Perl Setup

Perl Setup for ILE Apache on IBM i

Note: Module MOD_PERL is not available on IBM i.

Note: V7R2 Apache bug for PASE CGI, IBM understands and working the issue (PTF future).

How to configure Perl support in ILE Apache using a PASE CGI implementation.

Software Requirements

IBM i V5R4M0

5722SS1 Option 33 - Portable App Solutions Environment (PASE)

5722DG1 - IBM HTTP Server for i5/OS

5799PTL - IBM Tools for Developers for i5/OS

IBM i 6.1

5769SS1 Option 33 - Portable App Solutions Environment (PASE)

5769DG1 - IBM HTTP Server for i5/OS

5799PTL - IBM Tools for Developers for i5/OS

IBM i 7.1

5770SS1 Option 33 - Portable App Solutions Environment (PASE)

5770DG1 - IBM HTTP Server for i

5799PTL - IBM Tools for Developers for i5/OS

Necessary Components

1) /www/<instance>/conf/httpd.conf                ILE Apache configuration file
2) /QOpenSys/perl-bin/                            directory for perl cgi wrapper
3) /QOpenSys/perl-bin/perl-cgi                    perl cgi wrapper that will exec $ENV{PATH_TRANSLATED};
4) /QOpenSys/perl-bin/perl-htdocs                 directory for perl scripts
5) /QOpenSys/perl-bin/perl-htdocs/helloworld.pl   example "hello world" perl script
6) /QOpenSys/usr/bin/perl                         symbolic link to the perl installation directory

Step 1: Update the ILE Apache instance’s configuration file to resolve Perl scripts using a Perl CGI Wrapper program and to tell it where Perl scripts are located.

Note: Perl scripts need to be located somewhere in the /QOpenSys file system since the Perl CGI wrapper program executes in PASE.

# Update the ILE Apache instance's configuration file to resolve Perl scripts using a Perl CGI wrapper program. 
ScriptAlias /perl-bin/ /QOpenSys/perl-bin/
AddType application/x-httpd-perl .pl
Action  application/x-httpd-perl /perl-bin/perl-cgi
<Directory /QOpenSys/perl-bin>
   Options +ExecCGI
   order   allow,deny
   allow   from all
</Directory>

# Update the ILE Apache instance's configuration file to tell it where Perl scripts are located.
Alias /perl-htdocs /QOpenSys/perl-bin/perl-htdocs
<Location /perl-htdocs>
   Order deny,allow
   Allow from all
</Location>

Step 2: Create the necessary directories in the /QOpenSys file system in a PASE for i terminal session (CALL QP2TERM).

> mkdir -p /QOpenSys/perl-bin/perl-htdocs

Step 3: Create the perl CGI wrapper (/QOpenSys/perl-bin/perl-cgi) that will exec the value of the $ENV{PATH_TRANSLATED} CGI environment variable.

Note: If everything is configured correctly, exec will transfer to new program (i.e. the value in $ENV{PATH_TRANSLATED}) and none of the “debug” CGI environment variables will display in the browser.

#!/QOpenSys/usr/bin/perl
exec $ENV{PATH_TRANSLATED};
print "Content-Type: text/html;\r\n\r\n";
print "<html>\n";
print " <head>\n";
print " <title>View CGI Environment Variables</title>\n";
print " </head>\n";
print " <body bgcolor=white>\n";
print " <h1>$ENV{PATH_TRANSLATED}</h1>";
print " <h2><font face=helv color=cc9900>CGI Environment 
Variables</font></h2>\n";
print " <table cellpadding=3 cellspacing=0 border=1>\n";
foreach $key (sort(keys %ENV))
{
print " <tr><td align=right>$key:</td><td>&nbsp;$ENV{$key}</td></tr>\n";
}
print " </table>\n";
print " </body>\n";
print "</html>\n";
exit(0);

Step 4: Create a symbolic link in /QOpenSys pointing to the perl installation directory in a PASE for i terminal session (CALL QP2TERM).

> ln -sf  /QIBM/ProdData/DeveloperTools/pase/bin/perl  /QOpenSys/usr/bin/perl

Step 5: Create the example “Hello World” (helloworld.pl) perl script.

Note: The helloworld.pl script needs to exist in /QOpenSys/perl-bin/perl-htdocs according to the Apache configuration above.

#!/QOpenSys/usr/bin/perl
print "Content-Type: text/html;\r\n\r\n";
print "Hello, world!\n";

This script can be accessed similar to this:

  http://<hostname>:<port>/perl-htdocs/helloworld.pl

Reminder

Files processed by PASE need to have their lines ended with a LF (hex 0A) character rather than with CRLF (hex 0D0A) characters.  The use of
a LF character at the end of lines is the norm for Unix/Linux.  The use of CRLF at the end of lines is the norm for Windows.