Topic: Apache 2.2.6 version working with mod_perl and mod_fcgid !!!

[Steffen]

With the official version from ASF, modules like mod_perl and mod_fcgid are not working, it contains bugs. Thanks to Tom we can make a complete working version of 2.2.6 available at www.apachelounge.com/download .

This version works with mod_perl and mod_fcgid. No issues running with ActivePerl 5.8.8.822 with official mod_perl from http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/ and mod_fcid 2.2 from Apache Lounge.


Steffen

[tdonovan]

For those interested in the details. If you are not interested in the Apache C code, the following will probably bore you to tears

The actual code changes (as patch files) and a few notes are at http://www.tomdonovan.net/download/httpd226_cgi_patches.zip.
EDIT: this patch has been updated - see the following note

There were three parts of the problem, described in this earlier post.

Correcting change #1 was not terribly hard. It is possible to create new processes and do both: 1) avoid unwanted inherited handles and 2) pass INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE for any of stdin/stdout/stderr which are not passed to the new process. FastCGI programs need this.

Correcting problem #2 was done by guesswork. Debugging mod_perl.so showed that mod_perl tries to do this:

* override stdin and stdout when mod_perl is called. (modules\perl\modperl_io.c line 107)

* restore stdin and stdout when mod_perl returns to Apache. (modules\perl\modperl_io.c line 197)

The first problem was when mod_perl tried to Duplicate() (i.e. make another handle to) the stdin handle, this failed. This is odd because when the child process starts, stdin is a pipe between the Apache parent and child processes. If Apache Duplicate()s the stdin handle and closes the original one (near line 1100 in mpm_winnt.c) like it does for Win95, this fixes mod_perl's problem with stdin. I don't know why this is true.

The next problem was with stdout - but only when running from the command line. stdout is the DOS window when Apache is started at the command line. When running as a service it is a handle to "NUL" created by Apache (since there is no default stdout for a service). I tried creating a similar handle to "NUL" for stdout but this didn't satisfy mod_perl. I am mystified why it didn't, since mod_perl is happy when this is done by the Apache parent process running as a service. I tried a few other things - like setting it to "inheritable", or to "not-inheritable" or even to "not-closeable" - but nothing worked. Finally I tried making the Apache parent process pass its stderr (the error log) to the Apache child process as both stdout and stderr. Surprisingly, mod_perl was happy with this copy of stderr as stdout. I have no idea why this worked when the other (more reasonable) things that I tried to use for stdout didn't work. The Apache child process, and any created processes, should never write to stdout - but if they do, it will now go into the error log.

Alas, while everything works now - it just "happens to work", without a good explanation. If I can learn the reason it all works I'll post the patches and explanation to Apache bug 43329. If I give up - well, I guess I'll just post the patches and hope it helps the Apache/Perl guys figure it out.

If anyone else is inclined to debug mod_perl with Apache 2.2.6, and can shed some light on the odd behavior of stdin/stdout/stderr on Windows - please post your discoveries.

-tom-

[tdonovan]

I finally did figure it out. Here are the details.

mod_perl uses integer file descriptors instead of regular Windows file HANDLEs to refer to stdin and stdout.

Starting with Apache 2.2.6 - Apache closes the stdin HANDLE and replaces it with a HANDLE to "NUL".
This works OK for modules which use HANDLE functions for file access, but it leaves the stdin file descriptor unuseable. This prevents mod_perl from running.

I entered a new Apache bug 43534 for this problem and the FastCGI problem combined.

The previous patch I posted worked because it opened enough HANDLEs so that the original HANDLE number got re-used by Windows. This made the stdin file descriptor valid again, although it pointed to the wrong file. Since mod_perl just saves and restores stdin, it didn't matter that it was the wrong file - as long as the stdin file descriptor was associated with a valid HANDLE.

If you are running Apache 2.2.6 from the Downloads page, there is no need to update. It should run fine on Win2k, WinXP, and Win2k3.


Hopefully this patch or a similar one will make it into Apache 2.2.7, and FastCGI and mod_perl programs will work again on Windows with unaltered builds of Apache.

-tom-