6.1. So, What Is This mod_perl Thing, Anyhow?

Most people are familiar with CGI scripts written in Perl that add dynamic content generation to a web server. In addition to CGI, most web servers provide some sort of interface that allows code to be run inside the server, such as Microsoft’s ISAPI.

Apache lets you create a chunk of code, called a handler, that is invoked when the server fulfills a browser’s request. That might happen when a URL is translated into a local pathname, or when a child process terminates. mod_perl embeds a Perl interpreter within each Apache httpd process, giving you the ability to write handlers in Perl instead of C.