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information very soon.  On my machine the two important paths are:

  /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl
  /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf

Now the build and installation processes are complete.

=head2 Configuration

First, a simple configuration.  Configure Apache as you usually would
(set C<Port>, C<User>, C<Group>, C<ErrorLog>, other file paths etc).

Start the server and make sure it works, then shut it down.  The
C<apachectl> utility can be used to start and stop the server:

  % /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl start
  % /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl stop

Now we will configure Apache to run perl CGI scripts under the
C<Apache::Registry> handler.

You can put configuration directives in a separate file and tell
I<httpd.conf> to include it, but for now we will simply add them to
the main configuration file.  We will add the mod_perl configuration
directives to the end of I<httpd.conf>.  In fact you can place them
anywhere in the file, but they are easier to find at the end.

For the moment we will assume that you will put all the scripts which
you want to be executed by the mod_perl enabled server under the
directory I</home/httpd/perl>.  We will alias this directory to the
URI I</perl>

Add the following configuration directives to I<httpd.conf>:

  Alias /perl/ /home/httpd/perl/
  
  PerlModule Apache::Registry
  <Location /perl>
    SetHandler perl-script
    PerlHandler Apache::Registry
    Options ExecCGI
    PerlSendHeader On
    allow from all
  </Location>

Now create a four-line test script in I</home/httpd/perl/>:

  test.pl
  -------
  #!/usr/bin/perl -w
  use strict;
  print "Content-type: text/html\r\n\r\n";
  print "It worked!!!\n";

Note that the server is probably running as a user with a restricted
set of privileges, perhaps as user C<nobody> or C<www>.  Look for the
C<User> directive in I<httpd.conf> to find the userid of the server.

Make sure that you have read and execute permissions for I<test.pl>.

  % chmod u+rx /home/httpd/perl/test.pl

Test that the script works from the command line, by executing it:

  % /home/httpd/perl/test.pl

You should see:

  Content-type: text/html
  
  It worked!!!

Assuming that the server's userid is C<nobody>, make the script owned
by this user. We already made it executable and readable by user.

  % chown nobody /home/httpd/perl/test.pl

Now it is time to test that mod_perl enabled Apache can execute the
script.

Start the server ('C<apachectl start>').  Check in I<logs/error_log>
to see that the server has indeed started--verify the correct date and
time of the log entry.

To get Apache to execute the script we simply fetch its URI.  Assuming
that your I<httpd.conf> has been configured with the directive C<Port
80>, start your favorite browser and fetch the following URI:

  http://www.example.com/perl/test.pl

If you have the loop-back device (127.0.0.1) configured, you can use
the URI:

  http://localhost/perl/test.pl

In either case, you should see:

  It worked!!!

If your server is listening on a port other than 80, for example 8000,
then fetch the URI:

  http://www.example.com:8000/perl/test.pl

or whatever is appropriate.

If something went wrong, go through the installation process again,
and make sure you didn't make a mistake.  If that doesn't help, read
the C<INSTALL> pod document (C<perlpod INSTALL>) in the mod_perl
distribution directory.

Now that your mod_perl server is working, copy some of your Perl CGI
scripts into the directory I</home/httpd/perl/> or below it.

If your programming techniques are good, chances are that your scripts
will work with no modifications at all.  With the mod_perl enabled
server you will see them working very much faster.

If your programming techniques are sloppy, some of your scripts will
not work and they may exhibit strange behaviour.  Depending on the
degree of sloppiness they may need anything from minor tweaking to a