[mod_python] CGI versus *real* mod_python?

Charles Stevenson wrote:

> On Sun, Apr 11, 2004 at 10:53:31PM -0700, Erik Stephens wrote:
> 
>>No, what you have there will use mod_python.  What Jorey was trying to
>>get at (I think) was that maybe all of the files in /cgi-bin will be
>>treated as CGIs since that is a common web server configuration.

True.

> Actually I think what he was trying to get at is that mod_python unlike
> cgi doesn't require the scripts to reside in any certain directory. 

Also true. When someone mentions cgi-bin, it's a flag that there might
be misconceptions (or misconfigurations) at play.

> You
> could for example create /~user/python-bin or something if you didn't
> like the idea of intermixing your scripts with your html although I
> don't see the point. If you want your scripts to reside in a specific
> directory you should add a ptyhon path entry via htaccess so that 
> mod_python knows where it might find your modules. 

Although I rarely do it, sometimes it's helpful to put code in a
separate, aliased directory to protect it from designers and their
"intelligent" web development suites. Also, I doubt if many are
preconfigured to transfer .py files in ASCII mode.

> I don't think any
> server is configured to treat all file within cgi-bin as CGI. The reason
> for a separate directory afaik is to restrict the scope of ExecCGI.
> 
> Correct me if I'm wrong. :)

It depends on how you configure your web server. I almost always use a
ScriptAlias with apache, which *does* treat every file in the directory
as CGI. However, you may want all of your application files to reside in
one directory, and ExecCGI allows you to that.