Is there any way to get Apache to run a command/program every time a web page is requested? I know I could scan the logs for new entries every minute or so, but can I get Apache to directly call the command? There might be an option like this in one of the configuration files, but if there is I don't know what it is. My server is running Ubuntu 9.04.
You can use the CustomLog directive to pipe the access log to a script or program, which could be useful in your situation. All you would have to do is set up a while loop (or similar structure) on STDIN in the language of your choice and then execute your command from there.
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/logs.html#piped
Related
I am still an Apache noob, and I am trying to set an environment variable that will be used by my Rails application.
I've read https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_env.html#setenv and done some google and SO searches. I have at least determined that the value to be assigned must be in quotes. However, when I run sudo service apache2 restart, the value of SECRET_KEY_BASE is still not correct (viewed via printenv). I don't know what I don't know. Is there some step i'm missing?
In my apache configuration I have:
SetEnv SECRET_KEY_BASE "e10e721..."
# Tell Apache and Passenger where your app's 'public' directory is
DocumentRoot /var/www/some_path
Please let me know what other information I might need to share. Thanks for looking.
There are a few subtle pitfalls here.
First: You can't check it in the terminal you ran that command from. "SetEnv" sets a per-request internal variable that will be copied to CGI-like processes that the server subsequently executes.
Secondly, even if you set a real native environment variable (in e.g. /etc/apache2/envvars) you should not do a restart operation since that will not necessarily reload that particular file. You should do a stop and a start. You still won't see the variable in the command you start the server from, since it was only in the webserver process.
If you want to see the environment of a running process, you can write a basic CGI to dump the environment that was passed down to the CGI script. If you're a PHP user, a basic script with phpinfo() will dump it.
Or, you can determine Apache's process ID with ps and then check /proc/$thepid/env (on Linux).
Problem
I have an Apache server, and I'm trying to add my own custom analytics to it. What I want is to have the server call a script whenever a page is requested, and for that script to record the requested URL.
If it's not possible to run an external command, I'd want Apache to POST to a URL to record the page visit.
Research
I've tried searching for a way to run an external command from Apache, but everything I've seen is a CGI script. I don't want to change how Apache handles the URL, I just want a way to give it to a script to record it.
Question
Is there a way I can have Apache run an external command or POST to a URL whenever a page is requested?
Apache already records the URL for every request - in the access log. Further, its trivial to drop in a filter script between Apache and the file if you want to trigger more complex and specific side effects.
I don't want to change how Apache handles the URL
Why do you believe using a script handler (no sane person uses CGI nowadays) will change the way the request is handled?
Perhaps if you explained why you want to record the URL you might get more appropriate answers.
I have some CGI scripts which are used internal to the organization. Due to some standard changes, the server/system team has commented the below line from httpd.conf (apache config file) that support the CGI scripts. Because of this change, the existing CGI scripts are affected and unable to execute them on browser.
### LoadModule cgid_module modules/mod_cgid.so
Is there a way to overcome this situation and make the scripts work as is.
NOTE : The above commented line cannot be uncommented/enabled.
Ways of circumventing your company's policy, from best to worse:
Load mod_cgi anyway.
Load mod_fcgi, and convert your CGI script into a Fast CGI daemon. It's a lot of work, but you'll can get faster code out of it!
Load your own module that does exactly the same thing as mod_cgi. mod_cgi is open source, so it should be easy to just rename it.
Load mod_fcgi, and write a Fast CGI daemon that executes your script.
Install a second apache web server with mod_cgi enabled. Link to it directly or use mod_proxy on the original server.
Write your own web server. Link to it directly or use mod_proxy on the original server.
Last time you asked this question, you talked about using mod_perl instead. The standard way to run CGI program unchanged (for some value of "unchanged") under mod_perl is by using ModPerl::Registry. Did you try that? How did it go?
Another alternative would be to convert your programs to use PSGI. You could try using Plack::App::Wrap::CGI or CGI::Emulate::PSGI. Using Plack would free you from any deployment restrictions. You could run the code under mod-perl or even as a separate service behind a proxy server.
But I can't help marvelling at how ridiculous this whole situation is. Your company has CGI programs that it (presumably) relies on to run part of its business. And they've just decided to turn off support for them. You need to find out why this decision has been made and try to buy some time in order to convert to an alternative technology.
I have a php script which runs as the Apache daemon user, to first remove any existing crontabs that might be already installed by the daemon user, then adding the new crontab.
I wish to evoke this only once when my PHP Slim web application loads for the first time, ideally as part of the Apache startup.
It seems that putting it anywhere in the index.php file (either directly or via a require file) doesn't prevent the crontab script from being constantly reloaded. I've tried using $GLOBAL with an if statement, which unfortunately I haven't been able to formulate a working solution, however there must be something more rudimentary which allows me to invoke a php script just once after Apache has been restarted?
Ideally I'd rather not modify the Apache startup script since I wish to keep everything within the slim web application itself (for source control purposes).
I am doing some reverse engineering on a website.
We are using LAMP stack under CENTOS 5, without any commercial/open source framework (symfony, laravel, etc). Just plain PHP with an in-house framework.
I wonder if there is any way to know which files in the server have been used to produce a request.
For example, let's say I am requesting http://myserver.com/index.php.
Let's assume that 'index.php' calls other PHP scripts (e.g. to connect to the database and retrieve some info), it also includes a couple of other html files, etc
How can I get the list of those accessed files?
I already tried to enable the server-status directive in apache, and although it is working I can't get what I want (I also passed the 'refresh' parameter)
I also used lsof -c httpd, as suggested in other forums, but it is producing a very big output and I can't find what I'm looking for.
I also read the apache logs, but I am only getting the requests that the server handled.
Some other users suggested to add the PHP directives like 'self', but that means I need to know which files I need to modify to include that directive beforehand (which I don't) and which is precisely what I am trying to find out.
Is that actually possible to trace the internal activity of the server and get those file names and locations?
Regards.
Not that I tried this, but it looks like mod_log_config is the answer to my own question