Apache Cookbook, 2nd Edition

8.4. Using Windows File Extensions to Launch CGI Programs

Problem

You want to have CGI programs on Windows executed by the program associated with the file extension. For example, you want .pl scripts to be executed by perl.exe without having to change the scripts’ #! line to point at the right location of perl.exe.

Solution

Add the following line to your httpd.conf file:

ScriptInterpreterSource registry

Discussion

Because Apache has its roots in the Unixish world, there are a number of things that are done the Unixish way, even on Microsoft Windows. CGI execution is one of these things, but the ScriptInterpreterSource directive allows you to have Apache behave more in the way to which Windows users are accustomed.

Usually, on Windows, a file type is indicated by the file extension. For example, a file named example.pl is associated with the Perl executable; when a user clicks on this file in the file explorer, Perl is invoked to execute this script. This association is created when you install a particular program, such as Perl or MS Word, and the association is stored in the Windows registry.

On Unixish systems, by contrast, most scripts contain the location of their interpreter in the first line of the file, which starts with the characters #!. This line is often called the shebang line (short for sharp bang, which are the shorthand names for the two characters).

For example, a Perl program might start with the line:

#!/usr/bin/perl

The shell running the script looks in this first line ...