• CGI deployment on Apache

    CGI deployment on Apache

    Here are the simple steps needed to create and run an web.py application.

    • Install web.py and flups

    • Create the application as documented

    1.   if __name__ == "__main__":
    2.       web.run(urls, globals())

    For our example, let it be named app.py, located in /www/app and we need it accessible as http://server/app/app.py.

    • Configure Apache (version 2.2 in this example)
    1.   ScriptAlias /app "/www/app/"
    2.   <Directory "/www/app/">
    3.           Options +ExecCGI +FollowSymLinks
    4.           Order allow,deny
    5.           Allow from all
    6.   </Directory>

    That’s it. Your application is accessible via http://server/app/app.py/. Additional URLs handled by the application are added to the end of the URL, for examples http://server/app/app.py/myurl.

    • .htaccess configuration
    1.         Options +ExecCGI
    2.         AddHandler cgi-script .py
    3.         DirectoryIndex index.py
    4.         <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    5.             RewriteEngine on
    6.             RewriteBase /
    7.             RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    8.             RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    9.             RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/favicon.ico$
    10.             RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^(/.*)+index.py/
    11.             RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.py/$1 [PT]
    12.         </IfModule>

    Here it is assumed that your application is called index.py. The above htaccess checks if some static file/directory exists failing which it routes the data to your index.py. Change the Rewrite Base to a sub-directory if needed.