These instructions should no longer be used. To install mod_wsgi on Windows
run pip install mod_wsgi. Once it has been successfully installed, run
the command mod_wsgi-express module-config. Copy the output of that
command and add it to your Apache configuration to have it load mod_wsgi.
You will still need to separately configure Apache/mod_wsgi for your
specific WSGI application. See the mod_wsgi package page on the Python
Package Index (PyPi) for more information.
Running Apache/mod_wsgi on Windows can be a bit tricky.
There are four requirements that should strictly be satisified.
1. You need to ensure that you are using either 32 bit (Win32) versions of everything or 64 bit (Win64) versions of everything. You cannot mix 32 bit and 64 bit binaries.
2. That the Python version you are using was installed for all users and not just the user that installed Python.
3. That you are using a precompiled Apache binary built with the same version of the Microsoft C/C++ compiler as the version of Python you are using.
4. That you are using a mod_wsgi binary built with the same version of the Microsoft C/C++ compiler as the version of Python you are using.
The Microsoft C/C++ compiler versions which were used for various Python versions are:
This means that if using Python 2.6 or 2.7, you should use a version of Apache compiled with the Microsoft VC9 C/C++ compiler. If instead using Python 3.3 or 3.4, you should use a version of Apache compiled with the Microsoft VC10 C/C++ compiler.
If you ignore these requirements and use a version of Apache compiled with the Microsoft VC11 C/C++ compiler, then nothing can be guaranteed to work and Apache may fail to startup or crash when handling requests.
You may also have problems with using Python 2.6 or Python 2.7 binaries, which were compiled with the Microsoft VC9 C/C++ compiler, with a version of Apache 2.4 compiled with the Microsoft VC10 C/C++ compiler.
The problem is that Apache Lounge, whose Apache binaries have been used up until this point, has stopped making available versions of Apache compiled with a VC9 compiler. This means that if you hadn't managed to download a Win32 VC9 version of Apache at some time in the past, you technically can't use mod_wsgi on Windows with Python 2.6 or Python 2.7 any more as you can't get the right version of an Apache binary.
See further comments below though about a possible way of running Python 2.6 and Python 2.7 using a Win64 VC10 version of Apache. This is not gauranteed to work though as explained below.
Occassionally precompiled binaries will be made available for mod_wsgi.
These may not be updated on every release because more often than not code
changes are being made which relate only to mod_wsgi daemon mode, or
mod_wsgi-express, neither of which are available for Windows.
When pre-compiled mod_wsgi binaries are made available they will be downloadable from the github release page for the mod_wsgi project at:
Look back at older releases if the most current version doesn't have them associated with it.
These mod_wsgi binaries will have been compiled with Python binaries available from the Python Software Foundation (PSF) site at:
The mod_wsgi binaries would generally not be usable with other binary Python distributions unless they specify that they are entirely ABI compatible with the binary Python distributions from the PSF.
For Apache, mod_wsgi is compiled against Apache binaries available from the Apache Lounge web site at:
The mod_wsgi binaries would generally only be usable with Apache Lounge binaries and should not be used with any other Apache binary distribution.
The actual mod_wsgi binaries that are made available are:
Those labelled with Apache22-win32-VC9 should be used with an Apache
2.2 Win32 VC9 version of Apache. Alas Apache Lounge no longer makes such
binaries available any more. If you don't already have an older version of
Apache which has been compiled with the Win32 VC9 compiler you are out
of luck.
Those labelled with Apache24-win32-VC10 should be used with the Apache
2.4 Win32 VC10 version of Apache available from:
Those labelled with Apache24-win64-VC10 should be used with the Apache
2.4 Win64 VC10 version of Apache available from:
Note that Apache Lounge never made available any Win64 VC9 binaries for Apache 2.4. This means that technically there is no combination available for correctly running mod_wsgi with a Win64 VC9 version of Python 2.6 or 2.7.
History shows that users simply don't want to accept this and don't want to understand that mixing VC9 and VC10 binaries are not guaranteed to work.
The specific issue is that if certain data structures are passed between VC9 and VC10 code, then the application could crash as the data structure layouts for each variant may not be compatible.
As it happens the interface between Apache and Python via mod_wsgi is very minimal and so it is possible that there are no instances of incompatible data structures being passed across the ABI boundary, but that cannot be guaranteed.
So because Apache Lounge is no longer making available any VC9 versions of Apache, the following binaries are still provided. Because they are mixing binaries using different ABIs, they may or may not work for your particular cirumstances. You are still welcome to try, but there is no support for using this combination.
Note that no binaries for Python 3.2 are provided due to it being an older version in the 3.X line, but also because a Win64 VC9 version of it does crash a Win64 VC10 version of Apache 2.4 on startup. This shows how arbitrary compatibility is when you start mixing binaries built against different ABIs. You have been warned.
If you need to compile from source code because you are using a different Apache distribution or a different Python distribution, you will need to have installed the appropriate Microsoft C/C++ compiler. You cannot simply use any Microsoft C/C++ compiler you might have.
The details on where the Microsoft C/C++ compilers are available from are given below.
Use the latest Python 2.6 or 2.7 binary available from the PSF:
You must use the 32 bit version which is labelled as:
Python 2.6 and 2.7 are compiled with the Microsoft C/C++ compiler from Visual Studio 2008. This is referred to as being compiled for VC9.
You must therefore use a version of Apache compiled for VC9.
For the Microsoft C/C++ compiler, you need to download it from Microsoft.
This can compile both 32 bit and 64 bit binaries.
Use the latest Python 2.6 or 2.7 binary available from the PSF:
You must use the 64 bit version which is labelled as:
Python 2.6 and 2.7 are compiled with the Microsoft C/C++ compiler from Visual Studio 2008. This is referred to as being compiled for VC9.
You must therefore use a version of Apache compiled for VC9.
For the Microsoft C/C++ compiler, you need to download it from Microsoft.
This can compile both 32 bit and 64 bit binaries.
Use the latest Python 3.3 or 3.4 binary available from the PSF:
You must use the 32 bit version which is labelled as:
Python 3.3 and 3.4 are compiled with the Microsoft C/C++ compiler from Visual Studio 2010. This is referred to as being compiled for VC10.
You must therefore use a version of Apache compiled for VC10.
For the Microsoft C/C++ compiler, you need to download it from Microsoft.
Use the one labelled as:
This version of the Microsoft C/C++ compiler can only compile 32 bit binaries.
Use the latest Python 3.3 or 3.4 binary available from the PSF:
You must use the 64 bit version which is labelled as:
Python 3.3 and 3.4 are compiled with the Microsoft C/C++ compiler from Visual Studio 2010. This is referred to as being compiled for VC10.
You must therefore use a version of Apache compiled for VC10.
For the Microsoft C/C++ compiler, you need to download it from Microsoft.
This is different to the Visual C++ 2010 Express above which could only compile 32 bit binaries. This version can instead compile 64 bit binaries.
Once Python, Apache and the appropriate Microsoft C/C++ is installed, start up the Visual Studio 2008/2010 or Windows 7.1 SDK Command Prompt window corresponding to the version of the Microsoft C/C++ compiler required for your Python version. Make your way to this directory. You then need to do:
nmake -f apXYpyXY-winNN-VC?.mk clean. Substitute 'XY' in each
case for the version of Apache and Python being used. Substitute 'NN'
with either '32' or '64' and substitute '?' with '9' or '10'.nmake -f apXYpyXY-winNN-VC?.mk. This will build mod_wsgi.nmake -f apXYpyXY-winNN-VC?.mk install. This will install the
mod_wsgi module into the modules directory of your Apache installation.LoadModule line to the Apache configuration which was
displayed when the install target was run.Other build scripts do exist in this directory but they are to allow bulk compilation of all combinations in one go and wouldn't generally be of interest. They require all possible Apache and Python versions to be available as well as all required Microsoft C/C++ compiler. You should therefore stick to just the makefile you need.