Apache::Dir

[David Wheeler]

G'day.

I recently had a need to have mod_dir in Apache 1.3 work even when I 
was using a Perl handler. It turns out that mod_dir does its thing 
during the response phase. So I created a quick Perl module to do what 
I want. Here's the description:

    This simple module is designed to be a partial replacement for the
    standard Apache mod_dir module. One of the things that module does 
is
    to redirect browsers to a directory URL ending in a slash when they
    request the directory without the slash. Since mod_dir seems do its
    thing during the Apache response phase, if you use a Perl handler, 
it
    won't run. This can be problematic if the Perl handler doesn't 
likewise
    take the directory redirecting into account.

    A good example is HTML::Mason. If you've disabled Mason's 
decline_dirs
    parameter (MasonDeclineDirs 0 in httpd.conf), and there's a 
dhandler in
    the directory /foo, then for a request for /foo, /foo/dhandler will
    respond. This can wreak havoc if you use relative URLs in the 
dhandler.
    What really should happen is that a request for /foo will be 
redirected
    to /foo/ before Mason ever sees it.

    This is the problem that this module is designed to address. Thanks 
to
    mod_perl's ability to stack handlers, you can just make sure that
    Apache::Dir handles requests before Mason does. Configuration would
    then look something like this:

      <Location /foo>
        PerlSetVar  MasonDeclineDirs 0
        PerlModule  Apache::Dir
        PerlModule  HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler
        SetHandler  perl-script
        PerlHandler Apache::Dir HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler
      </Location>
You can download it to try it out here:

  http://theory.kineticode.com/code/Apache-Dir-0.01.tar.gz

There are at least two issues that I need to address before releasing 
it on CPAN, though:

1. Doug has the Apache::Dir namespace reserved. Did he have some 
working code for this already?

  http://search.cpan.org/~dougm/

2. Maybe this isn't necessary in Apache 2. I really don't know, so I'm 
asking you guys. Can mod_dir be stacked/chained to execute before a 
Perl handler in Apache 2/mod_perl 2?

Thanks!

David

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]