Fwd: Re: [rt-users] Has anyone figured out how to install Apache::Test?

[Richard Gration]

Sorry, managed to reply to the OP instead of the list.

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On Thursday 04 December 2003 04:30, Don Brett wrote:
> I'm running into the same problem others have.  All Apache tests fail
> while installing
> Apache::Request, complaining about Apache::Test, which refuses to
> install.  Any suggestions?  Thanks,
> Don

I also had the same issues when installing Apache::Test. I eventually found
out that the problem is permissions.

Usually, perl mods have to be installed as root. My .cpan directory is in
root's home directory. People familiar with apache might already have sniffed
the problem from this. Apache runs as a particular user, usually httpd,
sometimes apache (thanks RedHat). This user needs read access to any
directory it serves content from. Permissions on root's home directory (like
all other home directories) are usually 700. The test suite for Apache::Test
fires up a test httpd on some port, and then tries to request a page from it.
But this page is somewhere in the .cpan directory, which is very often in a
directory which the httpd user does not have read access to. So the response
code is 5xx (Forbidden or Access Denied, can't remember), which the test
suite interprets as a failure to install the module or run the httpd server,
therefore it bombs out. This is why a force install usually doesn't cause any
problems, because most often the install goes OK, it's just the test that
fails.

Various solutions present themselves:

1. Put .cpan in a world readable directory, maybe /tmp
2. "chmod 755 /root" before installation and "chmod 700 /root" afterwards (or
wherever your .cpan is)
3. Cross your fingers and force the install

HTH
Rich

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