Apache::PAR - Perl extension for including Perl ARchive files in a mod_perl (1.x or 2.x) environment.
Inside Apache configuration: PerlSetVar PARInclude /path/to/par/archive/directory ... PerlAddVar PARInclude /path/to/a/par/file.par ... PerlModule Apache::PAR In Apache/mod_perl 1.x environments on Win32 platforms, the following should be used instead: PerlSetVar PARInclude /path/to/par/archive/directory ... PerlSetVar PARInclude /path/to/a/par/file.par ... <PERL> use Apache::PAR; </PERL> Alternative configuration, inside a startup.pl script or PERL section: use Apache::PAR qw( /path/to/par/archive/directory /path/to/a/par/file.par ); Inside a web.conf file: Alias /myapp/static/ ##PARFILE##/ <Location /myapp/static> SetHandler perl-script PerlHandler Apache::PAR::Static PerlSetVar PARStaticDirectoryIndex index.htm PerlAddVar PARStaticDirectoryIndex index.html PerlSetVar PARStaticDefaultMIME text/html </Location> Alias /myapp/cgi-perl/ ##PARFILE##/ <Location /myapp/cgi-perl> Options +ExecCGI SetHandler perl-script PerlHandler Apache::PAR::Registry </Location> Alias /myapp/cgi-run/ ##PARFILE##/ <Location /myapp/cgi-run> Options +ExecCGI SetHandler perl-script PerlHandler Apache::PAR::PerlRun </Location> PerlModule MyApp::TestMod Alias /myapp/mod/ ##PARFILE##/ <Location /myapp/mod> SetHandler perl-script PerlHandler TestMod </Location> Using ##UNPACKDIR## to unpack archive Alias /myapp/static/ ##UNPACKDIR##/htdocs/ Alias /myapp/cgi-perl/ ##UNPACKDIR##/scripts/ <Location /myapp/cgi-perl> Options +ExecCGI SetHandler perl-script PerlHandler Apache::Registry </Location> Alias /myapp/cgi-run/ ##UNPACKDIR##/scripts/ <Location /myapp/cgi-run> Options +ExecCGI SetHandler perl-script PerlHandler Apache::PerlRun </Location> PerlModule MyApp::TestMod Alias /myapp/mod/ ##PARFILE##/ <Location /myapp/mod> SetHandler perl-script PerlSetEnv TestModTemplateDir ##UNPACKDIR##/template PerlHandler TestMod </Location> Using PerlInitHandler to reload changed modules: PerlModule Apache::PAR PerlInitHandler Apache::PAR
Apache::PAR is a framework for including Perl ARchive files in a mod_perl (1.x or 2.x) environment. It allows an author to package up a web application, including configuration, static files, Perl modules, and Registry and PerlRun scripts to include in a single file. This archive can then be moved to other locations on the same system or distributed, and loaded with a single set of configuration options in the Apache configuration.
These modules are based on PAR.pm by Autrijus Tang and Archive::Zip by Ned Konz, as well as the mod_perl modules. They extend the concept of PAR files to mod_perl, similar to how WAR archives work for Java. An archive (which is really a zip file), contains one or more elements which can be served to clients making requests to an Apache web server. Scripts, modules, and static content should then be able to be served from within the .par archive without modifications.
Apache::PAR itself performs the work of specifying the location of PAR archives and allowing the loading of modules from these archives. The files and paths can be specified at load time. Once an archive has been located, an optional web.conf (filename configurable) is then loaded and included into the main web configuration. Once Apache::PAR has been loaded, Perl Apache modules within these .par files can then be loaded.
The following steps are performed on any .par files which are found within a PARInclude:
If the PARInclude is a directory, all PAR files within that directory are loaded
Any .par files defined are loaded with PAR.pm, making any modules defined within it visible to Apache
Apache::PAR checks for the existence of a web.conf file within each .par archive and, if found, includes that configuration into the main Apache configuration.
If a web.conf file contains the keyword ##UNPACKDIR##, the contents of the archive will be unpacked during Apache startup. The location which this is unpacked to is controlled with the PARTempDir directive.
##UNPACKDIR##
If PerlInitHandler Apache::PAR is specified, and the contents of a PAR file change, the archive will be reloaded (modules and content.)
PerlSetVar/AddVar configuration for PARInclude and PARTempDir MUST be before the PerlModule Apache::PAR (or use Apache::PAR;) line in the Apache configuration. Any PARInclude variables (or PARDir and PARFile) after the PerlModule line will be ignored.
PARDir and PARFile directives may be used to specify the location of PAR archives, however their use is deprecated. For new configurations, use PARInclude instead. PARInclude works both as PARDir and PARFile by first expanding directories to include any PAR archives found within.
The arguments for PARInclude can be either an absolute path, or a relative path from Apache's server_root. For example, if your Apache's server_root is /usr/local/apache, and you would like to load .par files from a parfiles/ subdirectory, use: PerlSetVar PARInclude parfiles/
This will then look for .par files in the /usr/local/apache/parfiles directory.
The name of the configuration file which is loaded is configurable via PARConf (default is 'web.conf'.) For example, to set the include filename to 'include.conf' for all .par files: PerlSetVar PARConf include.conf
The extensions used when searching for .par archives in any directories set via PARInclude is set using the PARExt variable in the Apache configuration (the default is 'par'). For example, to set the par extension to 'zip': PerlSetVar PARExt zip
There is currently no way to limit which .par archive a module is loaded out of. To ensure that the correct module is being loaded, I suggest the following convention: begin module names with the name of the archive. For instance, a MailForm module within the MyApp.par archive should be named MyApp::MailForm
Currently, which directory inside a .par archive modules are loaded out of is not configurable, and is the same as defined in PAR.pm:
By default, if a web.conf file contains a ##UNPACKDIR## directive, the archive will be unpacked to a subdirectory under PARTempDir during Apache startup. The default for PARTempDir is the platform specific temp directory (e.g. c:\temp for win32, /tmp for *nix.) Archive unpacking may be disabled by specifying PerlSetVar PARTempDir NONE in the Apache configuration, however this will prevent the loading of any PAR files which require unpacking to operate.
PerlSetVar PARTempDir NONE
Changed content in PAR files is not reloaded util the next restart of Apache unless the directive PerlInitHandler Apache::PAR is used. Currently, some functionality will not change or reload when a PAR file is removed, however. This may change in a future release.
PerlInitHandler Apache::PAR
In general, Apache::PAR should function on most platforms without changes, as it is (currently) a perl only module. Below are notes for any known exceptions. If you have any problems with Apache::PAR on your platform, please contact me through one of the methods in the CONTACT section.
Some testing has been performed on Apache::PAR using WIN32 platforms, with both mod_perl 1.x and 2.x. Apache::PAR should function as normal on these platforms, however, an alternate configuration method is required due to differences in the Apache/mod_perl startup sequence on that platform.
inside a PERL section or startup.pl:
use Apache::PAR qw( /path/to/par/archive/directory /path/to/a/par/file.par ... );
Additionally, you can still use PerlSetVar PARInclude, etc lines in Win32 - the Apache::PAR include must be via a use however (not a PerlModule directive):
inside httpd.conf (example for mod_perl 1.x, for 2.x use <PERL > instead):
PerlSetVar PerlInclude /path/to/par/archive/directory PerlAddVar PerlInclude /path/to/a/par/file.par ... <PERL> use Apache::PAR; </PERL>
None by default.
Autrijus Tang <autrijus@autrijus.org> for providing assistance on numerous occasions during the development of Apache::PAR.
Maurice Aubrey <maurice@lovelyfilth.com> for adding the ability to unpack content from PAR archives.
For questions regarding the installation or use of Apache::PAR, either post a message on the PAR list <par@perl.org>, on the sourceforge project page at http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/apache-par or send an email to the author directly at <nathan@byrd.net>.
Nathan Byrd, <nathan@byrd.net>
perl.
PAR.
Apache::PAR::Registry, Apache::PAR::PerlRun, and Apache::PAR::Static.
Copyright 2002, 2003 by Nathan Byrd, <nathan@byrd.net>.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
See http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html
To install Apache::PAR, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm Apache::PAR
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install Apache::PAR
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.