How to configure Apache to run Python on Windows August 13, 2010

These are the configuration steps for setting up and running a pyhton script on Apache in Windows environment

1. Install Apache from – http://www.apache.org/.
   Plz see my blog entry
   How to set up Apache on Windows

1. Install Python from http://www.python.org/download/. (windows installer)

1. Go to httpd.conf directory.  On my system it is under – C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf

1. Under httpd.conf , uncomment the following  line-

   <br />AddHandler cgi-script .cgi<br />

   This allows us to map cgi file extensions to handlers

2. Now we have to set permissions of the root directory, or the directory which will contain the python files. In my case the root folder is C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\htdocs. I will keep my python files there.
   Modify the directive in httpd.conf to look like this-

   <br />&lt;Directory "C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/htdocs"&gt;<br />Options ExecCGI<br /> Order allow,deny<br />Allow from all<br />SetHandler cgi-script<br />&lt;Directory&gt;<br />

   Two important lines which will help rendering python scripts on Apache are -
   - Options ExecCGI
   - SetHandler cgi-script

3. You have to restart the Apache server for changes to take effect
4. Now we will create the python file. Open a notepad and type the following

   <br />#!c:\Python27\python.exe<br />print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n"<br />print 'Hello, world!\n'<br />

   - The first line points to the location of the python files. In my case it is
   c:\Python27\python.exe.
   This is a comment and preceded by a ‘#’
   For python 2.7, the comment is – #!c:\Python27\python.exe,
   For python 2.6, the comment is – #!c:\Python26\python.exe
   - The second line describes the content type – ‘text/html’
   - The third line prints out the sentence ‘Hello World’

5. Save this file as ‘test.py’ under document root. (C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\htdocs in my case)

1. Type the following url in your browser-
   http://localhost/test.py

1. If everything goes fine – you will see ‘Hello World’ on the screen.

TROUBLESHOOTING

Where to see causes for errors

The errors are logged here – C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\logs\error.log. This is the best place to start debugging.
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I want to place my python files inside a subdirectory under root directory

Say your root directory is ‘htdocs’. You create a directory named ‘sub’ under it. Save the ‘test.py’ file under ‘sub’.
Now type the following url in browser – http://localhost/sub/test.py. You will see ‘Hello, World’
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I get this error message on the browser -

Forbidden,
You don’t have permission to access /test.py on this server.

First check if you have Options ExecCGI set for htdocs

<Directory "C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/htdocs">
   Options ExecCGI
 Order allow,deny
 Allow from all
 SetHandler cgi-script
</Directory>

If that is present, and you still have error -

Check if there is some other Option that is overriding Options ExecCGI, eg. Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
If there are 2 Options directives, Apache overrides the first one, and only implements the second. If there are 2 directives one below the other eg.

Options ExecCGI
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks

Here Options Indexes FollowSymLinks would override Options ExecCGI. To fix this add a plus sign in front of Options ExecCGI

    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
    Options +ExecCGI
    

This way both the options will be in effect.
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The page looks like this -

<br />#!C:\Python27\python.exe<br />print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n"<br />print 'Hello, world!\n'<br />

Make sure that ‘SetHandler cgi-script’ is set in httpd.conf for the parent directory.

<Directory "C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/htdocs>
   Options ExecCGI
 Order allow,deny
 Allow from all
SetHandler cgi-script
</Directory>

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I see the following message in ‘error.log’ -
Bad file descriptor: don’t know how to spawn child process: C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/htdocs/test.py

Make sure that this line
#!C:\Python27\python.exe – is the first line in test.py, and there are no empty lines above.

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I see this error message in the error log

Options ExecCGI is off in this directory: C:/Program Files /Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/htdocs/test.py

First check if you have Options ExecCGI set for htdocs

<Directory "C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/htdocs">  
 Options ExecCGI
   Order allow,deny
 Allow from all 
SetHandler cgi-script
<Directory>

Then check if there is some other Option that is overriding Options ExecCGI, eg. Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
If there are 2 Options directives, Apache overrides the first one, and only implements the second. If there are 2 directives one below the other eg.

Options ExecCGI
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks

then Options Indexes FollowSymLinks would override Options ExecCGI. To fix this add a plus sign in front of Options ExecCGI

Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
Options +ExecCGI

This way both the options will  be in effect.

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Good Resource for Apache

Apache Server Frequently Asked Questions

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