NAME

Apache::PrettyText - Simple mod_perl PerlHandler for text files

SYNOPSIS

        ## In httpd.conf:
        <Perl>
        use Apache::PrettyText;
        </ Perl> ## <-- Omit the space if you copy this example.

        <Files ~ "\.txt$">
        SetHandler perl-script
        PerlHandler Apache::PrettyText
        </Files>

To modify your Apache server to dynamically format .txt files so they look nicer in the client's browser, put the following directives into httpd.conf, or in any VirtualHost section and restart the server.

Optional: Insert a <Perl> section that changes $Apache::PrettyText::TabWidth to your site's standard or set to 0 to disable detabbing. If you don't set it, the default is 4.

        ## In httpd.conf:
        <Perl>
        $Apache::PrettyText::TabWidth = 4;  
        </ Perl> ## <-- Omit the space if you copy this example.

You must be using mod_perl. See http://perl.apache.org for details.

DESCRIPTION

This is a simple Apache handler written in Perl that converts text files on the fly into a basic HTML format:

• surrounded by <PRE> tags

• tabs converted to spaces (optional)

• white background

• hilited URLs

• first line of text file = <TITLE>

Also serves as a good template to help you write your own simple

handler. I wrote this as an exercise because I found no good examples.

INSTALLATION

Using CPAN module:

        perl -MCPAN -e 'install Apache::PrettyText'

Or manually:

        tar xzvf Apache-PrettyText*gz
        cd Apache-PrettyText-1.??
        perl Makefile.PL
        make
        make test
        make install

If you're reading this in pod or man, it's already installed. If you're reading the source code in PrettyText.pm, you can copy this file under the name "PrettyText.pm" into this location:

        /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/Apache/

... or its equivalent on your computer.

A helpful tip: you can include the entire contents of the PrettyText.pm file or of your own version of it into a <Perl> section within httpd.conf. This can be very helpful if you'd like to use this module as a template for your own.

To syntax-check your code under those circumstances, use:

        perl -cx httpd.conf

... which will read just the perl code between #!...perl and __END__ in the httpd.conf file.

AUTHOR

Chris Thorman <chthorman@cpan.org>

Copyright (c) 1995-2002 Chris Thorman. All rights reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO

Apache(3), mod_perl, http://perl.apache.org/src/contrib

The Apache::PrettyText home page:

        http://christhorman.com/projects/perl/Apache-PrettyText/

The implementation in PrettyText.pm.

THANKS

Thanks to Vivek Khera, Doug MacEachern, Jeffrey William Baker for suggestions and corrections.

cpanm Apache::PrettyText

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Apache::PrettyText