mapscript, php, fedora core 4 problem

[Gavin Simpson]

On Wed, 2005-08-31 at 15:31 +0100, Gavin Simpson wrote:
> Hi,

Dear list,

For the archives, I'll answer this one myself.

Recall that I was trying to use php both as an apache module and as a
cgi, with php_mapscript files being handled via the cgi and all other
php pages via the apache module.

Recent versions of php have a third interface, the cli (command line
interface), which differs from the cgi in one crucial way (with respect
to mapscript and use as a "cgi") - it doesn't send headers, which causes
the "Premature end of script headers" error when used as a cgi.

After googling around I narrowed this problem down to the fact that FC4
was using the php-cli interface. To use the cgi interface, one now has
to call/use php-cgi *not* php.

So the problem was down to not reading the Release Notes that came with
FC4 - which document this issue. So, for the record, here is how I got
mapscript working on a freshly installed FC4 system:

These instructions are based, largely, on the posting of Lindsay C.
Blanton, available via the mapscript wiki:
http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?PHPMapScriptFedoraCore but
updated for FC4. I can provide a cleaner html-ified version if this
could be added to the wiki?

Instructions:

1) get the source

2) install some software via yum:

su -c "yum install postgresql-libs proj proj-devel libtiff curl gd gd-
devel freetype freetype-devel php-devel libpng-devel libpng10-devel php-
gd"

3) install needed further support programmes, gdal, ogr etc. (rpms for
FC4 available from http://mappinghacks.com/software.shtml )

4) configure the source:

./configure --with-php=/usr/include/php --with-ogr=/usr/bin/gdal-config
--with-gdal=/usr/bin/gdal-config --with-geos=/usr/bin/geos-config --
with-proj

Your choice of options may differ

5) if all is well, then make

6a) if you just want mapserver cgi then copy mapserv to /var/www/cgi-bin

6b) if you want php_mapscript as well, then
copy ./mapscript/php3/php_mapscript.so
to /usr/lib/php/modules/php_mapscript.so

7) create your php cgi handler in cgi-bin:

su -c "touch /var/www/cgi-bin/php.sh"
su -c "vim /var/www/cgi-bin/php.sh"

edit php.sh so it looks like:

#!/bin/bash
export SCRIPT_FILENAME=$PATH_TRANSLATED
/usr/bin/php-cgi

make the php.sh file executable

8) edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf and add:

Action phpms-script /cgi-bin/php.sh
AddHandler phpms-script .phpms

in a suitable place. change the phpms bits to reflect your choice of
extension for php_mapscript files.

9) get php to load the php_mapscript module. So:

su -c "touch /etc/php.d/php_mapscript.ini"
su -c "vim /etc/php.d/php_mapscript.ini"

and edit the file so it includes:

; Enable php_mapscript functionality
extension=php_mapscript.so

10) restart apache:
su -c "/sbin/service httpd restart"

11) create a file, say info.php somewhere in your webroot, which
includes the following php snippet:

<?php
        phpinfo();
?>

Save the file and view this page in your browser. Look through the
output to find the mapscript entry. If it is not there, then something
is wrong - check the above. If it is there then everything should now be
in place for running .php files through the apache module and .phpms
files via the php-cgi.

Hope this is of use to someone,

Gav
-- 
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Gavin Simpson                     [T] +44 (0)20 7679 5522
ENSIS Research Fellow             [F] +44 (0)20 7679 7565
ENSIS Ltd. & ECRC                 [E] gavin.simpsonATNOSPAMucl.ac.uk
UCL Department of Geography       [W] http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucfagls/cv/
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