How to install and configure mod_python in apache 2 server

~ bhou

Recently I got a new server and need to host a service on it. I found that there are tons of versions for the installation and configuration of mod_python in apache 2 server, which made me confused. Here I try to make this process more clearly.

My server installed  ubuntu server 10.10, but i think it works for the other debian distribution.

Installation

First install apache 2, type the following command in terminal:

apt-get install apache2

Then install mod_python with the following command:

apt-get install libapache2-mod-python

Configuration

1. Disable default virtual host

I prefer host my sites in different virtual hosts, which is a feature of apache server 2. It help you host multiple sites within one server. So the first thing I did is to disable the default Apache virtual host:

a2dissite default

If you want to use the default virtual host just ignore this step above.

2. build your virtual host

All the virtual host is configured in the directory /etc/apache2/sites-available/. You can see the default file for the default virtual host. To built your own virtual host create one file under this directory, for example, named testSite.com, and write the following words into the file:

<VirtualHost [your server ip]:80>
     ServerAdmin [your admin mail address]
     ServerName testSite.com
     ServerAlias www.testSite.com
     DocumentRoot /srv/www/testSite.com/web/
     ErrorLog /srv/www/testSite.com/logs/error.log
     CustomLog /srv/www/testSite.com/logs/access.log combined

     <Directory /srv/www/testSite.com/web/>
          Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
          AllowOverride None
          Order allow,deny
          allow from all
          AddHandler mod_python .py
          PythonHandler mod_python.publisher
          PythonDebug On
     </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

You need to change the ServerName and ServerAlias to your domain name. The path for the DocumentRoot can be chosen as you like. Next, create the corresponding directory like this:
mkdir -p /srv/www/testSite.com/web/
mkdir /srv/www/testSite.com/logs

You need to enable the virtual host

a2ensite testSite.com

The last step is to restart the server

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

3. test the static page

create a file named index.html under the directory  /srv/www/testSite.com/web/

and write Hello World! This is a static page. into this file.

Use your browser, go to the url http://testSite.com/index.html you will see the sentence in the browser.

4. test the python cgi function

create a file named testPython.py under the directory /srv/www/testSite.com/web/

write following code in this file:

def index(req):
    return "Hello World! This is a python script!";

Use your browser, go to the url http://testSite.com/testPython.py or  http://testSite.com/testPython you will see the sentence “Hello World! This is a python script!” in the browser.

Acutally, you can put the script into any sub-directory.  For example, put the file into the sub-directory /srv/www/testSite.com/web/script/ , you need to visit it from the url  http://testSite.com/script/testPython

Here are two useful sites might give you more informaiton:

http://library.linode.com/web-servers/apache/installation/ubuntu-10.10-maverick

http://www.howtoforge.com/embedding-python-in-apache2-with-mod_python-debian-etch

7 thoughts on “How to install and configure mod_python in apache 2 server”

  1. Thanks so much for this post! Had a really tough time getting apache2 to interpret the python because all the online tutorials say to put the contents into default, instead of into their respective virtual host files for each domain.

    Reply

  3. This post is very good and thank you so much for it. Apache configuration is complex and full of riddles for a noob. Your article has taken out the complexity from it. I wish you could add a section on too, to kind of complete the configuration.

    Reply

  4. This post is very good and thank you so much for it. Apache configuration is complex and full of riddles for a noob. Your article has taken out the complexity from it. I wish you could add a section on “Location” too, to kind of complete the configuration.

    Reply

  6. I’ve need to import mod_python in the file itself to being able to server. Added “from mod_python import apache” on the py file.

    #!/usr/bin/env python
    #! -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

    from mod_python import apache

    def index(req):
    return “Hello World! This is a python script!”;

    Reply

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