How do you set up Python scripts to work in Apache 2.0?

There are two main ways of running Python on Apache. The simplest would be to use CGI and write normal Python scripts while the second is using a web framework like Django or Pylons.

Using CGI is straightforward. Make sure your Apache config file has a cgi-bin set up. If not, follow their documentation (http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/howto/cgi.html). At that point all you need to do is place your Python scripts in the cgi-bin directory and the standard output will become the HTTP response. Refer to Python's documentation for further info (https://docs.python.org/library/cgi.html).

If you want to use a web framework you'll need to setup mod_python or FastCGI. These steps are dependent on which framework you want to use. Django provides clear instructions on how to setup mod_python and Django with Apache (http://www.djangoproject.com/documentation/modpython/)

Yes, mod_python is pretty confusing to set up. Here's how I did it.

In httpd.conf:

LoadModule python_module modules/mod_python.so

<Directory "/serverbase/htdocs/myapp">
  AddHandler mod_python .py
  PythonHandler myapp
  PythonDebug On

and in your application directory:

$ /serverbase/htdocs/myapp$ ls -l
total 16
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root sys        6484 May 21 15:54 myapp.py

Repeat the configuration for each python program you wish to have running under mod_python.

Are you running Python on UNIX or Windows?

An alternative to mod_python and FastCGI is mod_wsgi. You can find out more at modwsgi

I have built and installed this on Solaris without problems. I had previously tried mod_python but ran into problems with shared libraries as part of the build. There are good install docs available.

The problem for me wasn't in Apache set up, but in understanding how mod_apache actually uses the .py files. Module-level statements (including those in a if __name__=='__main__' section) are not executed--I assumed that the stdout from running the script at the commandline would be what the server would output, but that's not how it works.

Instead, I wrote a module-level function called index(), and had it return as a string the HTML of the page. It's also possible to have other module-level functions (e.g., otherFunction()) that can be accessed as further segments in the URI (e.g., testScript/otherFunction for the file testScript.py.)

Obviously, this makes more sense than my original stdout conception. Better capability of actually using Python as a scripting language and not a humongous markup language.