=head1 NAME
mod_perl 2.0 Win32 Installation Instructions
=head1 Description
This document deals with installation specifics on Win32 platforms.
=head1 Synopsis
As described in the discussion of issues in L<multithreaded
win32|docs::1.0::os::win32::multithread>, a mod_perl 1.0 enabled server
based on Apache 1.3 on Win32 is limited to a single thread serving a
request at a time. This effectively prevents concurrent processing,
which can have serious implications for busy sites. This problem is
addressed in the multi-thread/multi-process approach of mod_perl
2.0/Apache 2.x, which consequently requires a Perl built with ithreads
enabled.
There are some threading issues in perl-5.6
(upon which ActivePerl builds 6xx are based) which cause
problems with mod_perl 2.0 on Win32. Consequently, the minimum
required perl version is 5.8 (upon which ActivePerl builds 8xx are based)
for use with mod_perl 2.0 on Win32.
=head1 Installing
Unless you are using an all-in-one package, you should
first install Perl and Apache, either from the sources or as binaries.
The Perl sources are available from L<http://www.cpan.org/src/>,
with directions for building contained in F<README.win32>.
ActiveState also makes the sources available for their binary
builds at L<ftp://ftp.activestate.com/ActivePerl/src/>,
which may contain, in particular, Win32-specific fixes not in the
CPAN Perl sources. If you are building Perl from source then you must
enable both USE_MULTI and USE_ITHREADS in the Makefile to enable
ithreads, as required for mod_perl 2.0 on Win32. ActivePerl builds also
enable USE_IMP_SYS, providing the implicit "host" layer which gives a
C<fork()> emulation, but this is at the cost of disabling PERL_MALLOC
which may have significant performance implications since Win32's system
C<malloc()> is notably slower than Perl's in some situations. Thus, unless
you require the C<fork()> emulation or specifically want an ActivePerl-
compatible build then you may want to disable USE_IMP_SYS and enable
PERL_MALLOC. (Note that you cannot currently enable PERL_MALLOC with
USE_IMP_SYS enabled as well.) As a binary, at present, an ActivePerl-
compatible Perl, compiled with Visual C++, is the most common one used in
the Win32 mod_perl/Apache environment; you can obtain such a prebuilt Perl
binary from L<http://www.activestate.com/>.
The Apache sources and binaries are available at
L<http://httpd.apache.org/>.
As of this writing, mod_perl 2.0 is known to compile and work
with both an ActivePerl-compatible perl-5.8 (ActivePerl build 8xx) and
with an otherwise similar Perl having USE_IMP_SYS disabled and
PERL_MALLOC enabled. See the section on Apache/mod_perl binaries
below for details on a suitable repository containing mod_perl
ppm packages, and also how to obtain other Win32 binary packages.
When installing Perl or other related binaries, subtleties may arise
in using path names that have spaces in them - you may, for example,
have to specify F<C:\Program Files\> by the DOS 8.3 path name
F<C:\Progra~1\> in certain Apache directives. If you want to avoid
this, install, if possible, these packages to locations without spaces
in their names (eg, F<C:\Perl> for Perl and F<C:\Apache2> for Apache 2.0).
In the following, it may be necessary to invoke certain commands
through a DOS prompt. A DOS window may be opened either through
a I<Command Prompt> option of the I<Start> menu, or by choosing
to run, from the Start menu, C<command> or C<cmd>, as appropriate.
=head2 Building from sources
If you are building mod_perl 2.0 from sources, it is probably also
best to do the same for Apache 2.0. The Apache 2.0 sources can be
obtained from L<http://httpd.apache.org/>, which when unpacked will
contain at the top-level a Visual Studio project file
(make sure to obtain the I<win32-src.zip> archive). Choose the
C<InstallBin - Win32 Release> target to build and install Apache 2.0,
which by default will be placed in F</Apache2>. At the present
time you must have version 2.0.47 or greater of Apache2 in
order to build mod_perl.
Having built and installed Apache 2.0, next obtain the mod_perl 2.0
sources. First obtain the L<mod_perl 2.0
sources|download::source/Development_mod_perl_2_0_Source_Distribution>
as a C<tar.gz> file - when unpacked, using Winzip or similar tools, a
subdirectory F<mod_perl-x.xx> will be created. Next, run the command
C:\modperl_src> perl Makefile.PL MP_AP_PREFIX=\Path\to\Apache2
Then
C:\modperl_src> nmake
C:\modperl_src> nmake test
will build and test mod_perl 2.0. mod_perl 2.0 on Win32 is considered
at an alpha stage of development, so not all the tests may pass.
The final command,
C:\modperl_src> nmake install
will install the necessary mod_perl 2.0 files into your Perl directory
tree, and also copy F<src/modules/perl/mod_perl.so> into
your F</Path/to/Apache2/modules/> directory.
If this build fails, or you want features not present in the official
releases, you may want to try the sources obtained from svn - see the
discussion on the L<2.0 Development Source
Distribution|download::source/Development_mod_perl_2_0_Source_Distribution>
for details. Be aware, though, that as well as providing bug fixes,
there may be new features being added and tested in the svn versions,
so at any given time there are no guarantees that these packages will
build and test successfully.
=head2 PPM Packages
The following assumes you already have ActivePerl 8xx (I<not> 6xx)
from L<http://www.activestate.com/> and a Win32 Apache 2.x binary from
L<http://httpd.apache.org/>. In installing this, you might avoid
some future problems by choosing installation directories that do
not have spaces in their names (eg, F<C:/Apache2>). At this time
you must have version 2.0.47 or greater of Apache2 in order to
install the mod_perl 2 ppm package.
After installing Perl and Apache 2.x, you can then install mod_perl
via the C<PPM> utility. ActiveState does not maintain mod_perl in
their ppm repository, so you must get it from a different location
other than ActiveState's site. A quick way to do this is to download
the script F<mpinstall> and save it as, for example, I<mpinstall>.
Invoking this as C<perl mpinstall> on a command line
will take you through a dialogue, based on your configuration,
which will determine and install, via C<ppm>, the desired
mod_perl ppm package.
The direct way to install mod_perl via ppm is simply as (broken over two
lines for readability)
C:\> ppm install
http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/mod_perl.ppd
for Apache/2.2, and
C:\> ppm install
http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/mod_perl-2.0.ppd
for Apache/2.0. Another way, which will be useful if you plan on
installing additional Apache modules, is to add the following
repository within C<ppm>:
http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/
for ActivePerl 819 or higher, or
http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/cgi-bin/ppmserver?urn:/PPMServer58
for ActivePerl 818 or lower;
see the help utility within C<ppm> for
details on how to do this.
mod_perl 2.0 can then be installed, within the ppm shell, as
ppm> install mod_perl
for Apache/2.2, and as
ppm> install mod_perl-2.0
for Apache/2.0. This will install the necessary modules under an F<Apache2>
subdirectory in your Perl tree, so as not to disturb a possible existing
F<Apache> directory from mod_perl 1.0. See the section below on
configuring mod_perl to add this directory to the C<@INC> path for
searching for modules.
The preceding L<http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/> repository
is appropriate for ActivePerl 8xx builds, based on perl-5.8.
If you're using an ActivePerl 10xx build, based on perl-5.10,
you can install mod_perl via
C:\> ppm install
http://cpan.uwinnipeg.ca/PPMPackages/10xx/mod_perl.ppd
for Apache/2.2. The corresponding repository that can be
added to ppm is
http://cpan.uwinnipeg.ca/PPMPackages/10xx/
after which mod_perl can be installed as
ppm> install mod_perl
Note that ActivePerl 8xx and ActivePerl 10xx are not binary
compatible, which means ppm packages compiled, for example,
for an 8xx build are not compatible with ActivePerl 10xx.
The mod_perl PPM package also includes the necessary Apache DLL
F<mod_perl.so>; a post-installation script should be run which will
offer to copy this file to your Apache2 modules directory (eg,
F<C:/Apache2/modules/>). If this fails, you can get
F<mod_perl.so> from L<http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/x86/>
and install it to your Apache2 modules directory by hand.
Note that, because of binary incompatibilities, one should
I<not> install packages for ActivePerl 8xx from a repository
containing packages for ActivePerl 6xx, and vice-versa, particularly
if these packages contain XS-based modules. Also note that
modules compiled under Apache/2.0 are not compatible with
modules compiled under Apache/2.2, so be sure to install the
mod_perl ppm package appropriate for your version of Apache/2.x.
The mod_perl package available from this site will always
use the latest mod_perl sources available from CPAN
compiled against the latest official
Apache release; depending on changes made in Apache, you may or may
not be able to use an earlier Apache binary. However, in the Apache
Win32 world it is particularly a good idea to use the latest version,
for bug and security fixes. If you want to try a later development
version of mod_perl 2, get the F<mod_perl-dev.ppd> ppm package
instead; the development version may contain bug fixes that were
found since the last CPAN release, but it may also contain
experimental features that have not been fully tested.
If you encounter problems loading
F<mod_perl.so>, ensure that the mod_perl version you are using matches
that of Apache, make sure you are using at least Apache/2.0.47,
and also make certain C<Perl> is in your C<PATH> environment
variable or try adding the Apache directive
LoadFile "C:/Path/to/your/Perl/bin/perlxx.dll"
before loading F<mod_perl.so>. If all else fails, a reboot may help.
If the I<theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca> repository is down, you can
access these packages at
L<http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/perl/win32-bin/ppms/>,
for builds 8xx, and
L<http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/perl/win32-bin/ppmpackages/>,
for builds 6xx.
=head2 All in one packages
There are a number of binary packages for Win32 that contain the
necessary Perl and Apache binaries:
=over
=item *
IndigoPerl from
L<http://www.indigostar.com/>,
=item *
XAMPP for Windows from
L<http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html>
=item *
DeveloperSide.NET for Windows at
L<http://www.devside.net/web/server/free/software>
=item *
zangweb from
L<http://www.arbingersys.com/hostsites/zangweb/>
=back
As well, at L<http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/perl/win32-bin/>
there is a package
F<Perl-5.8-win32-bin.exe> containing a binary version
of perl-5.8 (compatible with ActivePerl 8xx), together with Apache 2.0
and mod_perl 2.0. See the file F<Perl-5.8-win32-bin.readme> for
a description. If you have trouble
fetching the whole file at once, the directory
L<http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/perl/win32-bin/Perl-5.8-win32-bin/>
contains this distribution split across multiple files -
see F<README.join> for instructions on how to join them. Alternatively,
if you have Perl already, you can get the script
F<distinstall> which, when invoked as
C<perl distinstall>, will fetch and join
the files for you.
=head1 See Also
The directions for L<configuring mod_perl 2.0 on
Win32|docs::2.0::os::win32::config>, the L<mod_perl
documentation|docs::index>, L<http://httpd.apache.org/>,
L<http://www.activestate.com/>, and the
L<FAQs for mod_perl on Win32|docs::general::os::win32::faq>.
Help is also available through the archives of and subscribing to
the L<mod_perl mailing list|maillist::modperl>.
=head1 Maintainers
Maintainer is the person(s) you should contact with updates,
corrections and patches.
=over
=item *
Randy Kobes E<lt>randy@theoryx5.uwinnipeg.caE<gt>
=back
=head1 Authors
=over
=item *
Randy Kobes E<lt>randy@theoryx5.uwinnipeg.caE<gt>
=back
Only the major authors are listed above. For contributors see the
Changes file.
=cut
