DirectoryIndex and the "perl-script" handler
Wouter Verhelst blogs about combining ScriptAlias (or a way to run CGIs) and DirectoryIndex in Apache.
Recently, developing a TinyURL clone I had a similar (not identical, though) issue.
Basically, I set SetHandler to perl-script on the "/" location, which basically means, everything accessed on a given virtual host, is affected. Because you are changing the handler for the entire location, DirectoryIndex will have no effect on it because mod_dir is the one dealing with the DirectoryIndex function, that is, using the DIR_MAGIC_TYPE handler.
To fix this you can use a mod_perl (2, I never really used 1) Fixup phase handler:
<VirtualHost *:80>
...
# some stuff
...
# PerlSections rule.
<Perl>
$Location{"/"} = {
SetHandler => 'perl-script',
# some stuff
PerlFixupHandler => 'Axiombox::Awbox::Fixup',
# some other stuff
DirectoryIndex => 'whatever.html',
};
</Perl>
</VirtualHost>
If it looks incomplete is because some other information, out of the scope of this sample, like DocumentRoot or other mod_perl directives, are hidden as the "other stuff". My Fixup.pm handler looks like this:
package Axiombox::Awbox::Fixup;
use strict;
use warnings FATAL => qw(all);
use Apache2::Const -compile => qw(DIR_MAGIC_TYPE OK DECLINED);
use Apache2::RequestRec;
sub handler {
my $r = shift;
if ($r->handler eq 'perl-script' &&
-d $r->filename &&
$r->is_initial_req)
{
$r->handler(Apache2::Const::DIR_MAGIC_TYPE);
return Apache2::Const::OK;
}
return Apache2::Const::DECLINED;
}
1;
Which is very straight-forward: If the request is set to perl-script, the requested file is a directory and if the current request is the main one, then change the handler and return to the normal flow of phases. Otherwise, decline the Fixup phase handler.
