How to use a Perl::Module for slash (root) on a web server
If you don't want to use an index.pl file or something of the like to serve your dynamic front page, but instead want to use a perl module under mod_perl (modperl), it's rather difficult (for me at least) to figure out how to do this. Special thanks to Brian Moore <bem at CMC.NET> for the main part of the solution:
<Location '/'> DirectoryIndex /cgi-perl/myindex index.html index.htm index.shtml index.cgi index.pl </Location> <Location '/cgi-perl/myindex'> SetHandler perl-script PerlHandler My::Front </Location>
The two step solution is necessary to avoid having "/books/" be interpreted as the index page with path_info = '/books/' etc. This is what happens if you just use the SetHandler and PerlHandler lines alone.
You'll need the rest of the DirectoryIndex line to make ~user work
Myke Cuthbert (cuthbert at nber.org)