How do you set up Python scripts to work in Apache 2.0?

Question

I tried to follow a couple of googled up tutorials on setting up mod_python, but failed every time. Do you have a good, step-by step, rock-solid howto?

My dev box is

Answer 1

Yes, mod_python is pretty confusing to set up. Here's how I did it.

In httpd.conf:

LoadModule python_module modules/mod_python.so

<Directory "/serverbase/htdocs/myapp">
  AddHandler mod_python .py
  PythonHandler myapp
  PythonDebug On

and in your application directory:

$ /serverbase/htdocs/myapp$ ls -l
total 16
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root sys        6484 May 21 15:54 myapp.py

Repeat the configuration for each python program you wish to have running under mod_python.

Answer 2

There are two main ways of running Python on Apache. The simplest would be to use CGI and write normal Python scripts while the second is using a web framework like Django or Pylons.

Using CGI is straightforward. Make sure your Apache config file has a cgi-bin set up. If not, follow their documentation (http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/howto/cgi.html). At that point all you need to do is place your Python scripts in the cgi-bin directory and the standard output will become the HTTP response. Refer to Python's documentation for further info (https://docs.python.org/library/cgi.html).

If you want to use a web framework you'll need to setup mod_python or FastCGI. These steps are dependent on which framework you want to use. Django provides clear instructions on how to setup mod_python and Django with Apache (http://www.djangoproject.com/documentation/modpython/)

Answer 3

Are you running Python on UNIX or Windows?

An alternative to mod_python and FastCGI is mod_wsgi. You can find out more at modwsgi

I have built and installed this on Solaris without problems. I had previously tried mod_python but ran into problems with shared libraries as part of the build. There are good install docs available.

Answer 4

The problem for me wasn't in Apache set up, but in understanding how mod_apache actually uses the .py files. Module-level statements (including those in a if __name__=='__main__' section) are not executed--I assumed that the stdout from running the script at the commandline would be what the server would output, but that's not how it works.

Instead, I wrote a module-level function called index(), and had it return as a string the HTML of the page. It's also possible to have other module-level functions (e.g., otherFunction()) that can be accessed as further segments in the URI (e.g., testScript/otherFunction for the file testScript.py.)

Obviously, this makes more sense than my original stdout conception. Better capability of actually using Python as a scripting language and not a humongous markup language.