Bug #78620 for mod_perl: Install fails for Strawberry Perl 5.10.1 in Windows 7

Fri Jul 27 17:29:59 2012 john.deighan [...] gmail.com - Ticket created

Subject:

Install fails for Strawberry Perl 5.10.1 in Windows 7

Trying 'install mod_perl2' in the cpan shell, after some apparently successful stuff, I get these lines over and over and have to use Ctrl-C to stop it: [ error] Can't find dir '' Please provide the location of the Apache directory: [ error] Can't find dir '' Please provide the location of the Apache directory: [ error] Can't find dir '' Please provide the location of the Apache directory: [ error] Can't find dir '' Please provide the location of the Apache directory: [ error] Can't find dir '' Please provide the location of the Apache directory: [ error] Can't find dir '' Please provide the location of the Apache directory: [ error] Can't find dir '' Please provide the location of the Apache directory: [ error] Can't find dir '' Please provide the location of the Apache directory: [ error] Can't find dir '' Please provide the location of the Apache directory: [ error] Can't find dir '' Please provide the location of the Apache directory: [ error] Can't find dir '' Please provide the location of the Apache directory: [ error] Can't find dir '' Please provide the location of the Apache directory: [ error] Can't find dir '' Please provide the location of the Apache directory: I've read that there are some binary distributions of mod_perl for Strawberry Perl, but they appear to be mod_perl 2.0.4, which crashes our application when using ActivePerl due to bugs fixed in 2.0.5 and 2.0.6, so we need at least mod_perl 2.0.6 and I was hoping that Strawberry Perl would allow us to run mod_perl on Windows (we haven't been able to find an updated mod_perl for the ActivePerl distribution)

Mon Jul 30 17:28:00 2012 shay [...] cpan.org - Correspondence added

On Fri Jul 27 17:29:59 2012, jdeighan wrote: Show quoted text

> Trying 'install mod_perl2' in the cpan shell, after some apparently > successful stuff, I get these lines over and over and have to use Ctrl-C > to stop it: > > [ error] Can't find dir '' > Please provide the location of the Apache directory: > [ error] Can't find dir '' > Please provide the location of the Apache directory: > [ error] Can't find dir '' > Please provide the location of the Apache directory: > [ error] Can't find dir '' > Please provide the location of the Apache directory: > [ error] Can't find dir '' > Please provide the location of the Apache directory: > [ error] Can't find dir '' > Please provide the location of the Apache directory: > [ error] Can't find dir '' > Please provide the location of the Apache directory: > [ error] Can't find dir '' > Please provide the location of the Apache directory: > [ error] Can't find dir '' > Please provide the location of the Apache directory: > [ error] Can't find dir '' > Please provide the location of the Apache directory: > [ error] Can't find dir '' > Please provide the location of the Apache directory: > [ error] Can't find dir '' > Please provide the location of the Apache directory: > [ error] Can't find dir '' > Please provide the location of the Apache directory:

Can you provide more details about your setup? Is it one of the portable editions of Strawberry Perl that you're using and/or how did you set the Command Prompt environment that you're working in? Where is your Apache installed, and where did it come from? It may simply be that mod_perl on Windows just isn't set up for building with GCC (like Strawberry Perl provides). I've never tried it myself; I've only built mod_perl with MSVC++, which is also free these days anyway. Have you considered building your own with that? Show quoted text

> > I've read that there are some binary distributions of mod_perl for > Strawberry Perl, but they appear to be mod_perl 2.0.4, which crashes our > application when using ActivePerl due to bugs fixed in 2.0.5 and 2.0.6, > so we need at least mod_perl 2.0.6 and I was hoping that Strawberry Perl > would allow us to run mod_perl on Windows (we haven't been able to find > an updated mod_perl for the ActivePerl distribution)

The Windows binaries that I put (temporarily, but they're still there at the moment...) in http://users.perl5.git.perl.org/~steveh/ a while ago include a VC6 build of mod_perl 2.0.6 with Apache 2.2.22 + Perl 5.14.2, so I just tried copying the mod_perl components out of the Perl part into Stawrberry Perl 5.14.2.1 (32-bit portable edition installed in C:\Strawberry) plus the mod_perl.so DLL out of the Apache part into Apache Lounge's 2.2.22 (installed into C:\Apache2) and at a quick try (a simple modperl handler printing 'Hello, world') it works fine. Is that of any use to you?

Mon Jul 30 17:28:01 2012 The RT System itself - Status changed from 'new' to 'open'

Sun Aug 05 10:48:59 2012 john.deighan [...] gmail.com - Correspondence added

From:

john.deighan [...] gmail.com

Show quoted text

> The Windows binaries that I put (temporarily, but they're still there at > the moment...) in http://users.perl5.git.perl.org/~steveh/ a while ago > include a VC6 build of mod_perl 2.0.6 with Apache 2.2.22 + Perl 5.14.2, > so I just tried copying the mod_perl components out of the Perl part > into Stawrberry Perl 5.14.2.1 (32-bit portable edition installed in > C:\Strawberry) plus the mod_perl.so DLL out of the Apache part into > Apache Lounge's 2.2.22 (installed into C:\Apache2) and at a quick try (a > simple modperl handler printing 'Hello, world') it works fine. > > Is that of any use to you?

I've just installed Strawberry Perl 5.14.2.1 - full edition (i.e. not the portable edition) and Apache 2.2.22. I'm going to try using parts from the Windows binaries you mention. Just to be clear, though, I'm not sure what's included in the "mod_perl components" you mention. I'm going to copy over the folders Apache, Apache2, APR and ModPerl from perl/site lib to Strawberry Perl's site/lib folder. Are there other folders I should copy? Also, would it have been better to just download them from CPAN? I will post the results after some testing, but I'd prefer to either be able to use CPAN with Strawberry Perl to build mod_perl, or alternatively, to have directions for building mod_perl.so myself manually (paying for and configuring a particular C compiler would not be a problem). I'm concerned about going through all of this again when Perl 5.16.1 is released and becomes the recommended version of Strawberry Perl. Also, the original problem I reported seems to be a problem in the install script, i.e. continuous prompting for input without waiting for a response. Am I reporting that problem in the correct place?

Sun Aug 05 12:00:38 2012 john.deighan [...] gmail.com - Correspondence added

From:

john.deighan [...] gmail.com

FYI, I tried one more time to use "cpan mod_perl2" under Strawberry Perl to install mod_perl2 the normal way. First, I found that I needed apxs, which does not come with the Apache binaries for Windows. But, the binaries that you provided above did include a zipped apxs, so I unzipped that and tried to use it. I found that since the Windows installed installs in a folder that includes spaces in the path, running "perl Configure.pl --with-apache2="c:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2" did not work - so I uninstalled Apache and re-installed at c:\Apache2.2 which allowed the Configure.pl script to create an apxs.bat which got me past that problem. However, as the attached log shows, the install of mod_perl2 still failed, though it got much further than before. Any help would be greatly appreciated. At this point, I'm going to try copying mod_perl.so and the Apache Perl libraries directly from the binaries, though it will only get me mod_perl 2.0.6 - I'd prefer to have 2.0.7.

Subject:

mod_perl2.log

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Wed May 01 17:44:09 2013 shay [...] cpan.org - Correspondence added

The dmake error that your last attempt ran into ("Incomplete rule recipe group detected") is the same one described by RT #56761 and now fixed in svn by rev. 1477980. However, as I have just noted on that other ticket, attempting to build mod_perl using MinGW/dmake is doomed to failure anyway, unless you have a MinGW build of Apache (which is unlikely, although in theory possible). The apxs utility is not absolutely necessary for building mod_perl, although it does make things easier. If you don't have it (try pressing Enter at the prompt that reads Please provide a full path to 'apxs' executable (press Enter if you don't have it installed): ) then the install script will ask you questions about your Apache installation (the answers to which it would normally get from apxs...). The first question is Please provide the location of the Apache directory: and if you press Enter to that then you get the error [ error] Can't find dir '' followed by the same question again -- if you haven't got apxs then it really can't proceed until you answer the question. This is the endless loop that you originally reported, and I don't really see that as a bug. (If you're running the build process automatically, then simply provide the MP_AP_PREFIX argument or the MP_APXS argument to Makefile.PL to avoid the questions being asked.) I'm therefore going to mark this ticket as 'Rejected', since as explained in RT #56761 it isn't really feasible to build mod_perl with MinGW (or, therefore, with Strawberry Perl's tools) at least until such a time as MinGW is more properly supported by Apache httpd itself. In the meantime your only option is to build mod_perl using VC++, which can be done in such a way as to be compatible with Strawberry Perl, as has been done by both kmx and myself: http://strawberryperl.com/package/kmx/mod_perl/ http://people.apache.org/~stevehay/

Wed May 01 17:44:37 2013 shay [...] cpan.org - Status changed from 'open' to 'rejected'