[TriLUG] Apache Cookbook

[Jon Carnes]

On Fri, 2004-01-16 at 11:50, Scott Chilcote wrote:
> Rodent of Unusual Size wrote:
> > holding out?  i don't think there's been any secret about this; you
> > just don't read my web log. :-)
> > 
> > as you all know, i generally don't come to meetings; the only one
> > i've been to, in fact, was something last year about the kernel.
> > i suppose i could do a talk or something, but i don't know when.
> > it would help if i knew exactly what sorts of things people wanted
> > to know, so i encourage everybody on the list who's interested to
> > reply *in this thread* with 'i'd like to hear about x' comments
> > so i can try to come up with stuff that'll be the most useful to
> > the most people.
> 
> I'll be happy to weigh in.
> 
> This info may be generally available somewhere by now, but this problem 
> has bitten me several times and I don't know where to find it.
> 
> I occasionally write CGI applications, and like to test them using 
> Apache and a public_html directory in my user account.  Whenever I 
> create one I find that I'm on a new Linux install or an upgraded one, 
> and I have to go and configure httpd.conf to allow a user's public_html 
> to work, and then get the CGI to execute.
> 
> It may just be me, but this has never, ever gone smoothly.  I read the 
> comments carefully, apply what I think are the right changes, restart 
> apache, try the CGI, and it doesn't run.  I go read the log files, tweak 
> httpd.conf some more, tinker with dir/file permissions, pull hair, etc.
> 
> I have managed to get it all working, but since these are side projects 
> I've also run out of time and had to put it aside.  It would be great if 
> there's an easy way to do this now.  Maybe someone will volunteer the 
> info.  If not, I'd enjoy getting the authoritative goods on how to make 
> user account CGIs do their stuff the first time, every time.
> 
> Since security goes hand in hand with this, discussing the most recent 
> ways to protect these programs would also be a great help.
> 
> I know httpd.conf has been discussed before, I remember a presentation 
> on it from a TriLUG meeting a while ago.  I enjoyed that one, but I 
> still lack the tools to take the default version Redhat provides and 
> make this work consistently.
> 
> I hope others would find this useful.
> 
> --
> Scott C.

Scott, 

I've found it useful to use .htaccess files to help manage users rights.
For cgi's I generally just add a line like this to the individuals
virtual host section:
  ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /home/goober/html/cgi-bin/

Note: the root of the "goober" site would be /home/goober/html/

Jon Carnes

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