Apache :: ASP :: CHANGES [ apache + asp + perl = apache::asp ]

| INTRO
| INSTALL
| CONFIG
| SYNTAX
| EVENTS
| OBJECTS
| SSI
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| COOKIES
| FAQ
| TUNING
| CREDITS
| SUPPORT
| SITES USING
| TODO
- | CHANGES
| EXAMPLES
| CHANGES
     + = improvement; - = bug fix
$VERSION = .18; $DATE="02/03/00"; | $VERSION = .08; $DATE="02/06/99";
$VERSION = .17; $DATE="11/15/99"; | $VERSION = .07; $DATE="01/20/99";
$VERSION = .16; $DATE="09/22/99"; | $VERSION = .06; $DATE="12/21/98";
$VERSION = .15; $DATE="08/24/99"; | $VERSION = .05; $DATE="10/19/98";
$VERSION = .14; $DATE="07/29/99"; | $VERSION = .04; $DATE="10/14/98";
$VERSION = .12; $DATE="07/01/99"; | $VERSION = .03; $DATE="09/14/98";
$VERSION = .11; $DATE="06/24/99"; | $VERSION = .02; $DATE="07/12/98";
$VERSION = .10; $DATE="05/24/99"; | $VERSION = .01; $DATE="06/26/98";
$VERSION = .09; $DATE="04/22/99"; |
$VERSION = .18; $DATE="02/03/00";
     +Documented SessionQuery* & $Server->URL() and
      cleaned up formatting some, as well as redoing
      some of the sections ordering for better readability.
      Document the cookieless session functionality more
      in a new COOKIES section.  Also documented new
      FileUpload configs and $Request->FileUpload collection.
      Documented StatScripts.

     +StatScripts setting which if set to 0 will not reload
      includes, global.asa, or scripts when changed.

     +FileUpload filehandles cleanup at garbage collection
      time so developer does not have to worry about lazy coding
      and undeffing filehandles used in code.  Also set
      uploaded filehandles to binmode automatically on Win32
      platforms, saving the developer yet more typing.

     +FileUploadTemp setting, default 0, if set will leave
      a temp file on disk during the request, which may be
      helpful for processing by other programs, but is also
      a security risk in that others could potentially read
      this file while the script is running.

      The path to the temp file will be available at
      $Request->{FileUpload}{$form_field}{TempFile}.
      The regular use of file uploads remains the same
      with the <$filehandle> to the upload at
      $Request->{Form}{$form_field}.

     +FileUploadMax setting, default 0, currently an
      alias for $CGI::POST_MAX, which determines the
      max size for a file upload in bytes.

     +SessionQueryParse only auto parses session-ids
      into links when a session-id COOKIE is NOT found.
      This feature is only enabled then when a user has
      disabled cookies, so the runtime penalty of this
      feature won't drag down the whole site, since most
      users will have cookies turned on.

     -StatINC & StatINCMatch will not undef Fnctl.pm flock
      functions constants like O_RDWR, because the code references
      are not well trackable.  This would result in sporadic 500 server
      errors when a changed module was reloaded that imported O_* flock
      functions from Fnctl.

     +SessionQueryParse & SessionQueryParseMatch
      settings that enable auto parsing session ids into
      URLs for cookieless sessions.  Will pick up URLs in
      <a href>, <area href>, <form action>, <frame src>,
      <iframe src>, <img src>, <input src>, <link href>
      $Response->Redirect($URL) and the first URL in
      script tags like <script>*.location.href=$URL</script>

      These settings require that buffering be enabled, as
      Apache::ASP will parse through the buffer to parse the URLs.

      With SessionQueryParse on, it will just parse non-absolute
      URLs, but with SessionQueryParseMatch set to some server
      url regexp, like http://www.mysite.com, will also parse
      in the session id for URLs that match that.

      When testing, the performance hit from this parsing
      a script dropped from 12.5 hits/sec on my WinNT box
      to 11.7 hits per second for 1K of buffered output.
      The difference is .007 of my PII300's processing power
      per second.

      For 10K of output then, my guess is that this speed
      of script, would be slowed to 6.8 hits per second.
      This kind of performance hit would also slow a
      script running at 40 hits per second on a UNIX box
      to 31 hits/sec for 1K, and to 11 hits/sec for 10K parsed.

      Your mileage may vary and you will have to test the difference
      yourself.  Get yourself a valid URL with a session-id in
      it, and run it through ab, or socrates, with SessionQuery
      turned on, and then with SessionQueryParse set to see
      the difference.  SessionQuery just enables of session id
      setting from the query string but will not auto parse urls.

     -If buffering, Content-Length will again be set.
      It broke, probably while I was tuning in the past
      couple versions.

     +UseStrict setting compiles all scripts including
      global.asa with "use strict" turned on for catching
      more coding errors.  With this setting enableb,
      use strict errors die during compilation forcing
      Apache::ASP to try to recompile the script until
      successful.

     -Object use in includes like $Response->Write()
      no longer error with "use strict" programming.

     +SessionQuery config setting with $Server->URL($url, { %params } )
      alpha API extensions to enable cookieless sessions.

     +Debugging not longer produces internal debugging
      by default.  Set to -1,-2 for internal debugging
      for Debug settings 1 & 2.

     +Both StateSerializer & StateDB can be changed
      without affecting a live web site, by storing
      the configurations for $Application & $Session
      in an internal database, so that if $Session was
      created with SDBM_File for the StateDB (default),
      it will keep this StateDB setting until it ends.

     +StateSerializer config setting.  Default Data::Dumper,
      can also be set to Storable.  Controls how data is
      serialized before writing to $Application & $Session.

     +Beefed up the make test suite.

     +Improved the locking, streamlining a bit of the
      $Application / $Session setup process.  Bench is up to
      22 from 21 hits / sec on dev NT box.

     +Cut more fat for faster startup, now on my dev box
      I get 44 hits per sec Apache::ASP vs 48 Embperl
      vs 52 CGI via Apache::Registry for the HelloWorld Scripts.

     -Improved linking for the online site documentation,
      where a few links before were bad.
$VERSION = .17; $DATE="11/15/99";
     ++20%+ faster startup script execution, as measured by the
      HelloWorld bench.  I cut a lot of the fat out of
      the code, and is now at least 20% faster on startup
      both with and without state.

      On my dev (NT,apache 1.3.6+mod_perl) machine, I now get:

    	42 hits per sec on Apache::ASP HelloWorld bench
    	46 hits per sec on Embperl (1.2b10) and
    	51 hits per sec for CGI Apache::Registry scripts

      Before Apache::ASP was clocking some 31 hits per sec.
      Apache::ASP also went from 75 to 102 hits per second
      on Solaris.

     +PerlTaintCheck On friendly.  This is mod_perl's way
      of providing -T taint checking.  When Apache::ASP
      is used with state objects like $Session or $Application,
      MLDBM must also be made taint friendly with:

        $MLDBM::RemoveTaint = 1;

      which could be put in the global.asa.  Documented.

     +Added $Response->ErrorDocument($error_code, $uri_or_string)
      API extension which allows for setting of Apache's error
      document at runtime.  This is really just a wrapper
      for Apache->custom_response() renamed so it syncs with
      the Apache ErrorDocument config setting.  Updated
      documentation, and added error_document.htm example.

     =OrderCollections setting was added, but then REMOVED
      because it was not going to be used.  It bound
      $Request->* collections/hashes to Tie::IxHash, so that data
      in those collections would be read in the order the
      browser sent it, when eaching through or with keys.

     -global.asa will be reloaded when changed.  This broke
      when I optimized the modification times with (stat($file))[9]
      rather than "use File::stat; stat($file)->mtime"

     -Make Apache::ASP->Loader() PerlRestartHandler safe,
      had some unstrict code that was doing the wrong thing.

     -IncludesDir config now works with DynamicIncludes.

     +DebugBufferLength feature added, giving control to
      how much buffered output get's shown when debugging errors.

     ++Tuning of $Response->Write(), which processes all
      static html internally, to be almost 50% faster for
      its typical use, when BufferingOn is enabled, and
      CgiHeaders are disabled, both being defaults.

      This can show significant speed improvements for tight
      loops that render ASP output.

     +Auto linking of ./site/eg/.* text to example scripts
      at web site.

     +$Application->GetSession($session_id) API extension, useful
      for managing active user sessions when storing session ids
      in $Application.  Documented.

     -disable use of flock() on Win95/98 where it is unimplemented

     -@array context of $Request->Form('name') returns
      undef when value for 'name' is undefined.  Put extra
      logic in there to make sure this happens.
$VERSION = .16; $DATE="09/22/99";
     -$Response->{Buffer} and PerlSetVar BufferingOn
      configs now work when set to 0, to unbuffer output,
      and send it out to the web client as the script generates it.

      Buffering is enabled by default, as it is faster, and
      allows a script to error cleanly in the middle of execution.

     +more bullet proof loading of Apache::Symbol, changed the
      way Apache::ASP loads modules in general.  It used to
      check for the module to load every time, if it hadn't loaded
      successfully before, but now it just tries once per httpd,
      so the web server will have to be restarted to see new installed
      modules.  This is just for modules that Apache::ASP relies on.

      Old modules that are changed or updated with an installation
      are still reloaded with the StatINC settings if so configured.

     +ASP web site wraps <font face="courier new"> around <pre>
      tags now to override the other font used for the text
      areas.  The spacing was all weird in Netscape before
      for <pre> sections.

     -Fixed Content-Length calculation when using the Clean
      option, so that the length is calculated after the HTML
      is clean, not before.  This would cause a browser to
      hang sometimes.

     +Added IncludesDir config option that if set will also be
      used to check for includes, so that includes may easily be
      shared between applications.  By default only Global and
      the directory the script is in are checked for includes.

      Also added IncludesDir as a possible configuration option
      for Apache::ASP->Loader()

     -Re-enabled the Application_OnStart & OnEnd events, after
      breaking them when implementing the AllowApplicationState
      config setting.

     +Better pre-fork cacheing ... StatINC & StatINCMatch are now
      args for Apache::ASP->Loader(), so StatINC symbols loading
      may be done pre-fork and shared between httpds.  This lowers
      the child httpd init cost of StatINC.  Documented.

     +Made Apache::ASP Basic Authorization friendly so authentication
      can be handled by ASP scripts.  If AuthName and AuthType Apache
      config directives are set, and a $Response->{Status} is set to
      401, a user will be prompted for username/password authentication
      and the entered data will show up in ServerVariables as:
        $env = $Request->ServerVariables
        $env->{REMOTE_USER} = $env->{AUTH_USER} = username
        $env->{AUTH_PASSWD} = password
        $env->{AUTH_NAME}   = your realm
        $env->{AUTH_TYPE}   = 'Basic'

      This is the same place to find auth data as if Apache had some
      authentication handler deal with the auth phase separately.

     -MailErrorsTo should report the right file now that generates
      the error.
$VERSION = .15; $DATE="08/24/99";
     --State databases like $Session, $Application are
      now tied/untied to every lock/unlock triggered by read/write
      access.  This was necessary for correctness issues, so that
      database file handles are flushed appropriately between writes
      in a highly concurrent multi-process environment.

      This problem raised its ugly head because under high volume,
      a DB_File can become corrupt if not flushed correctly.
      Unfortunately, there is no way to flush SDBM_Files & DB_Files
      consistently other than to tie/untie the databases every access.

      DB_File may be used optionally for StateDB, but the default is
      to use SDBM_File which is much faster, but limited to 1024 byte
      key/value pairs.

      For SDBM_Files before, if there were too many concurrent
      writes to a shared database like $Application, some of the
      writes would not be saved because another process
      might overwrite the changes with its own.

      There is now a 10 fold performance DECREASE associated
      with reading from and writing to files like $Session
      and $Application.  With rough benchmarks I can get about
      100 increments (++) now per second to $Session->{count}, where
      before I could get 1000 increments / second.

      You can improve this if you have many reads / writes happening
      at the same time, by placing locking code around the group like

    	$Session->Lock();
    	$Session->{count}++;
    	$Session->{count}++;
    	$Session->{count}++;
    	$Session->UnLock();

      This method will reduce the number of ties to the $Session database
      from 6 to 1 for this kind of code, and will improve the performance
      dramatically.

      Also, instead of using explicit $Session locking, you can
      create an automatic lock on $Session per script by setting
      SessionSerialize in your config to 1.  The danger here is
      if you have any long running scripts, the user will have
      to wait for it to finish before another script can be run.

      To see the number of lock/unlocks or ties/unties to each database
      during a script execution, look at the last lines of debug output
      to your error log when Debug is set to 1.  This can help you
      perfomance tweak access to these databases.

     +Updated documentation with new config settings and
      API extensions.

     +Added AllowApplicationState config option which allows
      you to leave $Application undefined, and will not
      execute Application_OnStart or Application_OnEnd.
      This can be a slight performance increase of 2-3% if
      you are not using $Application, but are using $Session.

     +Added $Session->Lock() / $Session->UnLock() API routines
      necessary additions since access to session is not
      serialized by default like IIS ASP.  Also prompted
      by change in locking code which retied to SDBM_File
      or DB_File each lock.  If you $Session->Lock / UnLock
      around many read/writes, you will increase performance.

     +Added StateCache config which, if set will cache
      the file handle locks for $Application and an internal
      database used for tracking $Session info.  This caching can
      make an ASP application perform up to 10% faster,
      at a cost of each web server process holding 2 more
      cached file handles open, per ASP application using
      this configuration.  The data written to or read from
      these state databases is not cached, just the locking
      file handles are held open.

     -Added in much more locking in session manager
      and session garbage collector to help avoid collisions
      between the two.  There were definate windows that the
      two would collide in, during which bad things could
      happen on a high volume site.

     -Fixed some warnings in DESTROY and ParseParams()
$VERSION = .14; $DATE="07/29/99";
     -CGI & StatINC or StatINCMatch would have bad results
      at times, with StatINC deleting dynamically compiled
      CGI subroutines, that were imported into other scripts
      and modules namespaces.

      A couple tweaks, and now StatINC & CGI play nice again ;)
      StatINCMatch should be safe to use in production with CGI.
      This affects in particular environments that use file upload,
      since CGI is loaded automatically by Apache::ASP to handle
      file uploads.

      This fix should also affect other seemingly random
      times when StatINC or StatINCMatch don't seem to do
      the right thing.

     +use of ASP objects like $Response are now "use strict"
      safe in scripts, while UniquePackages config is set.

     +Better handling of "use strict" errors in ASP scripts.
      The error is detected, and the developer is pointed to the
      Apache error log for the exact error.

      The script with "use strict" errors will be recompiled again.  Its seems
      though that "use strict" will only throw its error once, so that a script
      can be recompiled with the same errors, and work w/o any use strict
      error messaging.
$VERSION = .12; $DATE="07/01/99";
     -Compiles are now 10 +times faster for scripts with lots of big
      embedded perl blocks <% #perl %>

      Compiles were slow because of an old PerlScript compatibility
      parsing trick where $Request->QueryString('hi')->{item}
      would be parsed to $Request->QueryString('hi') which works.
      I think the regexp that I was using had O(n^2) characteristics
      and it took a really big perl block to 10 +seconds to parse
      to understand there was a problem :(

      I doubt anyone needed this compatibility, I don't even see
      any code that looks like this in the online PerlScript examples,
      so I've commented out this parsing trick for now.  If you
      need me to bring back this functionality, it will be in the
      form of a config setting.

      For information on PerlScript compatibility, see the PerlScript
      section in the ASP docs.

     -Added UniquePackages config option, that if set brings back
      the old method of compiling each ASP script into its own
      separate package.  As of v.10, scripts are compiled by default
      into the same package, so that scripts, dynamic includes & global.asa
      can share globals.  This BROKE scripts in the same ASP Application
      that defined the same sub routines, as their subs would redefine
      each other.

      UniquePackages has scripts compiled into separate perl packages,
      so they may define subs with the same name, w/o fear of overlap.
      Under this settings, scripts will not be able to share globals.

     -Secure field for cookies in $Response->Cookies() must be TRUE to
      force cookie to be secure.  Before, it just had to be defined,
      which gave wrong behavior for Secure => 0.

     +$Response->{IsClientConnected} set to one by default.  Will
      work out a real value when I upgrade to apache 1.3.6.  This
      value has no meaning before, as apache aborts the perl code
      when a client drops its connection in earlier versions.

     +better compile time debugging of dynamic includes, with
      Debug 2 setting

     +"use strict" friendly handling of compiling dynamic includes
      with errors
$VERSION = .11; $DATE="06/24/99";
     +Lots of documentation updates

     +The MailHost config option is the smtp server used for
      relay emails for the Mail* config options.

     +MailAlertTo config option used for sending a short administrative
      alert for an internal ASP error, server code 500.  This is the
      compliment to MailErrorsTo, but is suited for sending a to a
      small text based pager.  The email sent by MailErrorsTo would
      then be checked by the web admin for quick response & debugging
      for the incident.

      The MailAlertPeriod config specifies the time in minutes during
      which only one alert will be sent, which defaults to 20.

     +MailErrorsTo config options sends the results of a 500 error
      to the email address specified as if Debug were set to 2.
      If Debug 2 is set, this config will not be on, as it is
      for production use only.  Debug settings less than 2 only
      log errors to the apache server error log.

     -StatINCMatch / StatINC can be used in production and work
      even after a server graceful restart, which is essential for
      a production server.

     -Content-Length header is set again, if BufferingOn is set, and
      haven't $Response->Flush()'d.  This broke when I introduce
      the Script_OnEnd event handler.

     +Optimized reloading of the GlobalPackage perl module upon changes,
      so that scripts and dynamic includes don't have to be recompiled.
      The global.asa will still have to be though.  Since we started
      compiling all routines into a package that can be named with
      GlobalPackage, we've been undef'ing compiled scripts and includes
      when the real GlobalPackage changed on disk, as we do a full sweep
      through the namespace.  Now, we skip those subs that we know to
      be includes or scripts.

     -Using Apache::Symbol::undef() to undefine precompiled scripts
      and includes when reloading those scripts.  Doing just an undef()
      would sometimes result in an "active subroutine undef" error.
      This bug came out when I started thrashing the StatINC system
      for production use.

     +StatINCMatch setting created for production use reloading of
      perl modules.  StatINCMatch allows StatINC reloading of a
      subset of all the modules defined in %INC, those that match
      $module =~ /$StatINCMatch/, where module is some module name
      like Class/Struct.pm

     +Reoptimized pod comment parsing.  I slowed it down to sync
      lines numbers in the last version, but found another corner I could cut.
$VERSION = .10; $DATE="05/24/99";
     += improvement; - = bug fix

     +Added index.html file to ./eg to help people wade through
      the examples.  This one has been long overdue.

     +Clean config option, or setting $Response->{Clean} to 1 - 9,
      uses HTML::Clean to compress text/html output of ASP scripts.
      I like the Clean 1 setting which is lightweight, stripping
      whitespace for about 10% compression, at a cost of less than
      a 5% performance penalty.

     +Using pod style commenting no longer confuses the line
      numbering.  ASP script line numbers are almost exactly match
      their compiled perl version, except that normal inline includes
      (not dynamic) insert extra text which can confuse line numbering.
      If you want perl error line numbers to entirely sync with your
      ASP scripts, I would suggest learning how to use dynamic includes,
      as opposed to inline includes.

     -Wrapped StatINC reloading of libs in an eval, and capturing
      error for Debug 2 setting.  This makes changing libs with StatINC
      on a little more friendly when there are errors.

     -$Request->QueryString() now stores multiple values for the
      same key, just as $Request->Form() has since v.07.  In
      wantarray() context like @vals = $Request->QueryString('dupkey'),
      @vals will store whatever values where associated with dupkey
      in the query string like (1,2) from: ?dupkey=1&dupkey=2

     +The GlobalPackage config directive may be defined
      to explicitly set the perl module that all scripts and global.asa
      are compiled into.

     -Dynamic includes may be in the Global directory, just like
      normal includes.

     +Perl script generated from asp scripts should match line
      for line, seen in errors, except when using inline (default)
      includes, pod comments, or <% #comment %> perl comments, which
      will throw off the line counts by adding text, removing
      text, or having an extra newline added, respectively.

     -Script_OnEnd may now send output to the browser.  Before
      $main::Response->End() was being called at the end of the
      main script preventing further output.
++All scripts are compiled as routines in a namespace uniquely
      defined by the global.asa of the ASP application.  Thus,
      scripts, includes, and global.asa routines will share
      all globals defined in the global.asa namespace.   This means
      that globals between scripts will be shared, and globals
      defined in a global.asa will be available to scripts.

      Scripts used to have their own namespace, thus globals
      were not shared between them.

     +a -o $output_dir switch on the ./cgi/asp script allows
      it to execute scripts and write their output to an output
      directory.  Useful for building static html sites, based on
      asp scripts.  An example use would be:

        asp -b -o out *.asp

      Without an output dir, script output is written to STDOUT
$VERSION = .09; $DATE="04/22/99";
     +Updated Makefile.PL optional modules output for CGI & DB_File

     +Improved docs on $Response->Cookies() and $Request->Cookies()

     +Added PERFORMANCE doc to main README, and added sub section
      on precompiling scripts with Apache::ASP->Loader()

     +Naming of CompileIncludes switched over to DynamicIncludes
      for greater clarity.

     +Dynamic includes can now reference ASP objects like $Session
      w/o the $main::* syntax.  These subs are no longer anonymous
      subs, and are now compiled into the namespace of the global.asa package.

     +Apache::ASP->Loader() precompiles dynamic includes too. Making this work
      required fixing some subtle bugs / dependencies in the compiling process.

     +Added Apache::ASP->Loader() similar to Apache::RegistryLoader for
      precompiling ASP scripts.  Precompile a whole site at server
      startup with one function call.

     +Prettied the error messaging with Debug 2.

     +$Response->Debug(@args) debugging extension, which
      allows a developer to hook into the module's debugging,
      and only have @args be written to error_log when Debug is greater
      than 0.

     -Put write locking code around State writes, like $Session
      and $Application.  I thought I fixed this bug a while ago.

     -API change: converted $Session->Timeout() and $Session->SessionID()
      methods into $Session->{Timeout} and $Session->{SessionID} properties.
      The use of these properties as methods is deprecated, but
      backwards compatibility will remain.  Updated ./eg/session.asp
      to use these new properties.

     +Implemented $Response->{PICS} which if set sends out a PICS-Label
      HTTP header, useful for ratings.

     +Implemented $Response->{CacheControl} and $Response->{Charset} members.
      By default, CacheControl is 'private', and this value gets sent out
      every request as HTTP header Cache-Control.  Charset appends itself
      onto the content type header.

     +Implemented $Request->BinaryRead(), $Request->{TotalBytes},
      documented them, and updated ./eg/form.asp for an example usage.

     +Implemented $Response->BinaryWrite(), documented, and created
      and example in ./eg/binary_write.htm

     +Implemented $Server->MapPath() and created example of its use
      in ./eg/server.htm

     -$Request->Form() now reads file uploads correctly with
      the latest CGI.pm, where $Request->Form('file_field') returns
      the actual file name uploaded, which can be used as a file handle
      to read in the data.  Before, $Request->Form('file_field') would
      return a glob that looks like *Fh::filename, so to get the file
      name, you would have to parse it like =~ s/^\*Fh\:\://,
      which you no longer have to do.  As long as parsing was done as
      mentioned, the change should be backwards compatible.

     +Updated  +enhanced documentation on file uploads.  Created extra
      comments about it as an FAQ, and under $Response->Form(), the latter
      being an obvious place for a developer to look for it.

     +Updated ./eg/file_upload.asp to show use of non file form data,
      with which we had a bug before.

     +Finished retieing *STDIN to cached STDIN contents, so that
      CGI input routines may be used transparently, along side with
      use of $Request->Form()

     +Cleaned up and optimized $Request code

     +Updated documentation for CGI input & file uploads.  Created
      file upload FAQ.

     +Reworked ./eg/cgi.htm example to use CGI input routines
      after doing a native read of STDIN.

     ++Added dynamic includes with <!--include file=file args=@args-->
      extension.  This style of include is compiled as an anonymous sub &
      cached, and then executed with @args passed to the subroutine for
      execution.  This is include may also be rewritten as a new API
      extension: $Response->Include('file', @args)

     +Added ./eg/compiled_includes.htm example documenting new dynamic includes.

     +Documented SSI: native file includes, and the rest with filtering
      to Apache::SSI

     +Turned the documentation of Filter config to value of Off so
      people won't cut and paste the On config by default.

     +Added SecureSession config option, which forces session cookie to
      be sent only under https secured www page requests.

     +Added StateDB config option allows use of DB_File for $Session, since
      default use of SDBM_File is limited.  See StateDB in README.

     +file include syntax w/o quotes supported like <!--#include file=test.inc-->

     +Nested includes are supported, with includes including each other.
      Recursive includes are detected and errors out when an include has been
      included 100 times for a script.  Better to quit early than
      have a process spin out of control. (PORTABLE ? probably not)

     +Allow <!--include file=file.inc--> notation w/o quotes around file names

     -PerlSetEnv apache conf setting now get passed through to $Request->ServerVariables.
      this update has ServerVariables getting data from %ENV instead of $r->cgi_env

     +README FAQ for PerlHandler errors
$VERSION = .08; $DATE="02/06/99";
     ++SSI with Apache::Filter & Apache::SSI, see config options & ./eg files
      Currently filtering only works in the direction Apache::ASP -> Apache::SSI,
      will not work the other way around, as SSI must come last in a set of filters

     +SSI file includes may reference files in the Global directory, better code sharing

     - <% @array... %> no longer dropped from code.

     +perl =pod comments are stripped from script before compiling, and associated
      PodComments configuration options.

     +Command line cgi/asp script takes various options, and allows execution
      of multiple asp scripts at one time.  This script should be used for
      command line debugging.  This is also the beginning of building
      a static site from asp scripts with the -b option, suppressing headers.

     +$Response->AddHeader('Set-Cookie') works for multiple cookies.

     -$Response->Cookies('foo', '0') works, was dropping 0 because of boolean test

     -Fixed up some config doc errors.
$VERSION = .07; $DATE="01/20/99";
     -removed SIG{__WARN__} handler, it was a bad idea.

     -fixes file locking on QNX, work around poor flock porting

     +removed message about Win32::OLE on UNIX platforms from Makefile.PL

     -Better lock garbage collection.  Works with StatINC seemlessly.

     -Multiple select forms now work in array context with $Response->Form()
    	@values = $Response->Form('multi');

     -Better CGI.pm compatibility with $r->header_out('Content-type'),
      improved garabage collection under modperl, esp. w/ file uploads
$VERSION = .06; $DATE="12/21/98";
     +Application_OnStart & Application_OnEnd event handlers support.

     -Compatible with CGI.pm 2.46 headers()

     -Compatible with CGI.pm $q = new CGI({}), caveat: does not set params

     +use strict; followed by use of objects like $Session is fine.

     -Multiple cookies may be set per script execution.

     +file upload implemented via CGI.pm

     ++global.asa implemented with events Session_OnStart and Session_OnEnd
      working appropriately.

     +StateDir configuration directive implemented.
      StateDir allows the session state directory to be specified separately
      from the Global directory, useful for OS's with caching filesystems.

     +StateManager config directive.  StateManager specifies how frequently
      Sessions are cleaned up, with 10 (default) meaning that old Sessions
      will be cleaned up 10 times per SessionTimeout period (default 20 minutes).

     +$Application->SessionCount() implemented, non-portable method.
    	: returns the number of currently active sessions

     -STOP button fix.  Users may hit STOP button during script
      execution, and Apache::ASP will cleanup with a routine registered
      in Apache's $r->register_cleanup.  Works well supposedly.

     +PerlScript compatibility work, trying to make ports smoother.
    	: Collection emulator, no ->{Count} property
    	: $.*(.*)->{Item} parsed automatically,
    	  shedding the ->{Item} for Collection support (? better way ?)
    	: No VBScript dates support, just HTTP RFC dates with HTTP::Date
    	: Win32::OLE::in not supported, just use "keys %{$Collection}"

     +./cgi/asp script for testing scripts from the command line
    	: will be upgraded to CGI method of doing asp
    	: is not "correct" in anyway, so not documented for now
    	  but still useful

     +strips DOS carriage returns from scripts automatically, so that
      programs like FrontPage can upload pages to UNIX servers
      without perl choking on the extra \r characters.
$VERSION = .05; $DATE="10/19/98";
     +Added PERFORMANCE doc, which includes benchmarks  +hints.

     +Better installation warnings and errors for other modules required.

     -Turned off StatINC in eg/.htaccess, as not everyone installs Devel::Symdump

     -Fixed AUTOLOAD state bug, which wouldn't let you each through state
      objects, like %{$Session}, or each %$Session, (bug introduced in v.04)

     +Parses ASP white space better.  HTML output matches author's intent
      by better dealing with white space surrounding <% perl blocks %>

     -Scalar insertion code <%=$foo%> can now span many lines.

     +Added include.t test script for includes.

     +Script recompiles when included files change.

     +Files can be included in script with
      SSI <!--#include file="filename"--> syntax, needs to be
      done in ASP module to allow compilation of included code and html
      into script.  Future chaining with Apache::SSI will allow static
      html includes, and other SSI directives
$VERSION = .04; $DATE="10/14/98";
     +Example script eg/cgi.htm demonstrating CGI.pm use for output.

     +Optimized ASP parsing, faster and more legible executing code
    	: try 'die();' in code with setting PerlSetVar Debug 2

     +Cleaned up code for running with 'use strict'

     -Fixed directory handle leak on Solaris, from not closing after opendir()

     +StatINC overhaul.  StatINC setting now works as it should, with
      the caveat that exported functions will not be refreshed.

     +NoState setting optimization, disallows $Application & $Session

     +$Application->*Lock() functions implemented

     -SoftRedirect setting for those who want scripts to keep running
      after a Redirect()

     +SessionSerialize setting to lock session while script is running
    	: Microsoft ASP style session locking
    	: For a session, scripts execute one at a time
    	: NOT recommended use, please see note.

     -MLDBM can be used for other things without messing up internal use
    	: before if it was used with different DB's and serializers,
    	  internal state could be lost.

     --State file locking.  Corruption worries, and loss of data no more.

     +CGI header support, developer can use CGI.pm for *output*, or just print()
    	: print "Set-Cookie: test=cookie\n", and things will just work
    	: use CGI.pm for output
    	: utilizes $r->send_cgi_header(), thanks Doug!

     +Improved Cookie implementation, more flexible and complete
    	- Domain cookie key now works
    	: Expire times now taken from time(), and relative time in sec
    	: Request->Cookies() reading more flexible, with wantarray()
    	  on hash cookie values, %hash = $Request->Cookie('test');

     -make test module naming correction, was t.pm, now T.pm for Unix

     +POD / README cleanup, formatting and HTML friendly.
$VERSION = .03; $DATE="09/14/98";
     +Installation 'make test' now works

     +ActiveX objects on Win32 implemented with $Server->CreateObject()

     +Cookies implemented: $Response->Cookies() & $Request->Cookies()

     -Fixed $Response object API, converting some methods to object members.
      Deprecated methods, but backwards compatible.

     +Improved error messaging, debug output

     +$, influences $Response->Write(@strings) behavior

     +perl print() works, sending output to $Response object

     +$Response->Write() prints scalars, arrays, and hashes.  Before only scalars.

     +Begin implementation of $Server object.

     +Implemented $Response->{Expires} and $Response->{ExpiresAbsolute}

     +Added "PerlSetVar StatINC" config option

     +$0 is aliased to current script filename

     +ASP Objects ($Response, etc.) are set in main package
      Thus notation like $main::Response->Write() can be used anywhere.
$VERSION = .02; $DATE="07/12/98";
     ++Session Manager, won't break under denial of service attack

     +Fleshed out $Response, $Session objects, almost full implementation.

     +Enormously more documentation.

     -Fixed error handling with Debug = 2.

     -Documentation fixed for pod2man support.  README now more man-like.

     -Stripped \r\n dos characters from installation files

     -755 mode set for session state directory when created

     -Loads Win32/OLE properly, won't break with UNIX
$VERSION = .01; $DATE="06/26/98";
     Syntax Support
     --------------
     Intial realease, could be considered alpha software.
     Allows developers to embed perl in html ASP style.

     <!-- sample here -->
     <html>
     <body>
     <% for(1..10) { %>
     	counting: <%=$_%> <br>
     <% } %>
     </body>
     </html>

     ASP Objects
     -----------
     $Session, $Application, $Response, $Request objects available
     for use in asp pages.

     $Session & $Application data is preserved using SDBM files.

     $Session id's are tracked through the use of cookies.

     Security
     --------
     Timeouts any attempt to use a session id that doesn't already
     exist.  Should stop hackers, since there is no wire speed guessing
     cookies.
Copyright © 1998-2000, Joshua Chamas, Chamas Enterprises Inc.