Setting up Ruby CGI in Apache

Question

I want to use Ruby in Apache through CGI. I have the following in my configuration file:

DocumentRoot /home/ceriak/ruby

<Directory /home/ceriak/ruby>
    Options +ExecCGI
    AddHandler cgi-script .rb
</Directory>

test.rb is a testfile placed under /home/ceriak/ruby/, #!/usr/bin/ruby included on the first line and given executable permissions. Still, when I visit localhost/test.rb I get a download window and can obtain the source code.

Interestingly, when I place the same script under /usr/lib/cgi-bin/ and call localhost/cgi-bin/test.rb it works as supposed.

(Apache2 on Ubuntu 9.10.)

Any idea?

robbrit · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-05 13:46:36Z

7

Few things to check:

is your file executable? You can make it executable by going chmod +x /path/to/file
did you output the correct Content-type?
is there a blank newline between your headers and your output?
did you restart Apache after setting the configuration?

If you did all that, it should work fine. I have this as my test.rb file:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

puts <<EOS
Content-type: text/html

<html><body>hi</body></html>
EOS

edited Jun 5, 2012 at 13:46

answered May 2, 2011 at 22:50

robbrit

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jayant · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-16 11:12:59Z

1

I ran in to the same situation and was able to fix it by adding the following line after AddHandler:

Require all granted

answered Oct 16, 2014 at 11:12

jayant

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Matt · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-16 20:29:51Z

1

Double check that mod_cgi is enabled; the default Yosemite http.conf has it disabled.

answered Dec 16, 2014 at 20:29

Matt

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openai_sucks · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-04 03:46:13Z

To sum up all of the fine advice in these answers and your question itself (I had to do every single one of these things since I was starting from a blank slate):

httpd.conf

Set up the CGI directory with:

The +ExecCGI option
Access control that allows the visitors you want (Require all granted, for example)
Set a handler for CGI scripts with AddHandler or SetHandler (see note below)

Example:

<Directory /home/ceriak/ruby>
    Options +ExecCGI
    AddHandler cgi-script .rb
    Require all granted
</Directory>

Note: to use CGI without having to use a specific file extension like .rb, you can use SetHandler instead:

SetHandler cgi-script

Now everything in the directory will be treated as a CGI script, which is likely what you want anyway and you can leave the extensions off, which may look nicer and/or not inform visitors of the underlying technology: http://example.com/test

Finally, check that mod_cgi is enabled (where ${modpath} is correct for your system):

LoadModule cgi_module ${modpath}/mod_cgi.so

Don't forget to restart Apache after making your changes. On Slackware, for example, we do this:

$ sudo /etc/rc.d/rc.httpd restart

The script

Don't forget the she-bang (#!) to run the script with the Ruby interpreter.

Output a Content-type, a newline, and then the body of your response:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

puts "Content-type: text/html"
puts
puts "<html><body>Hello World!</body></html>"

Make sure the file is executable (by Apache!):

$ chmod +x /home/ceriak/ruby/test.rb

These two Apache documents are very helpful:

https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/howto/cgi.html

https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/mod_cgi.html

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