# Getting Help and Further Learning

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The Writing Apache Modules with Perl and C book can be purchased online from O'Reilly and Amazon.com.
Your corrections of the technical and grammatical errors are very welcome. You are encouraged to help me improve this guide. If you have something to contribute please send it directly to me.

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# READ ME FIRST

If, after reading this guide and the other documents listed in this section, you still don't have the answers/information needed, please ask for help on the Apache/mod_perl mailing list. But please, first try to browse the mailing list archive. Most of the time you will find the answer to your questions by searching the archive, since it is very likely that someone else has already encountered the same problem and found a solution for it. If you ignore this advice, you should not be surprised if your question is left unanswered - it bores people to answer the same question more than once. This does not mean that you should avoid asking questions, but you should not abuse the available help and you should RTFM before you call for HELP. (Remember the fable of the shepherd boy and the wolves).

For more information See Get helped with mod_perl.

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# Contacting me

Hi, I wrote this document to help people with mod_perl. It does not mean that if you have any question regarding mod_perl, perl or whatever you think I might know, you should send it directly to me. Please see the Get help with mod_perl section and follow the guidelines described there.

However, you are welcome to submit corrections and suggestions directly to me at stas@stason.org?subject=mod_perl%20guide%20corrections. If you are going to submit heavy corrections of the text (I love those!), please help me by downloading the source pages in POD from http://www.stason.org/guide-snapshots/, directly editing them and sending them to me. I will use Emacs Ediff to perform an easy merge of such changes. Thank you!

PLEASE DO NOT SEND QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO ME, I didn't invite those by writing the guide. They will all be immediately deleted. Please ask questions on the mod_perl list and if we can answer your question, one (or more) of us will answer it on the list. Thank you!

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# Get help with mod_perl

- mod_perl home

  http://perl.apache.org

- News and Resources

  Take23: News and Resources for the mod_perl world http://take23.org

- mod_perl Books

  - 'Apache Modules' Book

    http://www.modperl.com is the home site of The Apache Modules Book, a book about creating Web server modules using the Apache API, written by Lincoln Stein and Doug MacEachern.

    The book should be available from your local bookstore or from your favourite on-line bookseller. O'Reilly lists this book as:

          Writing Apache Modules with Perl and C
          By Lincoln Stein & Doug MacEachern
          1st Edition March 1999
          2nd Edition Feb 2000
          1-56592-567-X, Order Number: 567X
          746 pages, $34.95

  - 'Managing and Programming mod_perl' Book

    http://www.modperlbook.com is the home site of the new mod_perl book, that Eric Cholet and Stas Bekman are co-authoring. We expect the book to be published in 2001.

    Ideas, suggestions and comments are welcome. Please send them to info@modperlbook.com .

  - mod_perl Quick Reference Card

    mod_perl Pocket Reference by Andrew Ford was published by O'Reilly and Associates http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/modperlpr/

    You should probably get also the Apache Pocket Reference by the same author and the same publisher: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/apachepr/

    See also Andrew's collection of reference card for Apache and other programs: http://www.refcards.com.

- mod_perl Guide

  by Stas Bekman at http://perl.apache.org/guide

- mod_perl FAQ

  by Frank Cringle at http://perl.apache.org/faq/ .

- mod_perl performance tuning guide

  by Vivek Khera at http://perl.apache.org/tuning/ .

- mod_perl plugin reference guide

  by Doug MacEachern at http://perl.apache.org/src/mod_perl.html .

- Quick guide for moving from CGI to mod_perl

  at http://perl.apache.org/dist/cgi_to_mod_perl.html .

- mod_perl_traps, common traps and solutions for mod_perl users

  at http://perl.apache.org/dist/mod_perl_traps.html .

- Articles

  - PerlMonth

    http://perlmonth.com

  - ApacheToday

    http://apachetoday.com

  - Basic knowledge about Apache stages and mod_perl handlers article in German

    http://www.heise.de/ix/artikel/2000/01/156/

- mod_perl mailing lists

  - The mod_perl mailing list

    The Apache/Perl mailing list is available for mod_perl users and developers to share ideas, solve problems and discuss things related to mod_perl and the Apache::* modules. To subscribe to this list, send email to modperl-subscribe@apache.org . To unsubscribe send email to modperl-unsubscribe@apache.org .

    To subscribe to the digest list send email to modperl-digest-subscribe@apache.org .

    A searchable mod_perl mailing list archive is available at http://forum.swarthmore.edu/epigone/modperl . Thanks to Ken Williams for this.

    More archives available:

    - http://www.geocrawler.com/lists/3/web/182/0/

    - http://www.mail-archive.com/modperl%40apache.org/

    - http://www.davin.ottawa.on.ca/archive/modperl/

    - http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=apache-modperl

    - http://www.egroups.com/group/modperl/

  - The advocacy mailing list

    The list for mod_perl advocacy issues, discussions about sites, etc.

    Subscribe by sending a mail to advocacy-subscribe@perl.apache.org. Unsubscribe by sending a mail to advocacy-unsubscribe@perl.apache.org. Use advocacy@perl.apache.org to post to the list.

    The archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/advocacy@perl.apache.org/.

  - The modperl-cvs mailing list

    The modperl developers list is the list where you can watch mod_perl getting patched. No real discussions happen on this list, but if you want to know about the latest changes in the mod_perl core before everyone else, this is a list to be on.

    To subscribe to this list, send email to modperl-cvs-subscribe@apache.org . To unsubscribe send email to modperl-cvs-unsubscribe@apache.org . Send email to modperl-cvs@apache.org to post to the list.

    No archives available.

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# Get help with Perl

- The Perl FAQ

  http://www.perl.com/CPAN/doc/FAQs/FAQ/PerlFAQ.html

- The Perl Home Page

  http://www.perl.com/

- The Perl Journal

  http://www.tpj.com/

- Perl Module Mechanics

  http://world.std.com/~swmcd/steven/perl/module_mechanics.html - This page describes the mechanics of creating, compiling, releasing and maintaining Perl modules.

- XS tutorials

  Perl manpages: perlguts, perlxs, and perlxstut manpages.

  Dean Roehrich's XS CookBookA and CookBookB http://search.cpan.org/search?dist=CookBookA http://search.cpan.org/search?dist=CookBookB

  a series of articles at PerlMonth.com by Steven McDougall: http://www.perlmonth.com/columns/modules/modules.html?issue=6 http://www.perlmonth.com/columns/modules/modules.html?issue=7 http://www.perlmonth.com/columns/modules/modules.html?issue=8 http://www.perlmonth.com/columns/modules/modules.html?issue=9 http://www.perlmonth.com/columns/modules/modules.html?issue=10

  Advanced Perl Programming By Sriram Srinivasan. Published by O'Reilly & Associates. ISBN: 1-56592-220-4. Chapters 18-20.

  perl-xs mailing list on perl.org (mail perl-xs-subscribe@perl.org)

  Take a look also at Inline.pm (CPAN) and SWIG (http://www.swig.org/)

- perl5-porters mailing list

  Send an email:

  - to perl5-porters-subscribe@perl.org to subscribe to this list.

  - to perl5-porters-unsubscribe@perl.org to unsubscribe to this list.

  - to perl5-porters-digest-subscribe@perl.org if you prefer a digest version.

  - to perl5-porters-digest-unsubscribe@perl.org to unsubscribe from the digest.

  - to perl5-porters-help@perl.org for more information about the subscription options.

  See also http://tile.net/listserv/perl5portersdigest.html and http://tile.net/lists/perl5porters.html .

  List's archive is available at http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/.

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# Get help with Perl/CGI

- Perl/CGI FAQ

  at http://www.perl.com/CPAN/doc/FAQs/cgi/perl-cgi-faq.html

- Answers to some troublesome Perl and Perl/CGI questions

  http://stason.org/TULARC/webmaster/myfaq.html

- Idiot's Guide to CGI programming

  http://www.perl.com/CPAN/doc/FAQs/cgi/idiots-guide.html

- WWW Security FAQ

  http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/www-security-faq.html

- CGI/Perl Taint Mode FAQ

  http://www.gunther.web66.com/FAQS/taintmode.html (by Gunther Birznieks)

- cgi-list mailing list

  Send email to majordomo@jann.com with body:

        subscribe cgi-list

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# Get help with Apache

- Apache Project's Home

  http://www.apache.org

- Apache Quick Reference Card

  http://www.refcards.com (other reference cards are also available from this link)

- The Apache FAQ

  http://www.apache.org/docs/misc/FAQ.html

- Apache Server Documentation

  http://www.apache.org/docs/

- Apache Handlers

  http://www.apache.org/docs/handler.html

- mod_rewrite Guide

  http://www.engelschall.com/pw/apache/rewriteguide/

- articles

  Security and Apache: An Essential Primer http://linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/print/1527/

  Using Apache with Suexec on Linux http://linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/print/1445/

  Installing and Securing the Apache Webserver with SSL http://www.securityfocus.com/focus/sun/articles/apache-inst.html?&_ref=1653102939

- mod_throttle_access

  mod_throttle_access is available at http://www.fremen.org/apache/

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# Get help with DBI and SQL

- Introduction to Structured Query Language: http://w3.one.net/~jhoffman/sqltut.htm

- SQL for Web Nerds by Philip Greenspun http://www.arsdigita.com/books/sql/

- Jeffrey Baker's DBI Examples and Performance Tuning

  http://www.saturn5.com/~jwb/dbi-examples.html (by Jeffrey William Baker).

- DBI Homepage

  http://www.symbolstone.org/technology/perl/DBI/

- DBI mailing list information

  http://www.fugue.com/dbi/

- DBI mailing list archives

  http://outside.organic.com/mail-archives/dbi-users/ http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/dbi/

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# Get help with Squid - Internet Object Cache

- Home page - http://squid.nlanr.net/

- FAQ - http://squid.nlanr.net/Squid/FAQ/FAQ.html

- Users Guide - http://squid.nlanr.net/Squid/Users-Guide/

- Mailing lists - http://squid.nlanr.net/Squid/mailing-lists.html

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# Get help with CVS -- Concurrent Version Control

- mod_perl repository specific doc: mod_perl_cvs.pod, located in the root of the mod_perl source distribution and online at http://perl.apache.org/mod_perl_cvs.html

- Open Source Development with CVS http://cvsbook.red-bean.com/

- Online Documents http://www.sourcegear.com/CVS/Docs/online

- CVS Quick Reference http://www.sourcegear.com/CVS/Docs/ref

- CVS Books http://www.sourcegear.com/CVS/Docs/books

- User-Written FAQ http://www.sourcegear.com/CVS/Docs/docfaq

- Introduction to CVS http://www.sourcegear.com/CVS/Docs/blandy

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# Get help with Performance and Scalability

- Techniques and Technologies for Scaling Internet Services mailing list.

  The list's address: scalable@arctic.org. Subscribe by sending a message to scalable-subscribe@arctic.org. Archive: http://archive.develooper.com/scalable@arctic.org/

- Solaris 2.x - Tuning Your TCP/IP Stack and More http://www.rvs.uni-hannover.de/people/voeckler/tune/EN/tune.html

  This page talks about TCP/IP stack and various tricks of tuning your system to get the most out of it as a web server. While the information is for Solaris 2.x OS, most of it will be relevant of other Unix flavors. At the end an extensive list of related literature is presented.

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# Get help with Unix OS flavors -- Unix OS related resources

- Memory system management and arhitecture:

  The Solaris memory system, sizing, tools and architecture: http://www.sun.com/solutions/third-party/global/SAS/pdf/vmsizing.pdf

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Your corrections of the technical and grammatical errors are very welcome. You are encouraged to help me improve this guide. If you have something to contribute please send it directly to me.
The Writing Apache Modules with Perl and C book can be purchased online from O'Reilly and Amazon.com.

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Written by Stas Bekman. Last Modified at 03/20/2001 |  | Use of the Camel for Perl is a trademark of O'Reilly & Associates, and is used by permission.