How to make Perl scripts run under Apache?

Help! (Home for newbies)
1

This problem is really simple, I guess. But I’ve searched documentation and forums without success …

I want to be able to run Perl scripts under Apache. I.e.: the user goes for the page http://myserver.com/info, a Perl script is run, and the script output returned to the user. Very much similar to awstats.pl .

This should happen also for external visitors to the web site. The web site in question (myserver.com) is run as a Virtual Server under Virtualmin.

I would like to place my scripts in another folder than cgi-bin .

How is this possible?

SYSTEM INFORMATION
OS type and version Debian Linux 12
Virtualmin version 7.20.2 Pro
2

Yes, it is possible of course.

You will have to use the cgi-bin directory. And make the files executable.

3

Couldn’t it be possible to create an alias for /info as well?

1 Like
4

How would I do that?

5

An alias to a script can be created as easy as:

ScriptAlias /info /home/ubuntu24-pro/cgi-bin/info.pl

Alternatively, you could use the UI for this purpose on the “Web Configuration ⇾ Configure SSL Website: CGI Programs” page.

1 Like
6

Thanks, it works for me. I’m migrating a planner program from another installation to Virtualmin. There I had one folder with both Perl scripts and various support files, e.g. configuration files. As I understand it, with your suggestion, I need to have the Perl files to be run as cgi-scripts in the cgi-bin folder, and place the other files in another folder. Is this true?

Isn’t it possible to place Perl files, meant to be run as cgi-scripts, in a custom folder?

7

It’s possible, but it would require changing the configuration. Since you’re asking, I’d recommend sticking to the defaults as much as you can.

8

Thanks for your recommendation. I fully understand the advantages of having executable scripts in one location - and configuration and data files somewhere else.

But the planner program I have running on my older platform have all relevant files in one folder: executable perl files, picture files meant to be shown in the web page, data, and configurations files. And it’s quite a challenge to change this.

So for just this program, I would much prefer to change the configuration, as you suggest. I’ve tried making a custom folder “/home/myvirtualserver/public_html/planner” and allowing ExecCGI for this. But suexec fails with messages like:
[2024-11-21 22:35:05]: uid: (1005/myvirtualserver) gid: (1005/myvirtualserver) cmd: test.pl
[2024-11-21 22:35:05]: target uid/gid (1005/1005) mismatch with directory (1005/1005) or program (0/0)

$ cat /etc/apache2/suexec/www-data
/home
public_html

Any help appreciated, thanx

9

File ownership is wrong. SuExec protects you from dangerous mistakes like that. Files must be owned by the domain user:group.

SuExec won’t protect you from accidentally putting sensitive non-executable files in that location, though, so be careful. An attacker may be able to read files that aren’t handled via some exec mechanism.

10

Thanks - again! - for a quick reply. And yes, from a security perspective this is not the best way to go.

As far as I can see the file ownerships are correct:
$ ls -n /home/myvirtualserver/public_html/planner/*
total 8
-rwxr-xr-x 1 1005 1005 281 Nov 21 20:23 test.pl
-rw-r--r-- 1 1005 1005 11 Nov 21 20:16 test.txt
$ ls -nd /home/myvirtualserver/public_html/planner
drwxr-xr-x 2 1005 1005 4096 Nov 21 20:23 /home/myvirtualserver/public_html/planner
$ grep 1005 /etc/passwd
myvirtualserver:x:1005:1005:My Virtual Server:/home/myvirtualserver:/bin/bash
$ grep 1005 /etc/group
myvirtualserver:x:1005:www-data
$ head /etc/apache2/sites-available/myvirtualserver.dk.conf
<VirtualHost 192.168.1.136:80 [fde5:50d6:4f63:0:be24:11ff:fe76:a985]:80>
SuexecUserGroup myvirtualserver myvirtualserver
ServerName myvirtualserver.dk
...