index.pl getting downloaded instead of executing on Ubuntu 12.04 and Apache 2.2.22

Question

I have installed Apache 2.2.22 on Ubuntu 12.04. But in browser when I type localhost, it gives index.pl file to download instead of executing it. What I tried: 1. chmod 755 index.pl 2. Adding line DirectoryIndex index.pl index.html to etc/apache2/site-available/example.com, which finally looks like below.

I have done these things before on Windows machine. But the directory structure is different in Windows and Ubuntu. Httpd.conf file is blank in Ubuntu. And while searching through directories I found no. of files similar to configuration file. So I am confused where exactly I have to make configuration changes.

Update: My index.html has meta tag as follows: meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; URL='cgi-bin/index.pl'". Index.html file resides in var/www/example.com/public_html folder. In this folder I created folder cgi-bin with index.pl file in it. The browser when typed localhost give following error: 404 /cgi-bin/index.pl was not found on this server. And configuration file called example.com (etc/apache2/sites-available) has following line: ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
        ServerName example.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com/public_html
    <Directory />
        Options FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
    </Directory>
    <Directory /var/www/example.com/public_html>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
        AllowOverride None
        Order allow,deny
        allow from all
    </Directory>
# This line was added by me
DirectoryIndex index.html index.pl
    ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
    <Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin">
        AllowOverride None
        Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log

    # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
    # alert, emerg.
    LogLevel warn

    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

    Alias /doc/ "/usr/share/doc/"
    <Directory "/usr/share/doc/">
        Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
        Order deny,allow
        Deny from all
        Allow from 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 ::1/128
    </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

Update:Below is changes which I made after following krowe's suggestions, and it worked.

ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /var/www/example.com/public_html/cgi-bin/
<Directory "/var/www/example.com/public_html/cgi-bin">
    AllowOverride None
    Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
    Order allow,deny
    AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .pl
    Allow from all
</Directory>

Answer 1

Add this line to your /etc/apache2/apache2.conf file:

AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .pl

And put your scripts in /usr/lib/cgi-bin/ .

Ubuntu separates its server configuration from its site configuration. Look in your /etc/apache2/sites-available directory for the virtual host configurations. Then create links to those in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled to enable them.

Restart your server after changing any of this: sudo service apache2 restart

You should be able to access it from: http://example.com/cgi-bin/index.pl

Also, I would not use a DirectoryIndex index.html index.pl line at all. Just specify your exact cgi file when needed.