• Is there a binary distribution of Embperl for Unix?
• Is there a binary distribution of Embperl for Win32?
• I want to run Embperl with mod_perl under Apache. In what order should I do the compiling?
• I'm getting:
• I'm trying to build HTML::Embperl, and while running 'make' i get:
• I have a lot of errors in 'make test' from mod_perl when using Embperl
• How can I prevent 'make test' from running some of the tests?
• Running 'make test' fails with an error message at loading of Embperl (even though mod_perl compiled and tested cleanly!)
• I get symbol ap_* undefined/cannot resolve ap_*
• How can I build a statically-linked copy of Embperl with mod_perl support?
• How do I load Embperl at server startup?
• make test fails with a SIGxxxx, how can I obtain a stack backtrace from gdb?
• How do I build Embperl with debugging informations
• make test fails with SIGXFSZ
• Embperl on SCO Unix
• Embperl and mod_perl on AIX
• Embperl does not write to the logfile, because of missing permissions of the user Apache runs as.
• Is it possible to install EmbPerl into a private directory on my Unix/Linux Internet Service Provider account of which I have no root privilege?

For basics on downloading, compiling, and installing, please see the INSTALL/INSTALLATION in the Embperl documentation. Please be sure to load Embperl at server startup - if you do not, various problems may result. An exception to that rule is when you have compiled mod_perl with USE_DSO. In this case you must not load Embperl at server statup, neither via an use in your startup.pl file, nor via PerlModule from your httpd.conf.

No.

Win NT/95/98 binarys for Apache/perl/mod_perl/Embperl are available from ftp://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/pub/other/ . A european mirror is at http://www.robert.cz/misc/ .

First mod_perl and Apache, then Embperl.

../apache_1.3.0/src/include/conf.h:916: regex.h: No such file or directory

Try compiling Embperl again, like this:

    make DEFS=-DUSE_HSREGEX

cc: Internal compiler error: program cc1 got fatal signal 11 make: *** [epmain.o] Error 1

GCC croaking with signal 11 frequently indicates hardware problems. See http://www.bitwizard.nl/sig11/

Try recompiling Perl and all modules -- this can sometimes make those annoying error messages disappear!

For example, I don't allow CGI scripts, so 'make test' fails at CGI. How do I run just the other tests?

Try:

 $ make test TESTARGS="--help"
 # and for just offline and mod_perl:
 $ make test TESTARGS="-hoe"

see "I get symbol ap_* undefined/cannot resolve ap_*"

This can happen when symbols in the Apache binary can not be found or are not being resolved correctly.

Some OS do this (for instance bsdos), and it can also happen if your Apache binary is set to strip symbol information out from binaries.

Try:

	1.) make clean
	2.) perl Makefile.PL
	NOTE: answer _no_ to mod_perl support. (This is important!)
	3.) make test

If that works, it means that your installation of Embperl is OK, but is having problems resolving symbols with Apache.

Try rebuilding Apache and mod_perl from scratch, and make sure you do not strip symbols out of either.

On some systems/linker you need to tell the linker explicitly to export such symbols. For example FreeBSD linker needs the -export-dynamic option.

If you don't succeed with this approach, try statically linking Embperl to Apache/mod_perl (please see the next question for step-by-step instructions on how to do this).

	1.) go to your mod_perl directory, change to src/modules/perl and edit the Makefile so that it contains the line
	#STATIC_EXTS = Apache Apache::Constants HTML::Embperl
	2.) add a definition for EPDIR and change the ONJ= line so that it looks like this:
	EPDIR=/usr/msrc/embperl OBJS=$(PERLSRC:.c=.o) $(EPDIR)/Embperl.o $(EPDIR)/epmain.o $(EPDIR)/epio.o (EP DIR)/epeval.o $(EPDIR)/epcmd.o $(EPDIR)/epchar.o $(EPDIR)/eputil.o
	3.) go to the mod_perl directory and run
	perl Makefile.PL
	4.) go to the Embperl directory and do
	make clean perl Makefule.PL make (to compile in mod_perl support)
	5.) go back to the mod_perl directory and remake Apache by typing
	make Now you have successfully built a httpd with statically-linked Embperl. NOTE: If you want to stop here, you can skip to step 11. and run a 'make install' in the Embperl directory to finish. But if you want to run Embperl tests and/or if you want to be able to use Embperl in offline or "vanilla" CGI mode, we need to continue:
	6.) go back to the Embperl directory
	7.) backup the file test/conf/config.pl
	8.) now build Embperl again but _without_ mod_perl support
	make clean perl Makefile.PL make
	9.) restore your saved config.pl to test/conf/config.pl
	(without this step, only the offline mode would be tested)
	10.) run 'make test' for Embperl
	11.) do 'make install' for Embperl

NOTE: You should do it in this order, or it may not work.

NOTE: It seems to be necessary to load Embperl at server startup, either by PerlModule or in a PerlScript. See next question on how to do this.

You can load Embperl at server startup by PerlModule or in a startup.pl:

	1.) edit your srm.conf file to read:
	PerlModule HTML::Embperl
	2.) edit your startup.pl file to read:
	use HTML::Embperl

NOTE 1: Either of these approaches can often 'fix' SIGSEVs in any mod_perl handler, not just Embperl.

NOTE 2: When mod_perl is compiled as loadable module (i.e. with USE_DSO) you must not load Embperl at server startup time!

The eaiest way is

        make install            -> if Embperl is installed, it's easier
        gdb perl                -> start the debugger with perl binary
        set args test.pl        -> set the arguments for perl
        r                       -> start the program

        -> Here you should receive the signal

        share                   -> makes sure all symbols are really loaded
        bt                      -> show the backtrace

To get some more information it would be a good idea to compile Embperl with debugging infomation enabled. Therefor do

	edit the Makefile
	search for the line starting with 'CC = ' add the -g switch to the end of the line
	search for the line starting with 'LDDFLAGS = ' add the -g switch to the end of the line
	type make to build Embperl with debugging infomation

now start the gdb as decribed before.

This may occur when the filesize limit for the account, either test is running as or the test httpd, is too small. Embperl make test generates a really large logfile! Yu must increase the filesize limit for that accounts.

>From Red Plait

My OS is SCO Unix 3.2v4.2, Apache 1.3.4, perl 5.004_4, mod_perl 1.18 and Embperl-1.1.1

I done following:

	1)
	I made HTML-Embperl-1.1.1 with no mod_perl support ( when I builded it with mod_perl 1.18 I can`t link it because it don`t finds ap_XXX functions. When I manually insert src/main/libmain.a from Apache 1.3.4 I got message "Symbol main is multiple defined in /src/main/libmain.a. and perlmain.o" ). Then I "make test" - all tests was O`k. After this I "make clean", "perl Makefile.pl" with mod_perl support and "make install"
	2)
	I installed mod_perl and "perl Makefile.PL", then "make"
	3)
	because I have`nt dynamical loading ( very old and buggy OS ) I had to manually change src/modules/perl/perlxsi.c to insert bootstraps function`s and it`s invocations and also /src/Makefile to manually insert libXXX.a libraries
	In access.conf I insert code:
	PerlModule HTML::Embperl <Directory /my_dir> SetHandler perl-script PerlHandler HTML::Embperl::handler </Directory>

You need at least mod_perl 1.22. For mod_perl 1.22 and higher Embperl should compile out of the box on AIX. If you run into problems with undefined symbols (like ap_*) make sure you have the newest mod_perl version (as of this writing this is mod_perl 1.24_01).

The apache server is started as root, then set the effective uid to user "www", who can then write to the embperl logfile (owned by root) file handle that is passed along. However, if this log file handle is later accidentally closed, then reopen, the www user would have problem writing to it?

The reopen is only done when the logfile name changes. As log as you don't change the name on the logfile, the logfile will stay open.

The problem (in this case) is, that Embperl init function ,(Init in epmain.c) calls OpenLog will an second argument of zero. Which will only save the filename. The log will actually opened on the first write to it (or at the start of the first request). At this time your Apache has alreay switch to user www. This is done to allow to change the logfile name before an request, but after the init is already called (which is done when you or Apache "use" the module)

The current solutions is to write something to the log, before Apache changes it's user (i.e. in the startup.pl)

Like any other Perl module it can. Read "perldoc ExtUtils::MakeMaker", to see which parameters are needed for Makefile.PL to change the installation directory. Additionally, you have to change the @INC path to contain your private directory and possibly paths to other object files.

Here are the brief details:

Requirements:

	At least Perl 5.004_04
	cc or gcc (your isp must give you access to the gcc compiler)
	URI
	MIME::Base64
	HTML::Parser
	HTML::HeadParser
	Digest::MD5
	libnet
	libwww
	File::Spec (I believe you may have to install this too if you are using Perl 5.004_04 as it may not be a standard module)

Direction:

	Get your copy of EmbPerl (HTML-Embperl-x.x.tar.gz)
	% tar -xvzf HTML-Embperl-x.x.tar.gz
	% cd HTML-Embperl-x.x
	% perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=/to/your/private/dir
	% make
	% make test
	% make install

Replace /to/your/private/dir with the path to the directory you want the module to be placed in. Now preface your CGI scripts with something like this:

[Alternative 1]

#!/usr/bin/perl -wT use CGI::Carp qw( fatalsToBrowser ); #recommend using this to report errors on die or warn to browser use lib '/to/your/private/dir/lib'; #for FILE::Spec use lib '/to/your/private/dir/'; #to find Embperl use lib '/to/your/private/dir/i386-linux/auto/HTML/Embperl'; #to find Embperl compiled stuff #if for some very weird reason the above 'use lib' pragma directive doesn't work, see Alternative 2 use HTML::Embperl; #your code below ...

[Alternative 2]

#!/usr/bin/perl -wT use CGI::Carp qw( fatalsToBrowser ); #recommend using this to report errors on die or warn to browser BEGIN { unshift @INC, '/to/your/private/dir/lib'; #for FILE::Spec unshift @INC, '/to/your/private/dir/'; #to find Embperl unshift @INC, '/to/your/private/dir/i386-linux/auto/HTML/Embperl'; #to find Embperl compiled stuff } use HTML::Embperl; #your code below ...

When you make test, you may encounter superfluous warnings, you may want to change the test.pl that ships with EmbPerl from

BEGIN { $fatal = 1 ;

to

BEGIN { unshift @INC, '/to/your/private/dir/lib'; $fatal = 1 ; ...

because the test.pl may not be able to find FILE::Spec if you have it installed on a private directory for Perl 5.004_04.

Do something similar to the important file embpcgi.pl as you do for all your CGI scripts, like modifying the @INC as shown above, to allow perl to find in particular the EmbPerl shared obj files...

And when you invoke your CGI scripts like so,

http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/embpcgi.pl/templateFiles/myNifty.epl

the script should work.