Embperl: Modern Templates

Note that installing Embperl can be a bit tricky. The documentation is generally good and describes all of the steps necessary to install it on your own computer. I have installed it several times and found that each time required several tries before I managed to follow the directions correctly. I will describe the procedure here in some detail, but you might want to look at the FAQ file that comes with Embperl for more information. (Many of the following instructions are based on that FAQ.)

Before you begin, you should install or update the latest versions of several packages: LWP (the library for Web client programming), HTML::HeadParser (used for parsing HTML document heads), CGI.pm (the super-module that handles everything having to do with CGI), and MIME::Base64 (which handles the encoding information to and from Base64, which is used in the MIME standard). All of these are available from CPAN (see Resources).

Both mod_perl and Apache must be recompiled in order to get Embperl running. It is possible for Embperl to run as an external CGI program, rather than from within mod_perl, but you will then lose the speed benefits of mod_perl. I strongly suggest going the mod_perl route, unless you are using a web server other than Apache, or if you would rather not recompile things just now.

For starters, then, you will need the source for Apache (from http://www.apache.org/), mod_perl (from CPAN, at http://www.perl.com/CPAN/) and Embperl (also from CPAN, as HTML-Embperl-1.0.0). On my machine, these packages were named as follows:

HTML-Embperl-1.0.0.tar.gz
apache_1.3.0.tar.gz
mod_perl-1.12.tar.gz

I am sure that newer versions of these programs will be available by the time you read this article. However, you should be able to follow this discussion by updating the version numbers as appropriate.

First, unpack all of the files using the command:

for file in `ls *gz`; do tar -zxvf $file; done

Before you can start to compile the components, you will have to set some of the configurations and modify Makefiles. First of all, go into the mod_perl directory and edit src/modules/perl/Makefile:

/downloads/mod_perl-1.12/src/modules/perl/Makefile

You will have to make three changes to this file. First, add the HTML::Embperl to the definition of STATIC_EXTS that will be grabbed by the mod_perl configuration system. That is, edit the line (line 98, in mod_perl-1.12):

#STATIC_EXTS = Apache Apache::Constants

and change it to:

#STATIC_EXTS = Apache Apache::Constants HTML::Embperl

Next, look for the line that begins with OBJS= (line 131 in mod_perl-1.12). Just before that line, define the variable EPDIR so that it points to your Embperl build directory. For instance, assuming that we are building Embperl in /downloads/HTML-Embperl-1.0.0, we will set it to:

EPDIR=/downloads/HTML-Embperl-1.0.0

We will now modify the OBJS variable such that it creates the object files for Embperl as well as mod_perl:

OBJS=$(PERLSRC:.c=.o) $(EPDIR)/Embperl.o \
$(EPDIR)/epmain.o $(EPDIR)/epio.o \
$(EPDIR)/epeval.o $(EPDIR)/epcmd.o \
$(EPDIR)/epchar.o $(EPDIR)/eputil.o

Don't forget to put backslashes at the end of each continued line, so that make doesn't think the second and third lines should stand on their own.

The hardest part is over. All we have to do now is configure and compile the various components. Make sure to do them in the right order, though, or things might not work correctly.

First, enter the mod_perl directory and create the Makefile using the standard Perl command perl Makefile.PL.

If you want some or all of mod_perl's capabilities, now is the time to specify that. I tend to activate all of them (except for two that need explicit activation), so I enter perl Makefile.PL EVERYTHING=1. This will begin the mod_perl configuration process. You will be asked if you want to use the Apache source code in the parallel directory, and then if you want mod_perl to build httpd for you. Answer “yes” to both questions.

When the configuration script has finished running, go into the Embperl directory (/downloads/HTML-Embperl-1.0.0) and configure the module using the same command:

perl Makefile.PL

Once again, the system will perform a variety of configurations. You will be asked if you want Embperl to support Apache, and then if it should use the Apache source code in the parallel directory. Again, answer “yes” to both questions. Finally, you will be asked for a path name to the copy of httpd that will be used in testing. Check that the default is correct, and correct it if necessary.

Now we can actually create Embperl by typing make in its directory. After the compilation is complete, switch back to the mod_perl directory and create mod_perl and Apache by typing make.

Congratulations. You should now have working copies of Apache, mod_perl and Embperl. At this point, we could run make install in each of the three directories to install the software, or we can test Embperl. If you are interested in testing your Embperl compilation without installing it, I suggest that you read the FAQ. The directions are not that difficult to follow, but they are more complex than I can describe in the space provided here.