Apache::ePerl 2.2.13

Apache::ePerl is a fast emulated Embedded Perl (ePerl) facility.

SYNOPSIS

# Apaches httpd.conf file
# mandatory: activation of Apache::ePerl
PerlModule Apache::ePerl
< Files ~ "/root/of/webmaster/area/.+.iphtml$" >
Options +ExecCGI
SetHandler perl-script
PerlHandler Apache::ePerl
< /Files >
# 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 >

This 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.