Enabling CGI and PHP on Apache2 (Shallow Thoughts)

Enabling CGI and PHP on Apache2

Every time I do a system upgrade on my desktop machine, I end up with a web server that can't do PHP or CGI, and I have to figure out all over again how to enable all the important stuff. It's all buried in various nonobvious places. Following Cory Doctorow's "My blog, my outboard brain" philosophy, I shall record here the steps I needed this time, so next time I can just look them up:

1. Install apache2.
2. Install an appropriate mod-php package (or, alternately, a full fledged PHP package).
3. Edit /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default, find the stanza corresponding to the default site, and change AllowOverride from None to something more permissive. This controls what's allowed through .htaccess files. For testing, use All; for a real environment you'll probably want something more fine grained than that.
4. While you're there, look for the Options line in the same stanza and add +ExecCGI to the end.
5. Edit /etc/apache2/apache2.conf and search for PHP. No, not the line that already includes index.php; keep going to the lines that look something like

   #AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
   #AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps
   

   Uncomment these. Now PHP should work. The next step is to enable CGI.
6. Still in /etc/apache2/apache2.conf, search for CGI. Eventually you'll get to

   # To use CGI scripts outside /cgi-bin/:
   #
   #AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
   

   Uncomment the AddHandler line.
7. Finally, disable automatic start of apache at boot time (I don't need a web server running on my workstation every day, only on days when I'm actually doing web development). I think some upcoming Ubuntu release may offer a way to do that through Upstart, but for now, I

   mv /etc/init.d/apache /etc/noinit.d
   

   (having previously created /etc/noinit.d for that purpose).

Tags: tech, web, apache
[ 18:54 Mar 24, 2007    More tech/web | permalink to this entry | ]