[rt-users] SUEXEC wrapper

[Bryan Derman]

Actually, I'm running apache 1.3.27 (and it didn't do this prior to
updating a mess o' perl modules via CPAN).

There are actually many Google-hits on the phrase "<VirtualHost> requires
SUEXEC wrapper" but they all seem to be 2+ years old and are associated
with situations where apache won't start.  In my case, the startup log
was:

[Thu Jun 12 03:33:55 2003] [notice] caught SIGTERM, shutting down
Warning: User directive in <VirtualHost> requires SUEXEC wrapper.
Warning: Group directive in <VirtualHost> requires SUEXEC wrapper.
[Thu Jun 12 03:34:16 2003] [notice] Apache/1.3.27 (Darwin) mod_perl/1.27
configured -- resuming normal operations
[Thu Jun 12 03:34:16 2003] [notice] Accept mutex: flock (Default: flock)

... and things seem to be working just fine.

I had apache config'd for User www and Group www in both the general and
RT's virtual host areas.  Just for kicks, I commented out the two
directives in RT's virtual host area and now it starts without the
warning and RT still seems to work just fine.  My understanding is that,
with or without the duplicate User/Group directives in the virtual host
area(s), the config is functionally equivalent ... so again, this doesn't
make sense (to me, at least).

My guess is that, due to the change in perl modules, the mod_perl stuff
is giving me a warning that set-uid/gid operation will be required.  I
also assume that this is currently installed on my system and that's why
it's working.  The perlsec man page says "... Perl can emulate the setuid
and setgid mechanism when it notices the otherwise useless setuid/gid
bits on Perl scripts.	 It does this via a special executable called
suidperl that is automatically invoked for you if it's needed."  I assume
that's what's working, here.

QUESTION: does anyone know how to determine whether perl is setup for
set-uid/gid operation on Mac OS X 10.2.6?  I did install perl 5.8.0 and
build apache/mod_perl and ..., but I didn't have to explicitly deal with
this issue and don't see how to determine what the kernel is allowing
perl to do w.r.t. setuid/gid.

At any rate, unless someone raises a red flag and/or RT stops working,
I'll assume I don't need to worry about this (any more).

Comments?

______________________________________________________________________
Previous message on 2003-06-12 at 3:19 PM +0200
**********************************************************************
>* bderm at derman.com (Bryan Derman) [Thu 12 Jun 2003, 13:00 CEST]:
>> I recently updated various perl components via CPAN.  Upon restarting
>> apache, I received the following message (repeated twice):
>>
>> Warning: User directive in <VirtualHost> requires SUEXEC wrapper.
>>
>> However, everything appears to still be working.
>>
>> What is the significance of this warning?
>>
>> Where does it come from?
>>
>> What does this imply (on Mac OS X)?
>
>It means you're running Apache 2 and are expecting Apache 1 config
>semantics.  See the special note at
><http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/mod/mpm_common.html#user> and
><http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/mod/mod_suexec.html#suexecusergroup>
>for how to get 1.x-like behaviour with 2.0.
>
>
>	-- Niels.