Writing Apache Modules with Perl and C

1.3. The Apache C and Perl APIs

The Apache module API gives you access to nearly all of the server's internal processing. You can inspect what it's doing at each step of the HTTP transaction cycle and intervene at any of the steps to customize the server's behavior. You can arrange for the server to take custom actions at startup and exit time, add your own directives to its configuration files, customize the process of translating URLs into file names, create custom authentication and authorization systems, and even tap into the server's logging system. This is all done via modules—self-contained pieces of code that can either be linked directly into the server executable, or loaded on demand as a dynamic shared object (DSO).

The Apache module API was intended for C programmers. To write a traditional compiled module, you prepare one or more C source files with a text editor, compile them into object files, and either link them into the server binary or move them into a special directory for DSOs. If the module is implemented as a DSO, you'll also need to edit the server configuration file so that the module gets loaded at the appropriate time. You'll then launch the server and begin the testing and debugging process.

This sounds like a drag, and it is. It's even more of a drag because you have to worry about details of memory management and configuration file processing that are tangential to the task at hand. A mistake in any one of these areas can crash the server.

For ...