access to
# the filesystem path.
#
# ScriptAlias: This controls which directories contain server scripts.
# ScriptAliases are essentially the same as Aliases, except that
# documents in the target directory are treated as applications and
# run by the server when requested rather than as documents sent to the
# client. The same rules about trailing “/” apply to ScriptAlias
# directives as to Alias.
#
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ “cgi-bin/”
#
# ScriptSock: On threaded servers, designate the path to the UNIX
# socket used to communicate with the CGI daemon of mod_cgid.
#
#Scriptsock logs/cgisock
#
# “C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/cgi-bin” should be changed to whatever your ScriptAliased
# CGI directory exists, if you have that configured.
#
AllowOverride None
Options None
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
#
# DefaultType: the default MIME type the server will use for a document
# if it cannot otherwise determine one, such as from filename extensions.
# If your server contains mostly text or HTML documents, “text/plain” is
# a good value. If most of your content is binary, such as applications
# or images, you may want to use “application/octet-stream” instead to
# keep browsers from trying to display binary files as though they are
# text.
#
DefaultType text/plain
#
# TypesConfig points to the file containing the list of mappings from
# filename extension to MIME-type.
#
TypesConfig conf/mime.types
#
# AddType allows you to add to or override the MIME configuration
# file specified in TypesConfig for specific file types.
#
#AddType application/x-gzip .tgz
#
# AddEncoding allows you to have certain browsers uncompress
# information on the fly. Note: Not all browsers support this.
#
#AddEncoding x-compress .Z
#AddEncoding x-gzip .gz .tgz
#
# If the AddEncoding directives above are commented-out, then you
# probably should define those extensions to indicate media types:
#
AddType application/x-compress .Z
AddType application/x-gzip .gz .tgz
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php3
#
# AddHandler allows you to map certain file extensions to “handlers”:
# actions unrelated to filetype. These can be either built into the server
# or added with the Action directive (see below)
#
# To use CGI scripts outside of ScriptAliased directories:
# (You will also need to add “ExecCGI” to the “Options” directive.)
#
AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
AddHandler cgi-script .pl
# For type maps (negotiated resources):
#AddHandler type-map var
#
# Filters allow you to process content before it is sent to the client.
#
# To parse .shtml files for server-side includes (SSI):
# (You will also need to add “Includes” to the “Options” directive.)
#
#AddType text/html .shtml
#AddOutputFilter INCLUDES .shtml
#
# The mod_mime_magic module allows the server to use various hints from the
# contents of the file itself to determine its type. The MIMEMagicFile
# directive tells the module where the hint definitions are located.
#
#MIMEMagicFile conf/magic
#
# Customizable error responses come in three flavors:
# 1) plain text 2) local redirects 3) external redirects
#
# Some examples:
#ErrorDocument 500 “The server made a boo boo.”
#ErrorDocument 404 /missing.html
#ErrorDocument 404 “/cgi-bin/missing_handler.pl”
#ErrorDocument 402 http://localhost/subscription_info.html
#
#
# EnableMMAP and EnableSendfile: On systems that support it,
# memory-mapping or the sendfile syscall is used to deliver
# files. This usually improves server performance, but must
# be turned off when serving from networked-mounted
# filesystems or if support for these functions is otherwise
# broken on your system.
#
#EnableMMAP off
#EnableSendfile off
# Supplemental configuration
#
# The configuration files in the conf/extra/ directory can be
# included to add extra features or to modify the default configuration of
# the server, or you may simply copy their contents here and change as
# necessary.
# Server-pool management (MPM specific)
#Include conf/extra/httpd-mpm.conf
# Multi-language error messages
#Include conf/extra/httpd-multilang-errordoc.conf
# Fancy directory listings
Include conf/extra/httpd-autoindex.conf
# Language settings
#Include conf/extra/httpd-languages.conf
# User home directories
#Include conf/extra/httpd-userdir.conf
# Real-time info on requests and configuration
#Include conf/extra/httpd-info.conf
# Virtual hosts
#Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf
# Local access to the Apache HTTP Server Manual
#Include conf/extra/httpd-manual.conf
# Distributed authoring and versioning (WebDAV)
#Include conf/extra/httpd-dav.conf
# Various default settings
#Include conf/extra/httpd-default.conf
# Secure (SSL/TLS) connections
#Include conf/extra/httpd-ssl.conf
#
# Note: The following must must be present to support
# starting without SSL on platforms with no /dev/random equivalent
# but a statically compiled-in mod_ssl.
#
SSLRandomSeed startup builtin
SSLRandomSeed connect builtin
Include “c:/wamp/alias/*”
internal 500 error !!!
I fixed this by including
print “Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\n\n”;
under the perl include tag
I tested the web page from wamp and it got rig of the error
I am unable to launch step 4 which u explained. Kindly help me.
What can’t you “launch”? The command window is a standard Windows feature.