10.2.4. Modules and Apache HTTP Server 2.0

In Apache HTTP Server 2.0, the module system has been changed to allow modules to be chained together or combined in new and interesting ways. Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts, for example, can generate server-parsed HTML documents which can then be processed by mod_include. This opens up a tremendous number of possibilities with regards to how modules can be combined to achieve a specific goal.

The way this works is that each request is served by exactly one handler module followed by zero or more filter modules.

Under Apache HTTP Server 1.3, for example, a Perl script would be handled in its entirety by the Perl module (mod_perl). Under Apache HTTP Server 2.0, the request is initially handled by the core module — which serves static files — and is then filtered by mod_perl.

Exactly how to use this, and all other new features of Apache HTTP Server 2.0, is beyond the scope of this document; however, the change has ramifications if the PATH_INFO directive is used for a document which is handled by a module that is now implemented as a filter, as each contains trailing path information after the true file name. The core module, which initially handles the request, does not by default understand PATH_INFO and returns 404 Not Found errors for requests that contain such information. As an alternative, use the AcceptPathInfo directive to coerce the core module into accepting requests with PATH_INFO.

The following is an example of this directive:

AcceptPathInfo on

For more on this topic, refer to the following documentation on the Apache Software Foundation's website:

<VirtualHost vhost.example.com:80>
    User someone
    Group somegroup
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost vhost.example.com:80>
    SuexecUserGroup someone somegroup
</VirtualHost>