How can I set up environmental variables for www-data?

Question

I asked a question on dba.se about how I can give my Perl CGI script the password it needs to access the MySQL database it needs to query. I have received only one answer but that one suggests I save the password as an environmental variable.

OK, apache2 runs as www-data and according to /etc/passwd, the user's $HOME is /var/www:

$ grep www /etc/passwd
www-data:x:33:33:www-data:/var/www:/bin/sh

I tried creating /var/www/.profile with this line

export db_pass="password"

And then had my Perl script print $ENV{"db_pass"} but that failed, the variable is empty. I checked with $ENV{PATH} and that was printed as expected.

So, how can I set an arbitrary environmental variable for this user?

The server is an Ubuntu Server running on a VM (which runs on Windows, not my choice, don't ask).

$ apache2 -version
Server version: Apache/2.2.14 (Ubuntu)
Server built:   Feb 14 2012 16:42:25

Answer 1

You use Apache environment variable manipulation.

So for example:

SetEnv db_pass swordfish

This can be done in httpd.conf or in .htaccess. You can also set env vars in Rewrite Rules like this:

RewriteRule someurl - [E=dbpass:swordfish]