So, you've set up your CentOS 7 server with Apache HTTP Server (httpd), and now you're eager to run Python scripts on it. Great news! It's totally doable. In this guide, we'll walk you through the process step by step. Let's get started! 💡

Introduction

🔍 Understanding the Challenge: Apache HTTP Server is primarily designed for serving web pages, but you can configure it to execute Python scripts in a few ways. We'll use the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) approach for this tutorial.

Setting the Stage 🎭

Server Setup: Ensure you have a CentOS 7 server running. If not, you can launch an EC2 instance on AWS with the CentOS 7 image.
Python 3 and httpd Installation: Make sure Python 3 and Apache (httpd) is installed on your server. If not, install it using yum.
```
 sudo yum install python3
 sudo yum install httpd
```

The Script 📝

For this demonstration, let's use a simple "Hello, World!" Python script. Ensure to specify the location of the Python interpreter on top of script.

#!/usr/bin/python3
print("Content-Type: text/html")
print()
print("<html><body>")
print("<h1>Hello, World!</h1>")
print("</body></html>")

Configuration 💻

Now, let's configure your Apache server to run Python scripts.

Edit Apache Configuration: Open the Apache configuration file for editing.
```
 sudo vim /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
```

Update Options: Locate the line with Options Indexes FollowSymLinks and add ExecCGI.

 Options Indexes FollowSymLinks -> original line
 Options Indexes FollowSymLinks ExecCGI -> modified line

Add CGI Handler: Find the line for AddHandler cgi-script .cgi (uncomment it by removing #) and add .py to the end.
```
 #AddHandler cgi-script .cgi -> original line
 AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .py -> modified line
```

Example Configuration: If you want to configure a specific script, you can add a section like this to your Apache configuration. Replace <your_script_path> with the actual path to your script.

 WSGIScriptAlias /your_script /var/www/python/your_script.py

 <Directory /var/www/python/>
   Options Indexes FollowSymLinks ExecCGI MultiViews
   AddHandler cgi-script .py
   AllowOverride None
   Order allow,deny
   Allow from all
 </Directory>

Restart Apache: Now, restart Apache to apply the changes.
```
 sudo systemctl restart httpd
```

SELinux Consideration 🛡️

SELinux (Security-Enhanced Linux) may affect script execution. Check its status with:

getenforce

If it's 'Enforcing,' add a rule for your script directory:

sudo semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_script_exec_t "/var/www/your_script_directory(/.*)?"

Note: Remember to replace <your_script_directory> with your actual script directory.

Permission Matters 🚦

Ensure your Python script has execute permissions:

chmod +x /var/www/python/your_script.py

Troubleshooting 🛠️

If you encounter issues, you can check the Apache error logs for more information:

tail -f /var/log/httpd/error_log

Final Words 🤝

I hope this guide helps you get your Python scripts up and running on your CentOS 7 Apache server. Remember that disabling SELinux is not recommended for security reasons.

Have a fantastic day! 🌞

🚀 Running Python Scripts on Apache HTTP Server (httpd) in CentOS 7